Primo Montreal Street real estate once housed families who launched their kids from windows

1438 Mountain Street, long demolished

 What's now Montreal's newest, poshest residential project pokes the sky over Mountain Street just behind Ogilvy's, shouting out with its tryhard Eurosqueak its upscale claims of exclusivity and mystery money.  

 We tip our exclusive Coolopolis trademark caps (not available for purchase) to those who created and inhabit this downtown treasure but we simultaneously rue the loss of predecessor brutalistic Hotel de la Montagne for its rooftop pool, boob-jammed bikinis and sausage-encasing Speedos. 
   At least the adjacent lowrise structure on de Mayonaise still flashes our urban gaudiness by lighting the red light with the Wanda strip club, which apparently declined all offers to sell out for demolition for the project.

 The downtown Mountain Street location is understandably coveted, as its retail-adjacent and occupies a desirable spot near Peel, Crescent and St. Catherine and only lacks tunnel-to-metro status to make it perfect. 

  The land once housed something entirely different however, with its several hundred less-affluent residents making the spot a lively place for several decades. 

 Its liveliest moment took place during the mayhem of a famous blaze at 1438 Mountain that killed three on 25 February 1947. The fire displaces about 200 from their homes after is set off at 4 a.m.  The building was said to have been gutted by the blaze but the address appears in newspapers until 1953.  Its subsequent fate remains unclear, as only a few retail spots along that same strip get mentioned in subsquent newspaper articles.*

 Local papers leaped on all sorts of tales of survival. At least three kids were saved by being hauled down from the building.  

 Nicole Dionne, 5, was dropped from a second floor window and caught below by her sister Pauline, who had already suffered a broken arm and leg. Her mom Mrs Wilfred Dionne sought her for 14 hours before finally finding her in the confusion. 

One of the three dead taken out in a body bag. They were: Alice Paterson, 45, who had moved to Canada as a domestic and had no relatives here. Frank Murdoch and Eugene McGregor also died.

Blaze survivors mingle on Mountain, with Ogilvy's in the background. 

 The fire, it was later determined, started on the ground floor in a chair cushion.  

 The address 143 Mountain was somewhat famous from 1941 when Emile Zarbatany was charged with attempted murder for an attack on the janitor, as Coolopolis reported a coupla whiles back. 

*Lovells directory could answer this, however the BANQ site has made reconfigured it to make it impossible to search by year. If somebody has a trick to do it, please let us know.