Alexis Nihon Plaza, 20 October 2011

This reminds me, when my mother worked at the Sir George Williams University library 
(Concordia University as of 1974), she used to stop on her way home and have something to eat
at this snack bar; strange irrelevant memories that return to one 

Lots of people still miss Zellers, a discount shopping store; they always had
quality items; that era is gone now although The Bay, that now owns Zellers,
has made part of some of their stores "Zellers"

 

The Atwater Library on 10 February 2010

The Atwater Library, located on Atwater Street near the Alexis Nihon Plaza, has helped our community find great books to read for over a hundred years. 

Alexis Nihon Plaza in April 2010

 Photographs of Alexis Nihon Plaza, taken in April 2010, downtown Montreal.

Historical photos of the Alexis Nihon Plaza

Looking at these old photographs of the Alexis Nihon Plaza I am flooded with memories, all of them happy. The literally hundreds of times I passed through the Plaza, the stores that used to be here that I had forgotten about, the people, and what store replaced a different store in the Plaza. This shopping complex is always immaculate and well maintained. Canadian poet, Louis Dudek, lived on Ingleside Avenue which is within walking distance of the Plaza; he often visited the Plaza and invited many of us to have coffee with him in the food court here. 

1967

Aerial view of the Alexis Nihon Plaza, looking up Atwater Street

This photograph shows the site of the future Alexis Nihon Plaza when it was
a baseball park; you can see the Mother House in the background on the right

The demise of Zellers Department Store

I used to go to stores to buy things, it was really easy and we had many different stores, for instance Zellers in the Alexis Nihon Plaza. Then Target bought Zellers and spent a year remodeling the place and when they reopened they had everything they were selling in the same place as the former Zellers, except they didn't carry as much stock. Zellers had been a great store, they had everything you needed, people were happy shopping at Zellers and it was all at discount prices. We all hated Target, they destroyed Zellers, a local company, and then they closed operations in Canada. Target in Canada was just a scam.

Here is my last visit to Zellers in November 2012 when they were going out of business.