1. The Monument-National in the City
2. A Community Under Threat in a Changing World
3. The Early Years: the Monument’s "Open Arms"
4. The Monument-National and the Women’s Movement
5. The Monument-National: A Breeding Ground of New Ideas and a Multiethnic Cultural Centre
6. On Stage at the Monument: Innovation and Avant-Garde
7. On Stage at the Monument: Eclecticism and Popular Success
8. The Long Slide Downhill
9. Renaissance: Rebirth, Centenary

2. A Community Under Threat in a Changing World

Initially planned for a site in the present-day Old Montréal, the construction of the Monument-National actually began in 1891 in the centre of the new city. The idea behind the project was certainly ambitious: in addition to demonstrating the audacity and technical mastery of French-Canadian engineers and architects (the building was not only one of the biggest in Montréal at the time, but also the first whose frame was made entirely in steel), the Monument-National also set itself apart from all the other big Victorian-style buildings of the time because of its appearance and design. Once completed, the Monument-National’s huge auditorium and Neo-Renaissance façade were a visible symbol of the determination of its designers and backers to make it a unique site in Montréal.

The Monument-National was part of a vast, never-completed project to build a national boulevard in Montréal, similar to the Champs-Élysées in Paris, which was to link Saint-Denis Street to Saint-Laurent Boulevard. At the far west end of this thoroughfare would stand the Monument-National, while at the far east end would be the National Opera, an edifice that was, in the end, never built.

The aim of this grandiose project was to consolidate the French-Canadian presence on Saint-Laurent and stem the English Canadian districts in Montréal from spreading to the east of this symbolic axis.