The corner of Atwater and Notre Dame.. sigh. was once a bustling corner but was somehow wrecked and turned into a suburban-industrial style space waste. You've got not one, but two, gas stations and a lot of vacant space. Strange considering it's adjacent to the Atwater Market and a highly-coveted residential area overlooking the Lachine Canal.
The area was even more barren up until a couple of years ago when a suburban-style shopping mall, well, more specifically a Super C grocery store with a ton of free parking was put into the area. Seems a little strange considering there's a farmer's market right across the street.
But go back to 1942 and you will note that the area was entirely built up. Not only were there buildings at all four corners of Notre Dame and Atwater, there were even buildings south of Atwater on the east side.
By 1956, the buildings south of Atwater had been demolished on one side, but the east side was still home to some proud-looking buildings which housed the Ferme St. Laurent, Rutherford Co., Gustave Beland DDS, (whatever that is) and the Dodd Simpson Press, a publishing company that had been there since at least 1935. And that cool-looking building on the northeast corner, which still stands, was a Royal Bank.
We don't know what led to the almost-complete demolition of the area but the buildings looked to be quite sturdy. Click on the images to see them in larger size.