History

 

After 1861, the Sulpician fathers in the seminary built on the grounds of the 1676 fort on what is now Sherbrooke Street at duFort, subdivided part of their land in this area for houses, stipulating that they were to have stone facades and a 10-foot setback from the street.

In 1981 some dedicated citizens, led by a Concordia University professor, named the neighbourhood "Shaughnessy Village", and established an Association. 

Shaughnessy Village was named after the 1874 residence of Thomas Shaughnessy, the third president of the Canadian Pacific Railways. His mansion is now part of the Canadian Center for Architecture at 1920 Baile.

The goals of this non-profit corporation are the improvement of the quality of life in the area by emphasizing:

·Beautification,

·Reduction of crime,

·Hosting social events,

·Understanding its history

The Association holds an annual beautification garden contest encouraging owners and tenants to plant and maintain beautiful front yards and lanes. 

Shaughnessy Park, at the corner of duFort and Tupper, is maintained by residents who brought in soil and plants. It is on land repossessed by the city for non-payment of taxes.  At first, the city placed recycling bells at this corner, but this attracted garbage and was unsightly.  In 1990, the Shaughnessy Village Association petitioned the city to let them turn this ugly corner into a park and create a peaceful place to sit and meet.

We meet with the police to establish practices to make our neighbourhood safe. We monitor houses when their owners are out of town. We have subsidized motion detecting lights for lanes. We work with government to avoid short term rentals which can destroy our peace and price us out of our homes.

Social events, such as St.Patrick’s Day party, welcome party, summer social, annual general meeting, tree lighting, and holiday party, bring our community together. We know our neighbours.

In 1999 we hired a student to record dates of construction, filed by year and listed by street, from archives of the City of Montreal. This information plus historical context and a copy of the Shaughnessy Village tour produced a report which is available on our website.  We ordered 20 aluminum date plaques which you will see on heritage houses throughout the village.  We lead an annual Jane Jacob’s walk celebrating the pedestrian nature of our village. One resident occasionally leads a Heritage Montreal tour of Shaughnessy Village.