Sainte Catherine Street

Saint Catherine Street (French: rue Sainte-Catherine) (11.2 km or 7.0 mi) is the primary commercial artery of Downtown Montreal. It crosses the central business district from west to east, beginning at the corner of Claremont Avenue and de Maisonneuve Boulevard in the city of Westmount, traversing the borough of Ville-Marie, and ending on Notre-Dame Street just east of Viau Street in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The street runs parallel to the largest segments of Montreal's underground city. The series of interconnected office tower basements and shopping complexes that make up this main thoroughfare lie immediately north of the street. Educational institutions located on or near the street include Concordia University, McGill University, Université du Québec à Montréal, Dawson College and LaSalle College. By the end of the 19th Century Saint-Catherine had garnered some notoriety as being the entertainment hub of Montreal. By 1850, horse-drawn streetcars were starting to be seen on the street with growing frequency and in 1864 the first electric powered tramway provided by the Montreal City Passenger Railway was introduced on Saint-Catherine Street. This allowed workers to get to and from their jobs in other parts of the city, as well as transporting many housewives to the many department stores that had started to appear on Sainte-Catherine in the 1930s like Morgan’s, Eaton’s, Simpson’s, Ogilvy’s and Dupuis as well as jewelry stores like Birks. In 1890, there was also evening entertainment with both English and French theatres and the Academy of Music lining the street near the intersection with Victoria Avenue. This helped usher in a new way of city life that evolved into how Montrealers now live.