The greystone is the most sublime form of Montreal architecture
Every single rock is a time-worn pearl yanked out of a local quarry - likely up in Ahuntsic - by stout hard-working, hard drinking men and then transferred onto a horse-drawn cart, shaped into useful sizes and then assembled and mortared in place by amazingly skilled craftsmen generations ago.
The love, care, effort and skill put into the effort is evident at a glance.
Bricks, in contrast are unimaginative, industrially-created uniform rectangles of oven blasted dirt.
They're the same wherever you go and there's simply no romance there.
The tragedy is that Montreal has no policy on protecting the dwindling supply of greystones that make this city so remarkable.
The one above on St. Catherine east of Papineau was demolished a couple of years back after it was abandoned.
The city should unveil a policy to encourage the preservation of such buildings regardless of the damage they suffered.