Mile End Memories

Mémoire du Mile End / Mile End Memories (MME/MEM) is a not-for-profit organization based in Montreal (Quebec). It pursues the following objectives:

1. to work towards the increased awareness and promotion of the heritage, history and culture of Montreal’s Mile End district* and its surroundings;
2. to encourage and facilitate links between individuals and organizations interested in the heritage, history and culture of Mile End and its surroundings;
3. to encourage and undertake research projects on Mile End and its surroundings;
4. to initiate, organize and manage projects and activities aimed at recognizing and enhancing places, people and events associated with Mile End and its surroundings and to collaborate with other organizations or groups in the initiation, organization and management of such initiatives; and
5. to design, produce and disseminate relevant information on the heritage, history and culture of Mile End and its surroundings.

Since 2003, the group Mile End Memories has organized a dozen activities per year. Between 100 and 200 individuals, including residents of the neighbourhood and the Greater Montreal region as well as tourists, participate annually in these activities. The organization hosts between six and eight walking tours and between three and seven lectures and presentations per year. To date, the walking tours, which take place between May and October, have focused on the following themes, among others: religious heritage, residential heritage, green heritage (gardens, plants, trees), the Saint-Viateur East sector (in collaboration with Friends of Saint-Laurent Boulevard and the Mile End Citizens’ Committee) and Mile End’s Main (offered in collaboration with the Friends of Saint-Laurent Boulevard). Lectures and presentations deal with various historic themes and contemporary issues, including prostitution in Mile End in the 1930s and the proposed tramway on Park Avenue, as well as author readings and discussions of books about life in the Mile End neighbourhood.

The organization and presentation of these activities is carried out almost exclusively by volunteers and all profits are invested in pursuing the organization’s objectives. The group’s working language is French, but activities are carried out in French, English or both languages.

After five years of activities, the official foundation of Mile End Memories took place in February 2008. The Board of Directors comprises the following individuals: Susan Bronson, Justin Bur, Josée Laplace, Joshua Wolfe and Janis Zubalik. The first Annual General Assembly will take place in 2009.

* At the time of the inception of Mile End Memories, the “Mile End district,” which is part of Plateau Mont-Royal borough of the City of Montreal, was bounded by Hutchison Street to the west, Mont-Royal Avenue to the south, Saint-Denis Street to the east, and the railway line beside Van Horne Avenue to the north. Although the boundaries of the municipal district have since changed, MME’s activities continue to focus on this territory but encompass as well the surrounding areas to the west, south, east and north.