page_title: Verdun, Quebec
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Verdun, Quebec / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Maison Etienne-Nivard-de Saint-Dizier, 7244, Boulevard LaSalle, Arrondissement Verdun, Montréal, Québec, Canada.English: Nivard-De Saint-Dizier House, 7244, LaSalle Boulevard, Borough Verdun, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
context_page_description: Verdun is a borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec, situated along the St. Lawrence River. It consists of the former city of Verdun, which was merged with the city of Montreal on January 1, 2002. The settlement of Verdun was founded in 1671, making it one of Canada's oldest cities. In 1956, Nuns' Island was amalgamated with Verdun, which is on the Island of Montreal.
context_section_description: Archaeological traces in and around the Maison Nivard de Saint-Dizier in western Verdun demonstrate the presence of Aboriginal people in Verdun as early as 4,000 years ago.
  Verdun had its origins in as an area known as Côte des Argoulets at the foot of the Lachine Rapids. It was initially a militarized area (argoulets meaning "sharpshooters"), with concessions given to militiamen who agreed to guard the area against an Iroquois assault on the colony of Ville-Marie. In 1671, the Sulpician Order, lords of the Island of Montreal since 1663, granted the area (now the western part of Verdun) as a fief to Major Zacharie Dupuis, chief of the Montreal militia. He is believed to have named the area after his natal village of Saverdun in southwestern France. Côte des Argoulets was renamed Côte de Verdun shortly afterward.
  He then donated his land to St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, who in turn sold it to Étienne Nivard de Saint-Dizier in 1769. The nuns' building, now called the Maison Nivard de Saint-Dizier, still exists.
  Following the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701 between the French and the Iroquois, which reduced the military threat to settlers in the southwest of the island, farmers settled the area along Lower Lachine Road, now boulevard LaSalle. Around 1800, Chemin de la Rivière-Saint-Pierre (now rue de l'Église) was opened. The Canal de l'Aqueduc, now Verdun's northwestern boundary, was dug in 1854 to furnish Montreal with drinking water from the St. Lawrence.
  In 1874, a group of local land-owners met in a farmhouse called Le Pavillon, located at the corner of Lower Lachine Road and Chemin de la Rivière-Saint-Pierre, and decided to found the village of Rivière-Saint-Pierre. Chartered by the government of Quebec, it became the municipality of Verdun the following year. Settlement had been hampered due to frequent flooding, but a dyke was built starting in 1896; its completion resulted in a population boom. The dyke itself became host to Verdun's popular Boardwalk, before land reclamation in the 70s led to the expansion of the waterfront park along the whole length of Verdun's riverbank.
  The first Église Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs (now part of the school of the same name) was built in 1899, followed by a combined town hall, fire hall, and police station in 1908. The tramway also arrived in 1899, connecting Verdun to downtown. A larger Église Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs was built in 1914.
  In 1881, the Montreal Hospital for the Insane was founded as a Protestant counterpart to the Catholic Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu (now Hôpital Louis-H.-Lafontaine) east of the city. It would be built on two farms, purchased in 1887 and 1907, in the western end of Verdun. Affiliated with McGill University in 1946, it was renamed the Douglas Hospital in 1965. Today, not only is it one of Verdun's largest public institutions, but its campus is one of the borough's most important greenspaces.
  Verdun became a town in 1907 and a city in 1912. Between 1911 and 1924 the population tripled and urbanization expanded rapidly "westward" (according to "Montreal directions" - actually due southward), and the farms were divided for residential use. The Moffat area west of rue Desmarchais was built in with "plexes"—the typical Montreal layered apartment—between 1920 and 1930, and the Crawford Park area in the far west of the town was built starting in 1945, in a more suburban style unlike the orthogonal grid used in the rest of Verdun. The Verdun Natatorium was built in 1930, the Verdun Hospital in 1932, and the Verdun Auditorium in 1938.
  The city was chiefly (59% in 1931) English-speaking. According to historian Serge Durflinger, Verdun residents made a massive contribution to the Canadian war efforts in World War I and World War II, due to the many British immigrants living there who enthusiastically joined the Canadian armed forces.
  The municipality of Île-Saint-Paul, occupying what was by then universally known as Nuns' Island or Île des Sœurs, was annexed to Verdun in 1956. Then a chiefly agricultural area, it was 
caption: Maison Étienne Nivard de Saint-Dizier
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