“Cobwebs of time,” whispered an old woman beside me, her eyes fixed on Parc des Tisserands. Intrigued, I followed her gaze. Parc des Tisserands isn’t just a green space. It’s a tribute to the tireless hands that shaped Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The park sits before the Church of La Nativité-de-la-Sainte-Vierge on Ontario Street East, nestled between Dézéry and Saint-Germain Streets. This area buzzed with textile mills in the 19th and 20th centuries. Women, the unsung heroines of Montreal’s industrial boom, dominated the weaving rooms. They transformed raw cotton into bolts of cloth. Imagine the rhythmic clatter of looms filling the air around Parc des Tisserands. These women, often overlooked, toiled in harsh conditions for meager wages. A young girl earned a quarter of a man’s pay, a woman, only half. In 1880, the women of the Hudon Mill, just around the corner on Dézéry Street, rose up. They demanded better working conditions. Their strike echoed through the streets, a testament to their resilience. The spirit of these weavers, the “tisserandes”, lingers in Parc des Tisserands. Their legacy spans over a century, woven into the very fabric of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. In 2018, the Commission de toponymie recognized this history, naming Place des Tisserandes as one of their twelve “Toponymes coups de cœur”, or favorite place names. Parc des Tisserands stands as a quiet monument to their enduring strength.
Parc Dickie-Moore
Who needs a time machine when you’ve got Parc Dickie-Moore? This little slice of Parc-Extension holds a century of Montreal