The question, which was simple in the first place,
and consisted in the conversion of the wheat market into a commercial
exchange, became complicated by a project of enlarging the markets. It
therefore became necessary to take possession, on the one hand, of
sixty seven estates, of a total area of 116,715 square feet, to clear
the exchange, and, on the other, of 49,965 square feet to clear the
central markets. In other words, out of $5,000,000 voted by the common
council for this work, $2,800,000 are devoted to the dispossessions
necessitated by the new exchange, $1,800,000 to those necessitated by
the markets, and $400,000 are appropriated to the wheat market.
The work of demolition began last spring, and the odd number side of
Orleans street, Deux-Ecus street, from this latter to J.J. Rousseau
street, Babille street, Mercier street, and Sortine street, now no
longer exist. All this part is to-day but a desert, in whose center
stands the iron trussing of the wheat market cupola. It is on these
grounds that will be laid out the prolongation of Louvre street in a
straight line to Coquilliere street.
Our engraving shows the present state of the work. What is seen of the
wheat market will be preserved and utilized by Mr. Blondeau, the
architect, who has obtained a grant from the commercial exchange to
construct two edifices on two plots of an area of 32,220 square feet,
fronting on Louvre street, and which will bring the city an annual
rent of $60,000.
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