Core of Montreal’s Chinatown district receives Quebec heritage status
MONTREAL — Quebec has designated Montreal’s Chinatown neighbourhood a provincial heritage site, protecting nine buildings in the district from demolition or significant alteration without permission.
The province says the new designation protects the “institutional core” of the city’s Chinatown, including a 19th-century school building and a former cigar factory.
Quebec’s Culture Department says the neighbourhood bears significant markers of Montreal’s more-than-century-old Chinese community, such as the stone arch at the western entrance of the district.
Members of Montreal’s Chinese community have for years lobbied the city and province to protect the neighbourhood, which is among many Chinatowns across North America that have been threatened by gentrification.