At the beginning of the 18th century, Montreal tore down its fortifications, letting urban development occur freely.  Settlement did spread outside the original city limits, but folowed the lines of the faubourgs which had sprung up outside the city gates before the walls were dismantled.  The settlement of the Plateau resulted from the growth of Faubourg St. Laurent, which grew north along the street by the same name.  In 1792, Montreal expanded its city limits so that its northern boundary was the mountain along one section, and Duluth Street along another.  The Plateau made its first appearance just north of that city limit, with the establishment of industry in the mid-1800s.  The large Bellair Tannery was located at the present intersection of Henri-Julien and Mont-Royal, several stone quarries were located north of that.  Otherwise, the Plateau was agricultural land, owned by the Hospitalers Order of St. Joseph and some of the city’s big names (Guy, Cherrier, Papineau, Viger). 

Industry required manpower and manpower required housing.  This simple equation resulted in the founding of the village of Coteau-Saint-Louis, which was located on Chemin des Carrières, a street that linked the different quarries together and along which labourers walked between home and work.  Monseigneur Bourget acknowledged the permanence of the community in 1848, when he founded a mission in the village, since going to mass at one of the city churches was prohibitively difficult.  In 1857, the chapel was torn down to make way for the church of St-Enfant-Jésus du Mile-End, still a local landmark at St. Joseph and St. Dominique. 

The site of the Mont-Royal Arena is in the former village boundaries of St-Jean-Baptiste.  This village developed after 1860, when Montreal’s first public transportation system was created.  The tramway was a simple horse-drawn trolley that was turned into a sled during winter.  It ran along St. Laurent and brought more and more people to the Plateau.  Saint-Jean- Baptiste stretched from Duluth and Papineau to Mont-Royal and Parc, and its heart lay at St. Laurent and Rachel, in the village market.  Population growth was phenomenal, jumping from 5,900 in 1881 to 15,400 in 1891. 

Just north of the site was the village of St-Louis du Mile-End, which sprung up around the Church of St-Enfant-Jésus du Mile-End.  This village and that of St-Jean-Baptiste were assimilated into Montreal around the beginning of the 20th century.  The area west of the site developed at about this time.  The Annexe stretched between Mont-Royal, St-Urbain, Fairmount and Parc.  It was created from the grounds of the provincial agricultural exhibition, the buildings of which burned down in 1896, and land held by the Sisters of Hôtel-Dieu. 

The development stopped around the First World War, when the area was fully saturated.  During the 1920s, the bourgeois which had occupied parts of the Plateau moved on, leaving a more homogeneous working-class community.  Since then, wave after wave of immigrants moved through, particularly in the Annexe; first from eastern Europe, then Greece, Portugal and more recently, from Asia. 

In the last twenty or thirty years, the Plateau has seen some major changes to its population and businesses.  The traditional working-class family is now living alongside younger, better educated professionals and artists, attracted by the vibrant urban life that the area provides.  The businesses seem to be changing in a similar way, with traditional neighborhood establishments making way for “new wave” shops and cafés that have a younger and ‘hipper’ clientele.  While this shift could hardly be criticized, the two populations seem uncomfortable together, and tend to stay away from the other.