Park Extension - History

History

The area has always been a working-class neighborhood, and understanding Park Extension's place in Montreal is to know how Montreal developed. Montreal started from a small fortified city by the Saint Lawrence River; and expanded north towards the Laurentian Mountains. Being at the head of Park Avenue, Park Extension formed the northern end of Montreal's immigrant corridor.

Park Extension was a mid-20th century suburb. It was a rural area prior to the 1950s. Starting in the early 1950s there was rapid housing development in the northern reaches of Park Extension. A significant Jewish population migrated there, mostly from Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, and established a thriving community. Several hundred families built and maintained a synagogue, Congregation Beth Aaron. By the mid-1970s, the Jewish community was diminishing. Congregation Beth Aaron merged with the Beth Israel Congregation in 1986, and the building was sold. Despite this, the Jewish community still owns property and businesses on Beaumont; the southernmost part of Park Extension. There is also a morgue and a kosher bakery in operation to this day.

In the 1950s and 1960s Park Extension attracted a sizable Italian population, most of whom came directly from Italy. But over time the Italian population drifted to eastern suburbs like Saint-Leonard, Quebec.

Many Greek immigrants settled in the neighborhood from the mid-1960s through the 1980s, both from Le Plateau-Mont-Royal and directly from Greece. In the 1970s nearly 70% of residents were of Greek ancestry, and almost all the businesses along Jean Talon Street between L'Acadie Boulevard and Park Avenue were owned by Greek Canadians. In 1977 there were over 100 Greek businesses, whereas today there are only a dozen left. Four Greek churches remain, catering to the predominantly older Greek residents who still live in the area. Other younger Greeks have since moved to suburbs such as the Chomedey neighbourhood of Laval and the West Island.

Today, most of the immigrant population is made up of South Asians from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as well as Latin American and Haitian immigrants, and a dwindling population of Greeks. Park Extension is one of Canada's most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods.

Recently, more people are moving to Park Extension from areas like the Plateau and Mile End as the housing is similar but much cheaper to rent and to buy. The area, as of 2009, is increasingly home to artists and musicians who wish to make Park Extension their permanent home.

During the "red scare" of the 1950s, according to an article in "On and Off the Record" in the Montreal Gazette dated April 24, 1956, page 4: "The Park Extension district is currently a hot-bed of Communist activity; much or all of which is known to anti-communist authorities and groups, who are keeping it under surveillance." This reflected both the suspicion of new immigrants in general, and the fact that many of these immigrants left their homelands because of political persecution.