Mini Montreal hockey history tour (upated version and French version available at my Facebook page - send me a message and I'll send the link)
Locate St. Joseph Street bottom right. It was later extended to the left (west) and became a boulevard. The Crystal Palace (Crystal Rink) was the large building you see on what was then Provincial Exhibition Grounds in the cluster of buildings. Rue Jeanne Mance would later be constructed between Park and Esplanade, which would place the site of the Crystal Rink at St. Joseph/rue Jeanne Mance.
19. Parc Jeanne-Mance / Hôtel-Dieu side practice area — Parc Jeanne-Mance, avenue du Parc near the volleyball nets, Montréal, QC
The Canadiens practiced outdoors here when the ice was bad at Arena Mont-Royal. This was the open area in front of Hôtel-Dieu, near where the volleyball nets are now. There is a YouTube video of their 1924 practice there.https://youtu.be/sWmXmfSpm0o?si=5NRfPP0UgUUGyfP
20. Beaver Lake Pavilion — 2000 chemin Remembrance, Montréal, QC H3H 1X2 If you are into hiking, add Beaver Lake for the Béliveau bronzed skates stop, assuming it is open and accessible. It's a nice walk in summer and you can go skating, tobogganing, cross country skiing in winter.
21. Jack Laviolette’s old bar site — NE corner of Cote St Paul and Notre-Dame in St. Henri This is the deep-cut stop: Laviolette’s old cafe in St-Henri, where he is said to have helped assemble the first Canadiens roster in 1909. Include it as an optional hardcore add-on. Is is now a green space to the left of Sydneys Friperie (5165 R. Notre Dame O, Montréal, QC H4C 1T3).
22. Jubilee Arena (1909-1919 when it burned down; Canadiens home in 1910 and 1919) — east side of bridge on rue Sainte-Catherine Est west of rue Alphonse-D.-Roy, Montréal, QC (overlooking yard of City of Montreal building - by the back of the yard in that picnic table area) Canadiens played their first ever game here (the O'Brien Canadiens). It’s over by that red dumpster and picnic table area with the old arena footprint going east-west. You can see Olympic Stadium in the background. You can also see the curve of the railroad tracks to the left, which helps show how completely the old neighborhood has vanished. Though the Canadiens were founded in 1909, their first ever game was in 1910.
For more Habs history, check out my Facebook page.
- Montreal (Westmount) Arena site (1898-1918 when it burned down; Canadiens home from 1911–1918) — NE corner of Wood Avenue / rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, Westmount, QC
The site of the first NHL game on December 19, 1917 (along with Ottawa Arena simultaneously; Montreal Wanderers credited with the first ever NHL win, an honor shared with the Montreal Canadiens who also won in Ottawa). The Montreal Canadiens won their first (pre-NHL) Stanley Cup in this building on March 30, 1916, against the Portland Rosebuds. Also the site of the second ever NHL playoff game. Many other great teams played there and won Cups before then, including the Montreal Victorias in 1899, the Montreal Shamrocks in 1899 and 1900, the Montreal Hockey Club in 1903, and the Montreal Wanderers who started playing there in 1904 and won the Stanley Cup there in 1906 (winning goal in aggregate series scored at Montreal Arena), 1907, and 1908. The arena fire led to the end of the Montreal Wanderers - they never played another game. - Montreal Forum (1926–1996) — 2313 rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, Montréal, QC H3H 1N2
Walk one block west to the Forum. The arena is gone inside, but the building is still there and remains one of the essential Canadiens landmarks. You can still touch the old roof girders upstairs and there are a few displays to see. You can also sit in old Forum seats. - Montreal Amateur Athletic Association building (constructed in 1905; parent organization of the Montreal Hockey Club, which played vs elite competition 1887-1905; won 4 Stanley Cups, including the first two ever awarded) — 2070 rue Peel, Montréal, QC H3A 1W6
The Montreal Hockey Club ceased to be a pro club the year this building was constructed. Their original clubhouse was at the SW corner of Mansfield/de Maisonneauve - where the MAAA was presented with the first ever Stanley Cup). As for the 1905 building (the second clubhouse), the old façade is still there — complete with the winged insignia that later inspired the Detroit Red Wings logo — even though a massive condo tower now sits behind it. Good lunch stop too. They also have banners and a trophy display. When Montreal HC won the 1893 championship for placing first in the regular season, it was their third straight championship since the AHAC Championship Trophy was inaugurated in 1891. According to the terms for the trophy, Montreal HC was allowed to keep the Trophy (that trophy is on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame). A new version was struck for following seasons. That is the trophy that can be viewed at the MAAA building on Peel Street in Montreal. The MHC discontinued their pro team in 1905 just as this building was being built. The first clubhouse was at Mansfield and de Maisonneuve, where the Stanley Cup was first awarded in 1893. - Peel Street walk / old hotel corridor — from 1455 rue Peel (the old Mount Royal Hotel) south to 1170 rue Peel (old Windsor Hotel Annex)
This little stretch of Peel is worth treating as its own hockey-history walk. In the big-hotel era, Howie Morenz used to walk back and forth between the Mount Royal Hotel and the Windsor Hotel to visit and hang around with the Canadiens’ owners who kept an office at the Windsor. He also briefly was a partner in a restaurant that went belly-up over by Drummond/Saint-Catherine. There is a plaque for the NHL founding at the Windsor Hotel in front of the Windsor Annex (now Le Windsor). - Windsor Hotel / Canadiens and NHL founding area — Peel Street at boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest, Montréal, QC
Go to Peel and René-Lévesque and walk halfway towards Stanley. The old Windsor Hotel (1878-1957) once stood here. The room near the middle by a second-floor window, is where the “O’Brien Canadiens” were founded — in a small side room off a ballroom across the hall. The second-year “Kennedy Canadiens,” which became today’s franchise, were also founded at the Windsor Hotel, likely in the same room or in the next ante-room over to the same ballroom. The NHL was also founded here in a dining room, though it's not known exactly where. Very possible it was the same ballroom as that was the Ladies' Auxiliary Dining Room. The NHA was also formally founded there and many other previous leagues and teams used those rooms. - Victoria Skating Rink site (Stanley Street Garage/Parc Stanley) — Stanley Street just north of boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest, Montréal, QC
Walk west to Stanley. This is the site of the old Victoria Skating Rink, where the first organized indoor hockey game was played, where the first Stanley Cup was first contested in a playoff, and where the Montreal Hockey Club won the Cup during a championship game in 1894 — the first time it was handed out that way. For the first Stanley Cup won, based on a game that clinched the regular season, see Crystal Rink in this list. - Victoria Skating Rink center-ice archaeology stop — Stanley Street Garage / National Car Rental area, 1200 block of rue Stanley, Montréal, QC
The Habs — and even the NHL itself — were founded just steps from where the first organized indoor hockey game was played in 1875, where the first Stanley Cup playoff game was played in 1894, and where the Cup was first awarded (for a playoff game (also 1894); for the first Cup in 1893, see Crystal Rink in this list. The Victoria Skating Rink was torn down 100 years ago and replaced almost immediately by a parking garage. Comparing old maps to the modern footprint, center ice today would land almost exactly at parking spot #16 for National Car Rental or the two next to it toward Stanley Street. The east-end goal would have been about 12 feet from the street, roughly where the National Car Rental office is now. That is the goal shown in the famous painting of an 1893 game there. - Sun Life Building — 1155 rue Metcalfe, Montréal, QC H3B 2V6
From the Victoria Rink area, head back toward Dorchester Square. The Sun Life Building on the east side of the square is where the NHL used to be headquartered. - Bell Centre (1996–present) — 1909 avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal, Montréal, QC H3B 4C9
The Bell Centre is the current Canadiens arena and the obvious modern stop on the tour. - Bell Centre guided tour entrance — 1290 avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal, Montréal, QC H3B 5E8
Call in advance if you want the arena tour. - Centennial Plaza — outside the Bell Centre main entrance, 1909 avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal, Montréal, QC H3B 4C9
This is where the Canadiens statues are, and where the plaques commemorating the 1875 first organized game and Maurice Richard were unveiled. - McGill University lower campus / Lower Field area — 845 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, QC H3A 0G4
The famous 1884 Alexander Henderson photo of the McGill University men’s hockey team, taken during the Montreal Winter Carnival tournament, is believed to be the earliest known action photograph of hockey. McGill won the first carnival the year before. McGill still sets up a rink there in winter. - First Stanley Cup and AHAC championship - protests and rulings. a new building replaced the offices of James Crathern at 3416 Av. du Parc, Montreal (formerly 699 Sherbrooke St., James Crathern offices, 1893; his house still stands next door at 3422 Parc; a few months after this meeting he moved to a mansion on the hill that is now the Swiss embassy) — Crathern hosted the March 13, 1893 AHAC council meeting that settled the protests deciding the championship. Two rulings mattered. First, the council upheld AHAC president Jenkins’s emergency appointment of a referee for the Quebec–Ottawa match, even though the by-law giving him that power had not been properly printed in the constitution. Second, the council rejected the Crystal Club’s protest against Montreal HC / MAAA, ruling that referee Lewis had acted within his rights in ruling William G. Murray off for continued foul play and that his authority continued through the tie-breaking continuation of the match. With the Crystal protest dismissed, Montreal HC / MAAA were confirmed as AHAC champions — and therefore Stanley Cup winners by one win over Ottawa Hockey Club (later the Senators). A death notice shows that his wife Annie died there in January 1885, which adds a more personal layer to the story and may help explain why he later moved. It later became a hotel. It is now rundown and barricaded.
Montreal, Quebec - Jubilee Arena (1909-1919 when it burned down; Canadiens home in 1910 and 1919) — east side of bridge on rue Sainte-Catherine Est west of rue Alphonse-D.-Roy, Montréal, QC (see photo at bottom of post- bridge overlooks yard of City of Montreal building - by the back of the yard in that picnic table area) Canadiens played their first ever game here (the O'Brien Canadiens). It’s over by that red dumpster and picnic table area with the old arena footprint going east-west. You can see Olympic Stadium in the background. You can also see the curve of the railroad tracks to the left, which helps show how completely the old neighborhood has vanished. Though the Canadiens were founded in 1909, their first ever game was in 1910.
- Mount Royal Arena site (1920–1926) — 50 avenue du Mont-Royal Ouest, Montréal (Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood)
If you are going to the Plateau anyway, stop here. The old Mount Royal Arena burned down in 2000 and had been a grocery store for a long time since the arena closed; the new building is also a grocery store with a small display and a commemorative sign out front. This is the site of the Canadiens’ third home. The winning goal for the 1924 Cup was scored here since it was an aggregate series despite the fact that game 2 was played in Ottawa due to poor ice conditions in Montreal. - Crystal Palace No. 2 (therefore, Crystal Rink 2) rink site — the rink was up by St. Joseph Blvd/rue Jeanne Mance (Mile End neighborhood)
This is where the first Stanley Cup was won by the Montreal Hockey Club / MAAA. The original Crystal Palace rink on Sainte-Catherine Street was dismantled and moved to Fletcher’s Field in 1878. On March 10, 1893, Montreal HC defeated the Montreal Crystals in a game they knew would win both the AHAC regular-season senior trophy and also the Stanley Cup. The season ended on March 17, but Montreal was officially presented with the trophy on May 15 (at the first Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA) clubhouse, the Montreal Gymnasium, which was located at the southeast corner of Mansfield Street and de Maisonneuve Boulevard if you are really that much of a diehard). Because of the dispute, the MHC did not formally accept the Stanley Cup from their 1893 championship until February 23, 1894. In July 1896, the Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire, and the site was later developed for housing. More info can be found here: The First Stanley Cup
Locate St. Joseph Street bottom right. It was later extended to the left (west) and became a boulevard. The Crystal Palace (Crystal Rink) was the large building you see on what was then Provincial Exhibition Grounds in the cluster of buildings. Rue Jeanne Mance would later be constructed between Park and Esplanade, which would place the site of the Crystal Rink at St. Joseph/rue Jeanne Mance.
19. Parc Jeanne-Mance / Hôtel-Dieu side practice area — Parc Jeanne-Mance, avenue du Parc near the volleyball nets, Montréal, QC
The Canadiens practiced outdoors here when the ice was bad at Arena Mont-Royal. This was the open area in front of Hôtel-Dieu, near where the volleyball nets are now. There is a YouTube video of their 1924 practice there.https://youtu.be/sWmXmfSpm0o?si=5NRfPP0UgUUGyfP
20. Beaver Lake Pavilion — 2000 chemin Remembrance, Montréal, QC H3H 1X2 If you are into hiking, add Beaver Lake for the Béliveau bronzed skates stop, assuming it is open and accessible. It's a nice walk in summer and you can go skating, tobogganing, cross country skiing in winter.
21. Jack Laviolette’s old bar site — NE corner of Cote St Paul and Notre-Dame in St. Henri This is the deep-cut stop: Laviolette’s old cafe in St-Henri, where he is said to have helped assemble the first Canadiens roster in 1909. Include it as an optional hardcore add-on. Is is now a green space to the left of Sydneys Friperie (5165 R. Notre Dame O, Montréal, QC H4C 1T3).
22. Jubilee Arena (1909-1919 when it burned down; Canadiens home in 1910 and 1919) — east side of bridge on rue Sainte-Catherine Est west of rue Alphonse-D.-Roy, Montréal, QC (overlooking yard of City of Montreal building - by the back of the yard in that picnic table area) Canadiens played their first ever game here (the O'Brien Canadiens). It’s over by that red dumpster and picnic table area with the old arena footprint going east-west. You can see Olympic Stadium in the background. You can also see the curve of the railroad tracks to the left, which helps show how completely the old neighborhood has vanished. Though the Canadiens were founded in 1909, their first ever game was in 1910.
For more Habs history, check out my Facebook page.
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