J. Burgess
This paper explores a number of methodological issues arising from the use of geographical information systems to study the history of a mid-Victorian commercial district. It examines the difficulties inherent in creating and mapping historical data using sources produced by city administrators in a rapidly evolving institutional context. Changing methods of property assessment, of municipal taxation of businesses, a cadastral revolution as well as the limitations of surviving maps were but some of the obstacles to be faced and sidestepped, if not entirely overcome. The paper shares some of the results of research that is still ongoing. Emphasis is placed upon two sets of results which have been generated by the linkage of computerised databases (ACCESS) and GIS software (MAPINFO). The first set examines the changing social geography of Montreal’s business district (present-day Old Montréal) between 1850 and 1880; it discusses changes in urban functions as well as the ways in which residential and commercial activities shared urban space. The second set of results focuses more particularly on the built environment of the commercial district in the Victorian period in order to better understand the relationship between the changing commercial geography and the construction of hundreds of new warehouse buildings, more than half of which survive today. This analysis provides a unique perspective on the historical context in which a significant portion of Old Montréal’s built heritage was constructed.
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