History
Saint Denis Street opened in the early nineteenth century on land acquired by Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786-1871) and his aunt Perine Charles Cherrier, widow of Denis Viger (1741-1805).
Extended several times, Saint Denis Street developed gradually after the construction of Saint Jacques Cathedral in 1836, facing Place Pasteur. Subsequently, it reached Sherbrooke Street near the end of the nineteenth century. During the mid-nineteenth century, this tree-lined residential street was inhabited by several representatives of the French Canadian elite. Before the end of the century, it begun to transform into a commercial street, ascending slowly northward.
In the early twentieth century, the section of the Saint Denis Street between Dorchester Street (now René Lévesque Boulevard) and Sherbrooke Street became the center of Montreal's francophone intellectual elite. Located in the area were the Université Laval à Montréal (current site of the pavilion Hubert Aquin, UQAM), the École Polytechnique de Montréal, the Saint-Sulpice Library and many bookstores. It was deserted by academics following the relocation of Université of Montreal and École Polytechnique on the northern slope of Mount Royal. From the late 1970s, the academic character of the neighbourhood returned with the construction of pavilions for the Université du Québec à Montréal, around the steeple of the old Saint Jacques Cathedral.
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