Place, Community and Memory in Postindustrial Pointe-Saint-Charles

Place, Community and Memory in Postindustrial Pointe-Saint-Charles Tanya Steinberg A Thesis In The Department Of History Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts (History) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada May 2019 © Tanya Steinberg Concordia University School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Tanya Steinberg Entitled: Place, Community and Memory in Postindustrial Pointe-Saint-Charles and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (History) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final Examining Committee: ___________________________________Chair Dr. Barbara Lorenzkowski ___________________________________Examiner Dr. Mary Anne Poutanen ___________________________________Examiner Dr. Ronald Rudin ___________________________________Supervisor Dr. Steven High Approved by ________________________________________________________ Chair of Department or Graduate Program Director ___________ 2017 __________________________________ Dean of Faculty ii Abstract Place, Community and Memory in Postindustrial Pointe-Saint-Charles Tanya Steinberg St. Gabriel Elementary School in Pointe-Saint-Charles became a flashpoint for intense community mobilization when it was slated for closure in 2004, 2006 and 2011. Its survival speaks to Pointe-Saint-Charles’ long history of grassroots activism dating back to its nineteenth century Irish roots and industrial heritage but also recognizes that for many saving the last English school in the Point meant saving the community itself. Through the personal narratives of four lunch ladies at St. Gabe’s – each of whom have a four-decade long association with the school – this thesis explores how amidst decades of deindustrialization St. Gabe’s has endured as a place of intergenerational memory and connection in the Point and which continues to symbolize community life long gone from sidewalks and balconies in the neighbourhood. This thesis also explores the meaning of community in disenfranchised neighbourhoods like the Point struggling with the long term effects of industrial decline, community abandonment and the persistent disappearance of meaningful sites of memory and collective history. I address this question first, through narratives of those who have spent most of their lives in the Point and second, through others who live outside the neighbourhood but work in local community based organizations. This study also addresses the existence of an enduring “urban underclass,” left behind and relegated to the economic and social margins during postindustrial transitions. Four institutional interviews provide an avenue to explore more deeply embedded subjective attitudes toward the community at St. Gabe’s and longstanding Anglophone community in the Point, particularly the extent to which subjective notions of class are implicated in community organizations turning away from the most in need. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Steven High who has been an unwavering source of encouragement and support during my time at Concordia. Your mentoring, excitement for this project and insightful direction when I needed it most was a constant reminder that my work really did make an important contribution. To Dr. Barbara Lorenzkowski I offer a sincere thank you for your earnest and always delightful inquiries about my work and your ongoing interest in my progress. Thank you to Dr. Mary Anne Poutanen and Dr. Ronald Rudin whose reading of my thesis and challenging questions in my defense pushed the boundaries of this work in new ways. To Donna Whittaker, a great big thanks for all things administrative and beyond. To my cohort and colleagues at Concordia – those pints, writing sessions and class discussions went a long way to make this experience the amazing thing it’s been. I also extend my thanks to Carol Clifton, Debbie Fox, Natalie Sztych and Mona Kircoff, four incredible women who so generously told their stories and guided me through their personal world of Pointe-Saint- Charles. You truly are the foundation of this work. There are so many people who were there behind the scenes all along and without whom I could not have pulled this off – family and friends who checked in with me regularly to see how things were going and who listened to my excited stories of the lunch ladies, what I was learning about Pointe-Saint-Charles and the next task at hand. You know who you are and how much your support has meant. Finally and most importantly, I dedicate this thesis to my sons, Daniel and Jeremy, who have been alongside me throughout. Thank you doesn’t nearly go far enough. iv Table of Contents List of Figures ….…………………………………………………………………….……… vi List of Maps ..……..…………………………………………………………….................... vii Preface ..……..……………………………………………….………………….................. viii Introduction ..……..……………………………………………………………....................... 1 Chapter 1: The Lunch Ladies and St. Gabriel School in Postindustrial Context ………....… 22 Chapter 2: Bridging the Postindustrial Divide: Looking in from the Outside …………....… 64 Conclusion ..……..…………………………………………………………….................... 109 Bibliography ..……..……………………………………………………………................. 115 v List of Figures Figure 1.1: St. Gabriel School at the corner of Dublin and Wellington Streets .………….….. 1 Figure 2.1: Interview Space, Senior Cafeteria at St. Gabe’s – Debbie at Work.…………….. 40 Figure 2.2: Griffintown Horse Palace in the Shadow of a Condominium .…………...…….. 45 Figure 2.3: Interview Space, Junior Cafeteria at St. Gabe’s .…………........................…….. 48 Figure 3.1: Mural in St. Gabe’s Lobby – Jim Daskalakis Looking to the Future ................... 92 vi List of Maps Map 1.1: Pointe-Saint-Charles within the City of Montreal ………..………..…....…….…… 3 Map 1.2: St. Gabriel School in Pointe-Sainte-Charles …....………….…………....…….…… 5 vii Preface This study began with a fairly straightforward idea – how and why St. Gabe’s became a flashpoint for grassroots organizing when it was up for closure three times in six years. Although I had long been drawn to the history of industrialism along the Lachine Canal – from personal interest and as a cyclist – I knew little about the Point or why St. Gabe’s was so important to the community. In the beginning, this research was all about the struggle to save the school but as always our initial research questions turn out to be a much more complex. This thesis thus evolved in several main directions – first, how amidst decades of deindustrialization in the Point, St. Gabe’s has endured a place of intergenerational memory and connection and which continues to symbolize vibrant community life long gone from the Point as it once was. This led me to explore the meaning of community in marginalized neighbourhoods struggling not only with the long term effects of economic decline and sustained community abandonment but also the continual loss of meaningful anchors to memory and collective culture. Although much of their historical landscape is still intact, so many physical structures either stand empty or have been repurposed to condos and other venues catering to a new class. They exist as physical reminders yet remain void of sensory experiences associated with their former lives and which embody their past. Yet still, St. Gabe’s continues to stand as an important marker of community attachment and continuity and remains one of few historical places of social interaction in the Point. The lunch ladies’ stories and fierce commitment to saving the school attest to this. Finally, this work also became an exploration into what it means for an enduring “urban underclass,” to be left behind during postindustrial transitions. Particularly in Chapter Two, I became interested in what causes community organizations to turn their back on the disenfranchised communities they are meant to serve – thus creating yet another form of viii displacement and further relegation to the margins. More broadly I asked how community institutions adapt to postindustrial transitions while continuing to meet the needs of increasingly disenfranchised populations. In the end, the story of St. Gabe’s became my avenue to explore the very personal and long-term consequences of industrial and community decline – both through personal narratives of those who have lived through it, and second, through the eyes of “outsiders” who live outside the neighbourhood but work in locally based community organizations. Each gave me a completely different perspective on the meaning of community in the Point – one rooted in history and place attachment – the other “looking in from the outside,” at times with a highly subjective gaze. This research brought together a set of intersecting personal interests as well as threads of my own life – but I wouldn’t learn the extent until I was well into this project. I’d spent many years as a community advocate and teacher – with inner city youth and in arts based community education – and I had long been interested in processes of industrial change. Yet my interest in St. Gabe’s really began in 2011 a few years before I came to Concordia. At the time I was a science teacher at St. John Bosco Elementary in Ville Emard. In essence, I was on the “other side” in 2011 when both of our schools – St. John Bosco and St. Gabe’s – were up for closure at the same time. Our communities

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