Montreal City Hall

The five-story Montreal City Hall (French: Hôtel de Ville de Montréal) is the seat of local government in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was designed by architects Henri-Maurice Perrault and Alexander Cowper Hutchison, and built between 1872 and 1878 in the Second Empire style.[1][2] It is located in Old Montreal, between Place Jacques-Cartier and the Champ de Mars, at 275 Notre-Dame Street East. The closest Metro station is Champ-de-Mars, on the Orange Line.

Montreal City Hall
Hôtel de Ville de Montréal (French)
Montreal City Hall, as seen with a new copper roof
Montreal City Hall, 2012
Montreal City Hall is located in Montreal
Montreal City Hall
General information
Address275, rue Notre-Dame Est
Montreal, Quebec
H2Y 1C6
Coordinates45.5086°N 73.5539°W / 45.5086; -73.5539
Construction started1872
Completed1878
Renovated1922, 1932
Design and construction
Architect(s)Henri-Maurice Perrault
Alexander Cowper Hutchison
Designated1984

As one of the best examples of the Second Empire style in Canada, and the first city hall to have been constructed in the country solely for municipal administration, it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1984.[3][4]

History and architecture
City Hall on the evening of March 3, 1922

Construction on the building began in 1872 and was completed in 1878. The original building was gutted by fire in March 1922, leaving only the outer wall and destroying many of the city's historic records.[5] The architect Louis Parant was commissioned for the reconstruction, who decided to build an entirely new building with a self-supporting steel structure built inside the shell of the ruins.[5] This new building was modelled after the city hall of the French city of Tours.[6] Other changes included a remodelling of the Mansard roof into a new Beaux-Arts inspired model, with a copper roof instead of the original slate tiles.[5] The new building opened on February 15, 1926.

In 1967 Charles de Gaulle, the president of France, gave his Vive le Québec libre speech from the building's balcony.[5]

See also

References
  1. Jean-Claude Marsan (1 September 1990). Montreal in Evolution: Historical Analysis of the Development of Montreal's Architecture and Urban Environment. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. pp. 214–. ISBN 978-0-7735-8037-4.
  2. Access Guides; Access Guides Staff (1994). Montréal/Québec City Access. Access Press. ISBN 978-0-06-277079-0.
  3. "Montreal City Hall". Directory of Designations of National Historic Significance of Canada. Parks Canada. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  4. Montreal City Hall. Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  5. Rémillard, 80.
  6. City of Montreal Web site (in French)
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