ORIGIN OF THE NAME
Robert Cavelier de La Salle Boulevard LaSalle. Robert Cavelier de La Salle (1643-1687) was a French explorer and the founder of Louisiana. In 1667, he received Côte Saint-Sulpice as a fiefdom and founded the village of Lachine there. In 1682, he sailed down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and named the Mississippi basin Louisiana in honour of Louis XIV. In 1684 he led an expedition to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico, but couldn't find the mouth of the Mississippi and was murdered by his crew.

LaSalle Boulevard, at whose eastern tip this station lies, runs along the St. Lawrence's banks in the cities of LaSalle and Verdun.

Name during planning phase: Champlain

Former orthographic variant: La Salle

Former alternate name: Boul. La Salle

 PLATFORM DEPTH
9,8m deep
(53rd deepest station)
 TRAFFIC
1 407 182 entrances in 2006
(53rd busiest station)

 INTERSTATION DISTANCE
To De L'Église:
To Charlevoix:
812,30 metres
707,25 metres

 TRIVIA
Model of the mezzanine
Model of the mezzanine showing the planned glass-brick floor
Architect's conception
Architect's conception of the kiosk, substantially different from the final version
Aerial view of the station soon after its construction
Aerial view of the station soon after its construction, in a large vacant industrial zone which would later be redeveloped into a residential neighbourhood

The architects, engineers, and artists were awarded a prize for excellence by the Canadian Architecture Review.

This station's name has been a subject of contention, as it is not located in the former city of LaSalle, but in Verdun. A resolution of the City of Verdun on 11 June 1979 proposed the name Paul-Grégoire, archbishop of Montreal and a Verdun native; however, he was still alive at the time. On 21 November 1984, the Montreal Urban Community approved a change in this station's name to Curé-Caisse (as it is located on rue Caisse), but for unknown reasons this change was never carried out.

This station was originally supposed to have portions of the floor done in glass brick, but this plan was abandoned for safety reasons.

At one point, a portion of the large aluminum mural fell from the wall into the mezzanine. It was at night and nobody was injured, but the station was closed for several weeks until the mural was reattached. It is now braced to prevent a recurrence.

Images maquette.jpg, sketch.jpg, and terrain-vague.jpg courtesy of STM archives. Thank you to Benoît Clairoux.