Saint Henri balcony, circa 1850

Montreal is divided up into neighborhoods, which were originally villages that gathered together to compose the city over the years . This picture is taken from the "town" of Saint Henri, in the southwestern part of Montreal. Saint Henri was called at the time "Saint Henri des tanneries". Tanneries is a word meaning leather work. In these shops, leather was being worked on, and this neighborhood was essentially a workers' neighborhood. in 1825, two thirds of the workers are leather workers. Later on , other families and workers were added, and the village of Saint Henri was created. The part of town where these pictures were taken was occupied by families more at ease financially. This type of balcony is very typical and even though the paint has been recently redone, every aspect is the same as it was when the house was built, around 1850-1890.