![]() ![]() With stairs outside, the places where thieves and even potential rapists could lurk were vastly reduced no wonder no less an authority than the Roman Catholic Church gave them its imprimatur. They reminded settlers from the countryside of the porches outside their former homes where they could sit and watch the world go by. Marsan, for example, counters the argument that they are dangerous in the slippery months of winter by noting they are better suited to our humid summers. Yet it’s interesting that the criticism tends to be on aesthetic grounds, not because spiral staircases don’t do their job. ![]() Putting the stairs out front meant that extra rooms could go inside in the volume that would otherwise be needed for an interior staircase.ĭavid was not alone in his opposition historian Jean-Claude Marsan says such critics could be quoted ad nauseam. This led to triplexes, quadriplexes, sixplexes – multiplexes, they have been called – with long, narrow apartments leading back from the street. Builders, to maximize their profits, strove to cram as many residential units as possible onto a single building lot – and as many rooms as possible into a single residential unit. Montreal spiral staircases full#Not only was the tide of immigration from Europe in full flood, but in addition, rural Quebecers were abandoning life on the farm in favour of the big city.Ī housing boom developed, yet it was concentrated in what are now the older parts of the city close to where the jobs were, rather than in outlying areas where more space was available. Montreal’s spiral staircases have their origins in the unprecedented population growth the city experienced in the late Victorian period and into the early part of the 20th century. Try finding a coffee-table book devoted to what the city looks like that doesn’t include a photo of one of David’s horrors ”circling up like a corkscrew.” Try going through a rack of postcards in Old Montreal or somewhere else where tourists gather that ignores those ”shameful steps.” If there is one part of the city’s streetscapes that has Montreal written all over it, it is our spiral staircases. ![]() It’s safe to say that if city councillors had set aside the money needed to dismantle them (and David was silent on how people would then get into their second-and third-storey apartments), they would be regarded today not as visionaries but as vandals. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. David went on to urge his audience to consider how Montrealers 50 years hence, in 1977, would regard them if they failed to prepare the city of tomorrow – specifically by doing something about those outside spiral staircases. Montreal spiral staircases pro#But that was pro forma stuff, what any cabinet minister might have said what really seemed to engage David’s interest was Montreal’s appearance.ĭavid deplored the fact that civic leaders 50 years earlier had not had the courage to spend $10 million, or even $5 million, to create beautiful, Paris-style boulevards ”crossing the city in all directions.” Such extravagance might have led Montrealers to start stringing up councillors from the lampposts, he allowed, ”but today we would call them men of vision.”Ī high price for vision, surely, but never mind. taxes drain away people and business from this country, for example – echo today. Much of his speech was devoted to Canada’s economic prospects, and some points he made – how lower U.S. Activate your Online Access Now Article contentĭavid, whose seat at the cabinet table made him a kind of minister for the arts, was speaking to the weekly luncheon of the Lions Club in the Mount Royal Hotel. If you are a Home delivery print subscriber, unlimited online access is included in your subscription. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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