Picture the year 1666. A sturdy stone fort rises on the eastern tip of Montreal Island. This is Longue-Pointe a place far from the bustling heart of Ville-Marie. It wasn’t a military fortress designed for war. Instead it served as a refuge a safe haven.
Longue-Pointe’s story begins much earlier though. Long before French settlers arrived Indigenous Iroquoians of the Saint Lawrence farmed this land. Their homes were long houses built of wood and bark. These houses were part of a fortified village.
Imagine the scene. The year is 1719. A small church stands beside Longue-Pointe’s fort. This church Saint-François-d’Assise witnessed the lives of the community unfold. The colonists farmers mostly lived a life of peaceful agriculture. Yet they were always vigilant against potential Iroquois attacks. Men and women formed a citizen militia. They were responsible for defending the village maintaining the fort and looking after the church. They even built and maintained the roads.
Longue-Pointe thrived. The fertile land yielded rich harvests. By 1731 there were 33 farms each encompassing 102 arpents of land. Seventeen homes were built of sturdy stone. Three sawmills operated nearby fulfilling the community’s needs for lumber. The village grew and flourished.
The arrival of the Chemin du Roy the King’s Road in 1734 connected Longue-Pointe to the wider world. This facilitated travel and trade. Villagers regularly traveled to Montreal to sell their produce and buy goods.
Peace did not last. The Seven Years’ War brought change. Between 1755 and 1760 three French army regiments were stationed in Longue-Pointe. After the fall of Montreal Longue-Pointe’s character shifted. It transformed from a rural farming community into a bourgeois suburb of Montreal. Wealthy English families built summer homes there. Longue-Pointe became a fashionable retreat.
The American Revolutionary War brought another conflict to Longue-Pointe’s history. In 1775 Ethan Allen launched an attempt to capture Montreal. Longue-Pointe became a key battleground in this significant historical event.
Over time Longue-Pointe continued to evolve. In 1845 it became a municipality. Later in 1910 Longue-Pointe along with the neighboring municipalities of Tétreaultville and Beaurivage were annexed to Montreal. The area underwent rapid industrialization becoming a working-class neighborhood.
The construction of the Louis-Hippolyte-Lafontaine Tunnel in 1963 split Longue-Pointe. One part became Mercier-Ouest the other Mercier-Est. Today Longue-Pointe’s past lives on within the memory of its residents the architecture of its buildings and its many vibrant community spaces. This is Longue-Pointe a place where history and community blend.