Petite-Bourgogne
The cradle of Montreal jazz
Between the Lachine Canal and Notre-Dame Street, Little Burgundy moves at its own tempo. New condos sit beside social housing, Atwater Market closes off the horizon to the west, and a musical memory still hangs over the quiet streets. It’s a neighbourhood of unapologetic contrasts, where the history of Montreal’s Black community surfaces on every corner for those who know how to read it.
Good to know
- 1Look for the traces of jazz: Oscar Peterson Park, the murals and the commemorative plaques tell the story of the vanished neighbourhood better than any guidebook.
How the neighbourhood came to be
At the turn of the 20th century, sleeping-car porters — one of the few jobs open to Black men — settled near the train stations, and Little Burgundy became the heart of Montreal’s English-speaking Black community. Jazz played all night in its clubs; Oscar Peterson and Oliver Jones grew up a few streets apart. The massive demolitions of the 1960s and 70s then tore through the neighbourhood’s fabric, and its memory is carried today by its churches, parks and street names.
Did you know?
- 1Oscar Peterson, one of the 20th century’s greatest jazz pianists, was born in Little Burgundy in 1925.
- 2Union United Church, founded in 1907, is considered the oldest Black congregation in Canada.
- 3Rockhead’s Paradise, opened in the 1920s by Rufus Rockhead, was one of the most famous jazz clubs on the continent.
