Boulevard de la Côte-Vertu. The area known as Notre-Dame-de-Vertu, Notre-Dame-de-la-Vertu, or Notre-Dame-des-Vertus (Our Lady of Virtue) was probably created around 1700; the latter name was used in a 1702 map. As with many other côtes (rows of lots under the seigneurial system) in the island of Montreal, the street took the name of the côte.
Notre-Dame-de-Vertu was one of several côtes named for aspects of the Virgin Mary in Montreal while the island was a seigneury of the Sulpician Order, which is especially devoted to the Virgin. Jean-Jacques Olier, one of the founders of the colony of Ville-Marie (now Montreal), made frequent pilgrimages to the church of Notre-Dame-des-Vertus in Aubervilliers, near Paris.
Over time, the name Notre-Dame disappeared from the name of the côte, as with Notre-Dame-de-Liesse and Notre-Dame-des-Neiges (see Côte-des-Neiges), and the chemin de la Côte-Vertu took the name it has today. Its generic was recently changed from chemin to boulevard.
|
