St. James United Church in downtown Montreal

Just a few blocks east of Phillip's Square, adjacent to Ste. Catherine Street, where Morgan's Department Store (now The Bay) was located, you will find the prestigious Saint James United Church, pictured below. For many years the front of the church was lost to view when buildings for stores were constructed here; however, a few years ago these buildings were demolished so that the original front of the church was restored to view. And what a view it is! It is a magnificent building in downtown Montreal.

Interior

Historical photographs of St. James United Church

In this photograph you can see how the front of the church 
was lost to view when buildings housing stores were constructed;
these buildings have all now been demolished.

St. James Church was hidden behind these stores; they brought
in needed revenue but they were also an eye sore.

Out walking this January morning

 

Trinity Memorial Church

I was in the area yesterday and took these photos of what used to be Trinity Memorial Church, closed a few years ago despite great protest by the parishioners. My parents were married here in 1940; about fifteen years ago I went to Christmas services at Trinity; and in the mid-1970s I lived just up the hill from Trinity on Northcliffe Avenue. 

This reminds me that Anglican churches in Montreal, in the 1950s, used to show movies and host dances in their church basements. Unfortunately, those days are long gone, the parishioners have moved away, the churches are closing, and we live in a secular society. A friend who grew up on Chesterfield Avenue, in Westmount, remembers going to dances at Trinity; he added that he and his Westmount friends were afraid to go beyond Decarie Blvd or Girouard Avenue because kids in Notre Dame de Grace were tough and would beat them up... 

My parents outside of Trinity Memorial Church on 30 March 1940, just after their wedding.

Northcliffe Avenue entrance to Trinity Memorial Church.

The "For Sale" sign is an unhappy conclusion to this place of worship.

Front door of Trinity Memorial Church, on Sherbrooke Street West near Decarie.

Windows on Northcliffe Avenue side of building.

St. James Anglican Church, Quebec

St. James Anglican Church, built in the early 1800s, is located in St. Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec (near Lacolle, which is a border crossing from Quebec's Eastern Townships to New York State). When the church was constructed there was a large English-speaking population in the Eastern Townships (including members of my paternal grandmother's family who attended the church over 125 years ago), but for various reasons the English-speaking population has dwindled over the last fifty or sixty years. For more information, visit: http://www.morrisseyfamilyhistory.com/.

St. Cunegonde Church in fall, rue Notre Dame, Montreal

Notre Dame de Bonsecours in Old Montreal

St Anthony of Padua Church

Located on St. Antoine Street in Montreal, near where our family used to live, the old St. Anthony Church was demolished for the building of the Ville Marie Expressway. The new St. Anthony's is a much more humble building.

From the old St. Anthony's Church, seen through the window on the far right of the church doors.

This is the Ville Marie Expressway directly across the street from St. Anthony's Church, where the old church was located.

Photo from 1963 before the Ville Marie Expressway was built

Doors at St. John the Divine Cathedral, NYC

St. Matthew's Church, then and now

Here are a few, final, photographs of St. Matthew's Church taken two or three years ago. I suggest matching them with previous photographs of St. Matthews for a "that was then and this is now" comparison.

St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Montreal

The side door at St. Matthews.

I am holding the Easter box for donations to the church.

A more recent photograph of St. Matthews, from where a condo was built in the early 2000s.

The front door of St. Matthews.

St. Matthew's Church was the church of my childhood. A wonderful place! Everyone was kind to me here, everyone was very pleasant and I loved going to this church.

St. John the Divine Cathedral, NYC