Editing Verdun, Quebec (section)

=== 20th century ===
[[File:Moving Day. 4th Ave. Verdun BAnQ P48S1P02642.jpg|thumb|right|[[Moving Day (Quebec)|Moving day]] on 4th avenue, 1938]]In 1881, the Montreal Hospital for the Insane was founded as a Protestant counterpart to the Catholic Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu (now Hôpital Louis-H.-Lafontaine) east of the city. It would be built on two farms, purchased in 1887 and 1907, in the western end of Verdun. Affiliated with [[McGill University]] in 1946, it was renamed the Douglas Hospital in 1965.<ref name="aqueduc" /> Today, not only is it one of Verdun's largest public institutions, but its campus is one of the borough's most important greenspaces.

Verdun became a town in 1907 and a city in 1912. Between 1911 and 1924 the population tripled and urbanization expanded rapidly "westward" (according to [[Geography of Montreal#Street directions|"Montreal directions"]] - actually due southward), and the farms were divided for residential use. The Moffat area west of rue Desmarchais was built in with "plexes"—the typical Montreal layered apartment—between 1920 and 1930,<ref>[http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1207 "Le voisinage Moffat."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006130751/http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1207 |date=2011-10-06 }} Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref> and the Crawford Park area in the far west of the town was built starting in 1945, in a more suburban style unlike the orthogonal grid used in the rest of Verdun.<ref name="Le voisinage Crawford."/> The [[Verdun Natatorium]] was built in 1930, the Verdun Hospital in 1932, and the [[Verdun Auditorium]] in 1938.

The municipality of Île-Saint-Paul, occupying what was by then universally known as [[Nuns' Island|Nuns' Island or Île des Sœurs]], was annexed to Verdun in 1956. Then a chiefly agricultural area, it was rapidly urbanized following the opening of the [[Champlain Bridge, Montreal|Champlain Bridge]] in 1962, with development including contributions by the famous Modernist architect [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe]].<ref>[http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1210 "L'île des Soeurs."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006130757/http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1210 |date=2011-10-06 }} Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref> Rapid development would continue to the present day, with the erosion of the sensitive natural woodland of the Domaine Saint-Pierre becoming an increasingly pressing concern.

[[File:Bureau d'arrondissement de Verdun.jpg|thumb|left|Verdun City Hall, now the borough hall.]]
Back in Verdun proper, in the post-war period, the area around the church, along rue Wellington and rue de l'Église, became the nucleus of commercial development. A new city hall was built on Rue de Verdun in 1958.<ref>[http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/url/page/arr_ver_en/rep_vie_quartier/rep_histoire_patrimoine/rep_batiments_historiques/hotel_de_ville_verdun "History and Heritage: Verdun City Hall."] Ville de Montréal: Arrondissement de Verdun. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref> The Green Line of the [[Montreal Metro]] was extended into Verdun in 1978, its construction delayed due to a collapse in rue Wellington during the construction of [[De L'Église (Montreal Metro)|De L'Église]] station.<ref>[http://www.metrodemontreal.com/green/deleglise/history.html "De l'Église Metro: History and trivia."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606223230/http://www.metrodemontreal.com/green/deleglise/history.html |date=2011-06-06 }} Metrodemontreal.com. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref> Besides De l'Église in downtown Verdun and [[Verdun (Montreal Metro)|Verdun]] station in front of the town hall, [[LaSalle (Montreal Metro)|LaSalle]] station was built in vacant land in a former industrial area in the east of the borough, left vacant by the demolition of the vast British Munitions Supply Co. facilities; the Metro station would become the heart of a new residential area called La Poudrière after the munitions factories.<ref>[http://www.metrodemontreal.com/green/lasalle/history.html "LaSalle Metro: History and trivia."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606223538/http://www.metrodemontreal.com/green/lasalle/history.html |date=2011-06-06 }} Metrodemontreal.com. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref>

However, improved access to downtown Montreal meant a decline in local commerce. A program of subsidies and revitalization starting in the 1990s reinvigorated the rue Wellington commercial corridor.<ref name="noyau" />

Verduners voted 68% "no" in the [[1980 Quebec referendum|1980 sovereignty referendum]] and 59.6% "no" in the [[1995 Quebec referendum|1995 referendum]]. In 1992, Verduners voted 53.66% in favour of the [[Charlottetown Accord]].