Like many other neighbourhoods in the City of Montreal, Little Burgundy is slowly changing. Cafes and cool bars have emerged on Rue Notre-Dame, a street previously known for its abundance of antique shops. The Corona Theatre, built in 1912, has been revived as a hip and intimate concert venue. The art-deco styled Atwater Market remains a popular year-round farmer's market that delineates the boundaries between Little Burgundy and St. Henri, another historic working-class neighbourhood. However, one staple building has not survived. The demolition of the Negro Community Center in late November was disheartening to many members of the black community, leaving them to wonder what the next step will be.   

Little Burgundy was a working class neighbourhood for many black workers who found jobs on the nearby Canadian Pacific Railway yards and the Steel Company of Canada. Lively in the first half of the twentieth century with a booming jazz scene, the construction of the Ville-Marie Expressway isolated and razed part of the neighbourhood during the urban renewal efforts of the sixties.

The building was constructed in 1890 serving first as a Methodist church before changing hands in 1929. The building became the Iverley Settlement House and was used to house immigrants and less affluent families. As social needs changed, the Negro Community Center then took over the building in 1955. However, its original foundation lay with eleven members of the Union United Church congregation back in 1927. They wanted to "improve the social and economic conditions of the black community in Montreal." In the new building they were able to offer a daycare, a theatre, a gym, a lunchroom and a music school, thus serving as a hub of activities for the black community until the 1980s.

In 1987, a part of the wall collapsed and little regard was made for its proper restoration. The center finally closed down in 1989 and the building was left to deteriorate. Last April, a wall on its eastern side collapsed, seemingly damaging the building beyond repair. The NCC finally declared bankruptcy in June. The borough did try to stop the demolition, recognizing the community's connection to the building. However, it was ruled on November 18th that the building had already lost 50 per cent of its heritage value due to fire, decline and sloppy repairs, and that demolition was the only reasonable course of action, as was originally requested by the developer.

Prior to this, a $6.5-million business plan had been laid out by the NCC's board of directors in 2007, but lack of funding never let this vision rise off the ground. According to President Shirley Gyles, the lobby would have led to a small museum on black history. The second floor would be reserved for a dance studio and a music room. The third floor, which was once home to a basketball court, would be turned into a banquet hall.

Dorothy Williams, a historian and former Executive Director of the NCC, concludes that the recent events are simply a product of time. Only with more waiting will we find out what the new developers have in store for the site. Sold to condo developer Paul Sen Chher for $300,000, the site remains zoned as educational-constitutional. Even abandoned and slowly deteriorating, the commanding shell of the structure served as a physical reminder of past glories and a rich heritage out of which other community organizations were able to blossom.

How does your city treat historically significant buildings left unoccupied? How does your community preserve its history? Share your city's stories in the comments below.

Credits: Images by Caitlin Dixon. Data linked to sources.