Notre-Dame-de-Grâce

Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (Our Lady of Grace), also nicknamed NDG, is a residential neighbourhood of Montreal in the city's West End, with a population of 166,520 (2016). An independent municipality until annexed by the City of Montreal in 1910, NDG is today one half of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. It comprises two wards, Loyola to the west and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce to the east. NDG is bordered by four independent enclaves; its eastern border is shared with the City of Westmount, Quebec, to the north and west it is bordered by the cities of Montreal West, Hampstead and Côte-Saint-Luc. NDG plays a pivotal role in serving as the commercial and cultural hub for Montreal's predominantly English-speaking West End, with Sherbrooke Street West running the length of the community as the main commercial artery. The community is roughly bounded by Claremont Avenue to the east, Côte-Saint-Luc Road to the north, Brock Avenue in the west, and Highway 20 and the Saint-Jacques Escarpment to the south. At the time of Montreal's founding in 1642 most of the land stretching past Mount Royal to the northwest was a vast forest running the length of a long, narrow ridge known as the Saint Jacques Escarpment. The area that was to become Notre-Dame-de-Grâce was founded along that ridge, near a since-drained Lac Saint-Pierre. The first Europeans settled the area eight years after the founding of the colony of Ville Marie, on November 18, 1650. They were Jean Descarries (or Descaris) dit le Houx and Jean Leduc, from Igé, Perche, France. Both settlers received of land in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a vast territory that stretched from what would become Atwater Avenue to Lachine. The eastern part of the territory split off in 1874 as the village of Côte-Saint-Antoine, later renamed Westmount; a section then split off the western edge in 1897 to become Montreal West. In 1853, construction of the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce was completed. In December 1876, the Municipality of the Village of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce was established through proclamation.