Lighting our streets at night is not a modern nor even a 20th century phenomenon. Different types of lighting have been used since the late 18th century.
For example, the first lamps in Montréal burned whale oil. They were somewhat smelly and the light they provided was not very bright. So in the early 19th century, they were replaced by lamps which burned kerosene. These gave a much better light but they also tended to give off a strong smell not to mention being a bit dangerous.
 The date November 23rd, 1837, was a landmark in Montréal’s history because that was the day that gas lamps were seen in the city for the first time. The previous year, the city’s first gas company had been founded by a group of businessmen including architect John Ostell (who designed the Old Customs House on Place Royale, among other things). At first, people had to subscribe to the service so it was mainly stores which put the new lights up in front of their entrances to attract customers.
Here Comes the Lamplighter!
Later, gas lamps were placed along the streets. They had to be lit manually each night by a lamplighter and extinguished every morning in the same way. This became such a regular process that people were able to reset their clocks at the moment of the lamplighter’s passage even though this time varied a little winter to summer. Gas lighting remained very popular even after the advent of electricity. A hundred years ago in 1908, for example, fully a third of Montréal’s street lamps were still lit by gas.
Electric Lamps were Considered Bad for the Complexion!
The idea of electric street lights came from the Paris World Fair of 1878 when the arc lamp or electric candle made its debut. One year later in 1879, this new and powerful form of lighting was demonstrated in Montréal on the Champ de Mars. It took a few years to catch on but on July 17th, 1886, the streets of Montréal were lit up for the first time with arc lamps. Not everyone liked them. Some people found them too bright! And the gas company mounted a campaign against them saying, among other things, that they were detrimental to women’s complexions! But electric lights were here to stay.
Many of the streets of Old Montréal now have charming lamps along them in the style of the old gas ones but containing electric bulbs. If you look at them carefully, you will note a bar placed under the lantern. On the old gas lamps, this was to support the end of the lamplighter’s ladder when he climbed up either to light or to extinguish them.
Gas Lamps in Old Montréal Today
Did you know that there are actually some functioning gas lamps in Old Montréal today? They can be seen along rue Sainte-Hélène, a remarkable short street which connects rue Notre-Dame to rue Le Moyne. It is lined with a collection of grey stone buildings built 1858-71 in styles inspired by Italian Renaissance palaces. Unmistakably Victorian, they are however quite unique as an ensemble.
Ten years ago in 1998, Gaz Métropolitain installed twenty-two lamp standards along this thoroughfare to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the use of natural gas in their network. Each lamp is equipped with four gas burners. But, since the occupation of lamp-lighting has gone by the board, the lamps burn all the time, night and day. The choice of rue Sainte-Hélène for this experiment was particularly fortuitous because the architecture and size of the street means that the atmosphere of the 19th century has been quite successfully recreated. The soft warmth of the gas lights at night really shows off the street to advantage, and who knows, maybe it’s better for the complexion!
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