A city transformed: manufacturing districts and suburban growth in Montreal, 1850-1929

This paper examines the development of Montreal's industrial geography betw een 1850 and 1929 It is argued that a decisive feature of the evolution of the city's industrial and social landscape was the emergence of industrial districts on the moving urban frontier. The formation of new suburban distr icts and the reorganization of existing industrial districts were part of a developing urban spatial division of manufacturing. Three critical feature s underlay the restructuring of Montreal's industrial geography after 1850. Waves of industrial expansion and the development of a range of production trajectories altered the parameters of location within the city. Working-c lass suburbanization provided the requisite labour force for firms locating on the periphery. Local political and economic alliances created the physi cal, ideological and legal structures for suburban industrial growth and th e rearrangement of the urban fabric. (C) 2001 Academic Press.