Walking in the Old Port

Walking in the Old Port
I watched videos in an app
Telling stories of the port
From past to present




Looking through the layers
of history
Seeing the changes
Imagining




Traces of the past
Words on a building
New uses for old places
Constant change



Former glory now tarnished
Once a major hub
When ships were king
Now rust sets in




Still a port
Ships sail into the seaway
Then far into the great lakes
It still connects to other lands




Now too a place for walking
cycling skating learning
fishing boating
New uses for old places

It lives again

#############################
Photos:
1: Looking towards the clock tower and the Jacques Cartier Bridge
2. Marché Bonsecours - once an actual market, now filled with shops with Quebec merchandise
3. Once warehouses for the goods that arrived in the port. Shop fronts were on the street behind
4. Grain elevators - no longer in use. With the opening of the seaway in the early 1950s the loading of grain onto ships moved further inland closer to where the grain was grown.
5. Harbour Commision Building built 1874-78
6. Ship in the harbour

Old Port app

Old Port Wintering app

Old Port site

Changing architecture

Changing architecture, a photo by susanvg on Flickr.

This building sits at the corner of Greene Avenue and St. Catherine. Once a bank as the writing and large crest attests to, when the branch closed it had to find a new use. The last incarnation was as an antique shop and the building owner saw fit to erect the (not quite) portico. It detracts from the original architecture. The antique shop closed a couple of years ago and the building was sold. It still has not really found a new use. I hope the new owner does not have ideas of adding to the architecture yet again - unless it is to remove the addition thus adding to the building's beauty.

Former Post Office

Former Post Office, a photo by susanvg on Flickr.

Change - the needs of a city change with new technologies, and all the ways things evolve. This beautiful old post office building has not been a post office for quite some time. It evolved into a small mall and offices for a short while and now the whole building houses a wine company. Post offices are closing becoming counters in pharmacies and now our federal government has decided to slowly stop door-to-door service, opting to install outdoor boxes.

I feel sorry for all the shut ins, the young parents with kids who may have to dress them in winter and trudge out in the snow to get their mail and those with disabilities. And what about anyone with a short-term illness - the flu or whatever? In addition there are parts of the city where there is barely place to install these units. Snow clearance is already a challenge with parking meters etc. We don't need more clutter near our sidewalks.

Change - we have to accept it - but not when it is a step backwards!

Climbing

Climbing, a photo by susanvg on Flickr.

Sometimes life seems so convoluted, with interlaced complexities. I'm in the middle of change which sometimes feels like a Rube Goldberg machine - each little change causes other changes so sometimes you don't know where it will all end.

Change is good. I'm clearing out stuff - readying for a move when I find the right place. It requires looking at the past and discarding - books, papers, furniture - paring down. But it is also about the future and assessing new needs and a new phase to my life. It's all entangled - much like this climbing equipment.

Beginnings

Beginnings, originally uploaded by susanvg.

Daily Shoot: Make a photo illustrating a fresh start, a new beginning, or the first step to a goal.
This cyclamen rewards me with new blooms. Like me, the plant has been around a while but it constantly creates new growth. New Year's is always a time to stop and reflect, to ponder whether the path we are on is the one we want to be taking, to set goals to tweak our lives and thus create new growth. Life is in constant change - the changes that happen to us and the changes we make happen. We have to tend our inner gardens well, to nourish, to find the sunshine and to revel in our own blooms.
Wishing all my friends new growth and a year full of blossoming dreams.

SAQ

SAQ, originally uploaded by susanvg.

This may not look like much - a store front, that's all (it's a liquor store). But to me it represents how things change. Now I don't want to be seen as someone who is against progress. After all, I have embraced computers (bought my first one in 1983); I post photos; I blog. But some change I find harder to adjust to. Now, growing up, liquor was sold in the Liquor Commission. Even when I became old enough to buy liquor, I went to the Liquor Commission where a clerk stood behind a counter. You had to look in the book and select what you wanted and the clerk would get it for you. As Montreal became less Catholic and more secular these outlets changed and customers could finally browse the shelves. They also changed the name to the SAQ (Société des alcools du Québec). Sometimes I still slip into the old nomenclature and then face the derision of some people around me.

Well this particular SAQ outlet is on the corner of Queen Mary and Décarie. I grew up within a bus ride from here and as a teenager remember well going to this area to shop. Here, as in many places, people like to name streets after dead people who were influential in the city. To do this they rename streets, thus erasing former history. There is talk of renaming Queen Mary after Brother André who was recently sainted. Now I have nothing against having a street named after him (there actually already is a small street Frère-André which already bears his name), but why do we have to erase names and memories to replace them with others. Will I one day be telling yet unborn grandchildren how I would take the bus to Queen Mary (now known as St-André) and that their great-grandfather's office was on Dorchester (now René-Levesque). He was a property developer who put up a building on Burnside (now de Maisonneuve). I hope I will be able to find my way around the city then - I'll have to navigate by visual cues rather than by street names.

Casselman

Daily Shoot: Challenge: Practice storytelling today. Look for 3 images that tell a story, and make a set of photos that go together. I cheated a little and chose 4.

Casselman 1, originally uploaded by susanvg.

It's interesting to see what happens to a town when its purpose changes. Casselman, Ontario was once a small town which serviced a farming community. Small stores lined the main street, the centre of which was the church. Now some are empty. Most business has moved to the outskirts. There is still a place to buy farm implements, but the town has a different clientele.

For many, Casselman is just a place to stop en route between Ottawa and Montreal. Gas is less expensive than in Montreal and it is a quick detour off the highway. Tim Hortons, that Canadian icon is also handy to travellers. Before I started spending time in Casselman, I, too used these services.

The "downtown" of Casselman has moved. With the opening of bigger stores, like Canadian Tire, commerce has moved away from the centre and closer to the highway. These stores serve the small towns nearby and offer jobs to the locals, albeit low-paying jobs. The town has lost its character.

With its proximity to the highway, Casselman has become a bedroom community for Ottawa. Housing developments have sprung up. These are the new clientele of Casselman, but most work outside of town. They want services, such as the bigger stores, but did not grow up with an attachment to the place the way the previous farming community did. And so the town has become "any town," North America, with little to set it apart from the many suburban areas near our cities.

Day 263: Changing Times

Day 263: Changing Times, originally uploaded by susanvg.

This character has looked down on those coming up the steps of this building on Sherbrooke Street in Montreal. Built in 1899 as Royal Victoria College, it served as a parallel university as part of McGill, but separate - this was where women could live and study. Perhaps the lion was daring the men to enter at their own risk.

Once women were integrated into the mainstream of university classes, they still were considered members of Royal Victoria College. The building continued to serve as a residence and as a centre for women's athletics. To learn more about the residence - click.

In 1971 the Faculty of Music moved in, and though a small part of the building still served as a women's only residence, the main part was transformed into classrooms, practice spaces and a lovely concert hall.

This lion has witnessed this transition. His pained expression seems to say he has seen enough. Too bad he cannot enter the building and witness the wonderful events that have taken place here. I am sure that change will continue to happen. We cannot just close our eyes to it, but learn to adapt and shape our futures and not allow ourselves to turn into stone and be as immobile as this character.