Earlier this month, when Pastor Beryl participated in Verdun Legion #4’s Remembrance Day, I was reminded of something I learned recently: the Cenotaph (statue in memory of the fallen in the two World Wars and the Korean War) did not always stand outside the Borough Hall at 1st Avenue.
It originally went up in 1924 in honour of the 1914-1918 war dead from Verdun, at the corner of Wellington Street and Mullarkey Avenue.
Where, you ask? It turns out the easternmost end of Lasalle Boulevard used to be called Mullarkey (see map). There’s still a triangular green space there, known as Parc Grenier. Wellington angles off to the right towards the Canadian Tire, Maxi and Point-St-Charles, and Lasalle Boulevard runs along the left side towards Atwater. That section of Lasalle starting at the park used to be called Mullarkey.
Apparently the name was changed around 1930, though I don’t know why. I also don’t know for sure who “Mullarkey” was that he got a street named after him, but it may well have been John. P. Mullarkey who was a railroad contractor in Montreal in the early years of the 20th Century.
The following information is from a website called waymarking.com
“This memorial was constructed by Coeur de Lion MacCarthy for the city of Verdun and is dedicated to the local war dead of the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War. It was unveiled on 5 October 1924 by Jane Leavitt, a Verdun mother who lost three of her five sons in the First World War. This monument originally stood in a park at the corner of Wellington Street and Mullarkey Avenue (now LaSalle Boulevard) but was moved in front of the city hall in 1959. The Verdun Victory Memorial, designed and executed by McCarthy, artist-sculptor of Montreal, depicts a Canadian solder in an exultant attitude, his shrapnel helmet in hand and his rifle raised in the spirit of Victory. At the base of the monument is a female figure, symbolic of patriotism and peace, holding in her right hand the flags of Victory and supporting with her left hand a shield bearing the arms of the City of Verdun.”
Slideshow: Click on image to move to the next one. Pictures of Remembrance Day Ceremony (Nov. 7, 2021) are from the Verdun Legion #4 Facebook page.
