At the time of Montreal's founding in 1642 most of the land stretching past Mount Royal to the northwest was a vast forest running the length of a long, narrow ridge known as the Saint Jacques Escarpment.

The cityscape and history of the community is rooted firmly in NDG's role as a home for an upwardly-mobile French Canadian middle class that developed much of the land roughly between Confederation and the First World War.

[citation needed] The neighbourhood is characterized by traditional Montreal housing styles[citation needed] - notably the detached or semidetached duplex - as well as being organized along the historic land division system developed by for agricultural purposes during Quebec's colonial period (i.e. long, rectangular city blocks running perpendicular to a river or ridge).

The eastern ward is focused around the parish church at the intersection of Décarie and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce avenue, with many of the neighbourhood's oldest buildings being found nearby.

Owing to its history, the eastern ward is primarily francophone, middle class and has a strong French and Quebecois cultural and aesthetic character.

The western ward developed during the interwar and post-WW2 era and is more varied in terms of housing styles, income levels, cultural representation and spoken languages.

Affordable housing and proximity to major anglophone post-secondary educational institutions, particularly Dawson College and Concordia University, has resulted in a large and consistent student population residing in NDG.

[6] In recent years, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce has developed into a highly desirable neighbourhood for young professionals, though little gentrification has occurred outside of the Monkland Village.

Geographically NDG is situated on a long plateau extending southwest from Mount Royal, cascading in wide terraces down from Côte-Saint-Luc Road (côte being the French word for ridge) towards the far steeper Saint-Jacques Escarpment.

An important housing project is situated near the geographical centre of NDG on Cavendish Boulevard, which bisects the borough into its eastern and western halves.

As an example, the sliver of NDG running between the rail line and the Saint-Jacques Escarpment (from Cavendish Boulevard to the Décarie Expressway) is known as St. Raymond's and has a strong association with Montreal's Italian community.

NDG first rose to prominence as an important middle-class suburb towards the end of the 19th century, initially populated by the (then) new white-collar workforce of the Canadian metropolis and accessible via tramways running to and from the city centre.

As widespread suburbanization developed in the post-WW2 period, NDG became home to successive waves of immigrants, first from Eastern Europe (including a sizeable Jewish population), then from the Caribbean, and more recently from Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

The multitude of services, including parks and other green spaces, schools, clinics, and major institutions, make it an ideal neighbourhood to raise a family close to the centre of the city of Montreal and its Central Business District.

Additionally, NDG is well-served by public transit, including numerous bus lines, two Métro, and two commuter train stations, allowing the area to be one of the most 'walkable' in the entire city.

Founded in 2011, the senior men's side featured in the provincial finals in 2011, losing to Westmount in the semi-final, and again in 2012 winning the Division C league and Cup.

The orange line of Montreal's Metro runs through the borough, following the Décarie Expressway with Villa Maria and Vendôme located on the eastern side of the autoroute trench.