"A Changing Industrial Landscape" is the result of the combined efforts of historians, museologists and designers who have worked together for a number of years. This exhibit presents the fascinating history of one of Montréal's oldest and most significant industrial districts, the Centre-Sud.

During the past two centuries, this neighbourhood - bounded by the Saint Lawrence River and Sherbrooke Street to the south and north, by Saint Denis Street to the west and the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks to the east - has always been part of Montreal's industrial heartland. First as the Faubourg Québec, a suburb of what was then a small fortified French town, later as the Sainte-Marie and Saint-Jacques wards of a commercial and industrial metropolis, this area, with its craft workshops, locomotive works, mills and factories, has always been home to many scores of labouring people.

Despite its historical significance, little was know until recently of this district's industrial past. It was in order to remedy this neglect that we began our enquiry just over three years ago.

Industrial Heritage: a Key to the Past
We began our investigation of the Centre-Sud's industrial past by taking stock of this current situation. This entailed preparing an inventory of the neighbourhood's industrial buildings. It was our belief that an approach akin to industrial archeology would be useful in sifting through the many layers of Montreal's industrial history. Combined with more traditional textual, visual and oral sources. industrial heritage offers a unique perspective for studying the urban experience.

Because of the scope and complexity of industrial activity in this neighbourhood, we chose to focus on twenty-one industrial locations and buildings. Some of these were already abandoned when we began our work and since disappeared altogether. Although they in no way constitute a truly scientific sample industrial sites, the ones chosen reflect the diverse history of the Centre-Sud - by the size and location of the businesses they have accommodated, by their arrival date and length of stay, and by the industrial sectors to which they belong.

In the course of our research, we attempted to compile a thorough account of the history of each site. This involved investigating a number of research themes, each of which required specific sources and methodologies. We documented the major stages in the evolution of each location, finding out when each industrial occupant arrived and left, when buildings were constructed, enlarged or modified, and to what end. How was the space within the workplace organized? What products were manufactured in these factories, using which technologies and what kind of work-force? To answer these questions, we studied the history of each business leaders and the lives of their employees - on the shopfloor, in the union hall or on the picket line. And last but not least, considerable time and energy were spent seeking information about the architects and builders who gave shape to this industrial environment.

This research agenda led us to search for records in numerous archives, libraries and museums in both Québec and Ontario: the Archives nationales du Québec in both Montréal and Québec City, the National Archives of Canada, the Service des archives of the City of Montréal, the archives of Canadian Pacific, Imperial Tobacco, Hydro Québec and Agropur, the Service de documentation de la CSN, the archives of the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the McCord Museum of Canadian History, McGill University Archives, the National Library of Canada, the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, ... the list seemed practically endless. In addition, many individuals shared their research files, knowledge and memories with us; without their assistance, our undertaking would have faltered.

The major questions guiding our research project all find expression in this exhibit, which includes a brief portrait of each of the twenty-one industrial sites selected, as well as a number of broader thematic presentations. They are all part of a changing industrial landscape, fragments of an industrial history that remains a work in progress.

A Brief History of an Industrial District
The Faubourg Québec was born in the mid-eighteenth century, one of a number of early suburbs which gradually took shape along the roads leading from the gates of Montréal to the countryside beyond. By the early nineteenth century these suburbs were home to a majority of the city's population. In the Faubourg Quebec, men and women of all social groups were to be found, although craftsmen were particularly well-represented. With British immigration, the suburbs of Montréal experienced tremendous expansion. In the Faubourg Québec, immigrants and Canadian worked at many trades, especially in those related to woodworking; a small industrial nucleus began to form in the district's easternmost sector, in the vicinity of John Molson's brewery.

A few decades later, Montréal had become British North America's commercial metropolis and transportation hub. Local artisans and manufacturers took advantage of the growing local and regional markets. Skilled labour and technological innovations hurried Montréal along the road to industrialization. In the eastern section of the city, now re-organized into Saint-Jacques and Sainte-Marie wards, industrial change was at first gradual. In the well-established shoemaking trade for example, craft shops and domestic workshops were more numerous than factories. However, the steam engine and other machines soon made their presence felt; textile mills, tobacco and rubber factories, and locomotive works began to change both the urban environment and the lives of children, men and women.

What we know today as the Centre-Sud was already a well-established industrial district by the turn of the century. The tremendous expansion of the Canadian economy prior to World Was I generated new waves of industrial investment; a further round of growth took place in the boom years of the 1920s. In a wide range of industrial sectors, new plants were built and old facilities expanded. Whether Canadian or foreign-owned, labour - or capital-intensive, employing a predominantly male or female labour force, manufacturing firms dominated the economic and social life of this Montréal neighbourhood.

Hard-hit by Depression era layoffs and plant shut-downs, the Centre-Sud nevertheless rebounded in the boom years of World War Two and throughout the 1950s. These were still the glory days of Montréal industry and businesses continued to invest in plant and machinery. Yet, change was already in the air. While some local companies continued to expand locally, others were on the move to the more distant suburbs, where they could build larger facilities using different technologies. By the 1970s, an increasing number of long-established firms were shutting down, the victims of lower tarifs and corporate restructuring New arrivals to Centre-Sud, in the communications and cultural industries, have so far failed to reverse the tide of industrial and demographic decline.

Industrial Heritage: what does the future hold?
Both this exhibit and the associated research project emphasize the value of the Centre-Sud's industrial heritage. We believe that the factories of Centre-Sud have a rich history which is well-worth discovering. Many of these buildings are also deserving of preservation and re-use. We hope that our efforts to make their past come alive will help restore them to memory and perhaps also keep then standing long into the future as part of our physical heritage.

Joanne Burgess, historian, Université du Québec à Montréal