Houses once sat on the land including one at 2075 Coleraine where someone named George Yeates (aka Yates) lived. It went vacant after Yeates' inheritors disclaimed ownership. The duplex fell into an advanced state of disrepair as people would enter and pillage wood and bricks and other items.
Police would sometimes patrol to ensure nobody went inside the two-storey structure but they still did nonetheless.
Disaster struck on a Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. January 8, 1936.
Children were running around inside the creaky structure when they heard the structure start to shift.
Within seconds the whole thing came down and young Douglas Norman, 9, of 839 Charron was crushed by a beam.
It took 30 minutes to dig his body out of the mess and remove the ceiling beam planted firmly in his forehead.
His father Arthur Norman was informed of the disaster later that afternoon as he returned from work as boilermaker (welder) at the nearby CNR shops.
William Baxter, 60, of 855 Liverpool helped rescue Edward Kavanagh, 13, of 822 Liverpool. Clifford Bowden, 7, of 630 Fortune also managed to flee before the collapse.
The remains of the building and several other creaky adjacent structures were torn down immediately afterwards.
The boy's father sued the city for $848 because they had neglected to tear the building down after doing the same to other nearby buildings. The court awarded him $639 plus costs, a decision that the city of Montreal sought to appeal.