How the Atwater Market fed Montreal through depression and renewal

Built during the leanest years of the Great Depression, Atwater Market was always meant to be more than a place to buy food.

When it opened its doors in 1933, it was pitched as a civic marvel: modern, hygienic, and forward-looking. A million-dollar investment by the City of Montreal, the Art Deco building was part social infrastructure, part economic stimulus.

The market took its name from Edwin Atwater, a 19th-century businessman and alderman, and replaced the old St. Antoine Market a few blocks east. Designed by father-son architects Ludger and Paul Lemieux, it featured a refrigerated interior, public weighing scales, and a third-floor hall big enough to hold 10,000 people. Over the decades, it hosted political rallies, wrestling matches, WWII food stockpiles, and a campaign against conscription that drew crowds of 20,000.