Gazing out over the Seine, imagine a time before this bustling Place du Pont de Billancourt even existed. Back in 1860 Billancourt was a small village of only 1800 people. The Place du Pont de Billancourt was just a towpath along the river. It faced the Île Saint Germain.
This area needed development. Big changes were coming to unlock the Seine’s potential. The goal was to connect Boulogne to Issy Meudon and Clamart. The Pont de Billancourt was built in 1862 to achieve this.
Under Baron Haussmann’s guidance new roads were built. In 1864 the Avenue des Moulineaux now called Pierre Grenier was created. Then in 1869 the Boulevard de Strasbourg now called Jean Jaurès was made heading toward the Église de Boulogne. The war of 1870 interrupted progress. The new Boulevard de Strasbourg now Jean-Jaurès passed through empty land.
A simple wooden customs hut stood at the bridge’s entrance. The area was unrecognizable. By 1893 the Rue de Saint-Cloud now Yves Kermen was extended. Everything now converged on the rebuilt bridge. A new neighborhood was ready to emerge.
By the late 19th century buildings cafes and shops appeared. This created what we can now call a place. Four buildings stood at the street corners. Each has its own story. Let’s start with the Restaurant du Pont de Billancourt. It stood at the corner of Rue de Saint Cloud now Yves Kermen and the quays. It was known as Le Vélocipède as early as 1898. Postcards from the early 20th century call it Restaurant du Pont de Billancourt.
The building was older than the restaurant. In 1891 and 1896 it housed about thirty tenants. One was a Monsieur Cocu married to a Madame Boudin. Georges Moreau a former Parisian grocer owned the building. He would later own many properties in Billancourt. As a town councilor he opposed Louis Renault’s expansion. Moreau sold his properties to Renault for a good price. This included a 12cv car with complete interior.
In 1901 Hippolyte Bissières ran the restaurant. It served beer from Les Moulineaux. By 1924 it was a tobacco shop. A young worker killed himself in a phone booth at the cafe in 1933. In 1934 a PMU betting office opened run by a Monsieur Joulié. By the late 60s large Pouillon buildings dominated the area along the Seine. It was still there in the late 1980s. Do you remember it?
Now consider the Boussugue building and the Café des Sports. It stood at the corner of Quai du Point du Jour and Avenue des Moulineaux now Pierre Grenier. This massive five story brick building had balconies on every floor. Jean Baptiste Lucien Boussugue a wood and coal merchant owned it. The building’s entrance was at 2 Avenue des Moulineaux.
The 1901 census lists 24 residents. Léon Tabanon former owner of the Villa Dubosson was among them. The ground floor had two shops. A grocery store was run by Messieurs Forbet Plessis and Chanié until 1932. A butcher shop was run by Messieurs Furby Deballe Mathan and Garin. The Café Restaurant des Sports was located at 75 Quai du Point du Jour. A Monsieur Lantier ran it. In the 30s a Monsieur Chalier took over. This was the third restaurant on the place.
Finally consider the house of Albiot and Cornichon. At the corner of Boulevard de Strasbourg now Jean-Jaurès and Avenue des Moulineaux now Pierre Grenier stood the only detached house. It was the oldest house on the place dating back to 1872. This white house with a mansard roof had a large garden and greenhouses. A large black iron gate opened onto the place.
From 1887 Louis Alexandre Simier and Adélaïde Michaud owned the house. They lived in Clamart and rented it out. Jean Albiot 1847-1915 a writer and his wife Héloïse Cornichon 1855-1935 a milliner lived there. They lived there with the son Cornichon who was a gardener and two servants. They occupied the house from at least 1891 until World War I. Jean Albiot may have been the director of the newspaper Gil Blas between 1894 and 1895.
Albiot died in 1915. In 1916 the widow Simier sold the house to a doctor. A year later it was sold to the Société des Moteurs Salmson. Salmson was an automotive and aircraft manufacturer. The house and garden disappeared by 1918. A large workshop and a massive gate replaced them. In the 60s after Salmson left large buildings of the Pouillon residence and a Mobil gas station were built there. The gas station is still there.
Over the years the quays became busier. Cars became more important than pedestrians. The place lost its shops to the boulevard. When the current bridge was built in the early 90s the bridgehead was redeveloped. The place was widened and raised. The old buildings along the Seine were demolished. A roundabout was built with the large eucalyptus tree we see today. So much has changed at the Place du Pont de Billancourt.