Mont-Saint-Hilaire

Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Use Canadian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox settlement

Mont-Saint-Hilaire (Template:IPA) is a suburb of Montreal on the South Shore of southeastern Quebec, Canada, on the Richelieu River in the Regional County Municipality of La Vallée-du-Richelieu. The population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 18,859. The city is named after the Mont Saint-Hilaire.

A significant deposit of the semi-precious mineral sodalite is located near Mont-Saint-Hilaire Template:Citation needed.

History

Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville was granted the seignory of the region in 1694.<ref>Charlotte Gray 'The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder' Random House, 2004</ref> By 1745 a mountain village had been formed with the first chapel being built in 1798 near the Richelieu River. Nearly twenty years later, in 1822, a ferry operating between Beloeil and Mont-Saint-Hilaire came into service. A bridge, enabling Beloeil and St. Hilaire to be connected by rail, was built in 1848 by the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway.

The Campbell family, which owned the mountain after the Rouvilles, sold the mountain to an English officer, Brigadier-General Andrew Gault, who owned it for 45 years. Gault then bequeathed the mountain to McGill University before his death in 1958.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Mont-Saint-Hilaire had a population of Template:Val living in Template:Val of its Template:Val total private dwellings, a change of Template:Percentage from its 2016 population of Template:Val. With a land area of Template:Convert, it had a population density of Template:Pop density in 2021.<ref name=2021census>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2 Population trend:<ref>Statistics Canada: 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2021 census</ref>

Census	Population	Change (%)
2021	18,859	Template:Increase 1.5%
2016	18,585	Template:Increase 2.1%
2011	18,200	Template:Increase 15.8%
2006	15,720	Template:Increase 10.2%
2001	14,270	Template:Increase 9.2%
1996	13,064	Template:Increase 6.5%
1991	12,267	Template:Increase 15.9%
1986	10,588	Template:Increase 5.2%
1981	10,066	Template:Increase 30.9%
1976	7,688	Template:Increase 33.5%
1971	5,758	N/A

Template:Col-2 Mother tongue language (2021)<ref name="SC2021">2021 Statistics Canada Community Profile: Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec</ref>

Language	Population	Pct (%)
French only	17,025	91.5%
English only	565	3.0%
Both English and French	260	1.4%
Other languages	665	3.6%

Template:Col-end

Attractions

Museum of Fine Arts in February 2022

The Gault Nature Reserve on Mont Saint-Hilaire includes over a thousand hectares of primeval forest. Owned by McGill University, the nature reserve is used for research and recreation.
The Museum of Fine Arts (Le Musée des beaux-arts) of Mont-Saint-Hilaire is the major art museum on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It was founded in 1993 to promote the work of regional artists Jordi Bonet, Paul-Émile Borduas and Ozias Leduc.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Exhibitions also feature art from the area, such as Saint-Hilaire et les Automatistes in 1997, and Leduc, Borduas et le paysage de Saint-Hilaire in 2008, as well as other Quebec artists such as Jean Paul Lemieux and Nancy Petry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Art Station
Art centre Ozias Leduc
Manoir Rouville-Campbell
Saint-Hilaire church

Infrastructure

Mont-Saint-Hilaire is served by the Mont-Saint-Hilaire commuter rail station on the Réseau de transport métropolitain's (RTM) Mont-Saint-Hilaire line. Local bus service is provided by the RTM's Vallée du Richelieu sector.Template:Citation needed

In 1864, Canada's worst rail disaster occurred here when a passenger train passed a red signal and fell off an open swing bridge into the Richelieu River, killing around 99 people.Template:Citation needed

Education

The town is home to 4 primary schools: Au-fil-de-l'eau (659 pupils), de l'Aquarelle (354 pupils) and de la Pommeraie (383 pupils) and Paul-Émile-Borduas. There are also 2 secondary schools, including Ozias-Leduc, with 1,480 students<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Collège Saint-Hilaire, a private high school that receives students from the region.<ref>Collège Saint-Hilaire</ref>

The South Shore Protestant Regional School Board previously served the municipality.<ref>King, M.J. (Chairperson of the board). "South Shore Protestant Regional School Board" (St. Johns, PQ). The News and Eastern Townships Advocate. Volume 119, No. 5. Thursday 16 December 1965. p. 2. Retrieved from Google News on 23 November 2014.</ref>

Notable people

Louis Domingue, ice hockey player most recently for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, football player most recently for the New York Jets of the National Football League
Thomas Bertrand-Hudon, football player for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League

Residential area of rue du Grand Tronc, opposite the Saint-Hilaire train station (QC) in February 2022

Photo gallery

Reception arch in front of the town hall of Saint-Hilaire
View of Mont Saint-Hilaire, the intersection of boulevard Honorius-Charbonneau and rue du Centre-Civique
Mont Saint-Hilaire (Quebec) seen from the train station parking lot in winter 2022.
Wayside cross in Mont-Saint-Hilaire (corner of Chemin des Patriotes and rue de Lisbonne)