Like a sentinel posted high atop a commercial building at one of the most strategic intersections in Montreal's West End, the Reitmans sign at the corner of Queen Mary Road and Decarie Boulevard in Snowdon has witnessed a lot of history in the half-century or so it has been there.
Like an identical green neon advertisement that can be seen atop another building at the corner of Somerled Avenue and Cavendish Boulevard in Notre Dame de Grâce, the signs (mounted on aging steel scaffolding) attest to an era when the well-known Canadian women's wear chain had many more stand-alone stores in local business districts, on streets like Queen Mary and Somerled, rather than in malls and shopping centres as is now more the case.
From the 1950s into the 1980s, Reitmans occupied a large space on Somerled, next to where the Toronto Dominion Bank branch is still located to this day. Likewise, the retailer had a store on Queen Mary, which was once a thriving area for men's and women's clothing businesses. While Reitmans is no longer present in these areas, the company's green neon signs remain a reminder to many of the company's historic attachment to the West End.
The Reitmans signs
The Reitmans signs
-
Published on
March 13, 2009
- Published on February 12, 2010
-
Martin C.
Second in a series on West End landmarks
- Rate
- Top of the page
