Tradition and change

The first Presbyterian service in Montreal was held in 1787. In 1803, when the city’s population was about 9,000, St. Andrew's Church was founded near the present site of city hall on Notre Dame Street. St. Paul's Church was opened nearby in 1843. As Montreal grew, St. Andrew’s built a new church on Beaver Hall Hill (present site of a Bell Canada building) in 1853. St. Paul’s followed in 1867 to a site on Dorchester Boulevard, now boulevard René Lévesque (near today’s Queen Elizabeth hotel). The congregations united in 1918, and the present building was erected in 1931-32.  The former St. Paul’s church was dismantled and reconstructed just south of the present site of Vanier College in Ville St-Laurent where today it serves as a museum. The Rev. Dr. J.S.S. Armour published Saints, Sinners and Scots, a history of our congregation as part of our bicentennial in 2003. It’s available at the Book Stall in the Narthex