ORIGIN OF THE NAME

Place Saint-Henri, between rues Saint-Jacques and Notre-Dame

Place Saint-Henri. In 1810 a chapel under the protection of St. Henry was built where the École secondaire Saint-Henri now stands, apparently in honour of Father Henri-Auguste Roux (1798-1831), superior of Saint-Sulpice Seminary.

St. Henry II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1014 to 1024. He was canonized in 1146; his wife Cunegond was canonized in 1200, and gave her name in turn to a neighbourhood just to the east of Saint-Henri (which in turn almost gave its name to Lionel-Groulx station).

Place Saint-Henri, as the junction between the former rue Saint-Bonaventure (now Saint-Jacques; see Bonaventure) and the road leading to Lachine, became an important urban hub and gave its name to the entire district now called St-Henri. This historic working-class district, immortalized in Gabrielle Roy's novel The Tin Flute (Bonheur d'occasion), had previously been known as Les Tanneries in the 18th century.

Name during planning phase: Les Tanneries.

PLATFORM DEPTH
17,7 m deep
(20th deepest station)

TRAFFIC
2 141 667 entrances in 2006
(43rd busiest station)

INTERSTATION DISTANCE

To Vendôme: To Lionel-Groulx:
1450,88 metres
(the longest interstation distance on the island) 579,60 metres

TRIVIA
Architectural rendering of this station:

A segment of track between Place-Saint-Henri and Vendôme stations is divided by a wall - the only point in the metro network where the two parallel main-line tracks are thus separated between stations. The extra support of the intervening wall was necessary due to softness and instability in the surrounding rock. Plans had called for two stations — Northcliffe and Westmount — between Villa-Maria and Place-Saint-Henri instead of just one, but the same weakness, combined with political pressure from residents of the area, made the change of plans necessary.
This station served as the western terminus of the orange line for 16 months between its inauguration and the extension of the orange line as far as Snowdon.
Scenes from Denys Arcand's film Jésus de Montréal (Jesus of Montreal), including the powerful sequence where Daniel evangelizes the passengers, were filmed in this station.

Click to expand.
Images (c) Christal Films

Images artimp1.jpg and artimp2.jpg from BTM fiche on Place-Saint-Henri station.