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Griffintown is a historic neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, southwest of downtown. The area existed as a functional neighbourhood from the 1820s until the 1960s and was mainly populated by Irish immigrants and their descendants. Mostly depopulated since then, the neighbourhood has been undergoing redevelopment since the early 2010s.
Griffintown is the portion of the ward of St. Ann north of the Lachine Canal; the part south of the canal is now part of Pointe-Saint-Charles. This part of the ward was delimited by Notre-Dame Street to the north, the Bonaventure Expressway to the east, and a short segment of the city limit between Notre-Dame Street and the canal west of the St. Gabriel Locks to the west.Pinsoneault, Adolphe Rodrigue. Atlas of the island and city of Montreal and Ile Bizard : a compilation of the most recent cadastral plans from the book of reference. Atlas Publishing Co. Ltd: 1907. Pp. 22. Available online from Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Accessed July 5, 2011. It was the earliest and largest faubourg annexed to Old Montreal before the introduction of the tram car in the 1840s.
The Irish community was centered on St. Ann's Catholic Church, which opened in 1854 at the corner of McCord (now Mountain Street) and Basin Streets, across from Gallery Square, which was named after the Gallery brothers, John Daniel Gallery, who ran a large and successful bakery and his brother Daniel Gallery who was an alderman of Montreal, Schools commissioner and a Liberal member of parliament.
By the early twentieth century, the Irish were being replaced by Jewish, Italian, Ukrainian, and Francophone communities, with the Irish becoming a minority group by 1941.
The Canadian National Railway elevated tracks approaching Montreal Central Station cut a wide swathe between Dalhousie and Nazareth Streets around 1930.
Post-war economic changes beginning in the 1950s led to the depopulation of "The Griff". The Lachine Canal lost its role as a major transport artery when it was replaced by the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959.
In 1962, Griffintown was re-zoned as "light industrial". Many buildings were demolished in the 1960s to make way for the Bonaventure Expressway and for parking lots.
St. Ann's Church was demolished in 1970, and is now the site of the Parc Griffintown-St-Ann, where parts of the church's foundations remain visible, and park benches are positioned where the would have been. By 1974, the population of Griffintown was 546.
In 1990, the eastern part of the area was included in the planning sector of "Faubourg des Récollets". By then it only somewhat resembled the historic neighbourhood due to the lack of remaining historical architecture. The Cité Multimédia was built partly above the ruins. The remainders are preserved in the McCord Museum.
In 2014, Griffintown became part of an ongoing movement to introduce a "Quartier de l'innovation" to lower Montreal. This area would look to foster creativity and entrepreneurship in the city, designed to promote and encourage economic development for district residents.
Another stated goal of the project was to preserve the historical significance of some of the remaining century-old buildings.
The Griffintown redevelopment is expected to be completed by 2025.
In 2006, a project to move the Montreal Casino to the Peel Basin, as part of an entertainment complex in partnership with the Cirque du Soleil, caused a controversy because of the social impact of the establishment of gambling in an underprivileged district. The project was finally abandoned. In July 2007, promoter Devimco announced plans to develop 12 hectares of the neighborhood into a modern complex of office towers and residential homes.
On the City of Montreal Website, additional plans to update the now-renamed Griffintown are described.
| +Knowledge of official languages (2021) | ||
| French language | 865 | 8.2% |
| English language | 1,455 | 13.9% |
| Both English and French | 8,050 | 76.6% |
| Other languages | 145 | 1.4% |
| +Home languages (2021) | ||
| French language | 5,060 | 48.1% |
| English language | 3,305 | 31.4% |
| Other languages | 1,420 | 13.5% |
| Multiple languages | 745 | 7.1% |
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