Lachine Borough

Lachine District

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Lachine History Quebec

In 1667, in the Lachine district of today, René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was granted the lands bordering the Sault-Saint-Louis, the name given by Samuel de Champlain to the Rapides Lachine.

An adventurer and an explorer rather than a pioneer and a settler, La Salle was not interested in land property. He had only one goal: to discover a passage to China.

After having sold his “seigneurie” to the Sulpiciens and to some pioneers, La Salle left the Nouvelle-France and arrived in Louisiana via the Mississippi River. He obviously did not find a passage to China. The pioneers mocked his project and called his old properties “la Chine”. The name remained.

The Lachine district and borough as we know it today emerged between 1912 and 1916.

The increase in its population and the development of its commercial activity became constant around that time.

The added value of being established in the sector has always been confirmed by the heavy traffic on the Canal Lachine Montreal and by the construction of the Montreal and Lachine Railroad.

Both brought industrial rise and residential development to the territory. The structure still intact of the Canadian Car and Foundry once established in Ville Saint-Pierre, a small working town, enables us to seize the colossal scale of the workshops of the old industrial days.

Over the last decade of the 20th century, as Montreal was experiencing a quiet renaissance, the Lachine community began to re-emerge. The biggest impact having been the restoration of public access to the Canal Lachine Montreal as a wonderful urban amenity.

The comfortable residences built in front of the Lac Saint-Louis at the beginning of the 20th century and the old houses on Saint-Joseph still offer exceptional sceneries and a privileged neighborhood.

Thank you for visiting Lachine.
More to come soon.

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