The rain (finally) stopped before an evening walk. Melville Avenue has an interesting array of grey-stone triplexes built in the late 1800s.
Our evening walk through Westmount Park during a snowy Thursday evening.
The frozen lagoon traces the path of the former Glen Stream that used to flow from “Westmount Mountain”.
The stream’s path was north to south – the same direction as most (former) waterways that flowed through the island of Montreal. (Today they still flow in a series of underground in conduits).
During the usage of the French seigneurial system (established in the 1600s) farm land (“rangs”) was distributed to farmers on a north-south basis allowing each to have access to a source of water.
That is why most of Montreal’s residential streets run north to south and those that are commercial in nature run east to west – a living reminder of our former agricultural heritage.
Melville Avenue – no relation to the Moby Dick author – on a blustery cold Wednesday evening.
The street’s original name was Elgin; named after James Bruce Elgin, 8th Earl and Governor General of Canada from 1847-54. The street’s name was changed when the Melville Presbyterian Church was erected adjacent a former bread factory.
Today, it is a place of worship for the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The “super moon” viewed from Westmount. It was a bit of challenge to find it this evening. We had to walk adjacent to a high fence that separates Hillside Avenue from AutoRoute 720. It was a clear night, and after walking through knee-high piles of fallen leaves, we “discovered” the moon accompanied with the noise of speeding traffic.