Overdale was a small residential district in downtown Montreal that became a famous symbol of the struggle between urban conservationists and land developers.

Doré had promised to change the demolitionist ways of his predecessor, Mayor Jean Drapeau, but when developers promised a project that would yield significant municipal tax dollars, Doré decided to allow the project to evict the tenants of the homes and demolish buildings that housed 87 residents.

The buildings to be demolished included many fine, Victorian-era structures as well as the onetime home of Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine.

argued that the terrain was large enough to allow for the construction of the new project alongside the existing structures, yet the appeals were rejected.

In spite of protests and arrests and considerable public reaction in opposition to the planned project and the methods employed to evict the tenants, the buildings, except for the onetime home of Lafontaine, were demolished in 1989.

This is a chronological summary of the events that involved in the Overdale controversy, based on the notes of architect Michael Fish.

m. The Canadian census tract covering this block of houses notes that the median income of the households is $8,000 per annum.

Together with a source close to the Doré group, Cameron Charlebois, Cohen and Landau ask the newly elected executive committee member, John Gardiner, for rezonings on the block for a massive redevelopment.

The city agree to pay all mortgages of these buildings estimated to amount to at least $1.25 million, and contribute temporary subsidies to the rents for displaced residents of up to $135,000.

July: Residents point out that the rents offered to most of them are 40% higher in the new buildings and that the subsidies slide down to nothing in the fourth year.

Public comment in major media, newspapers, radio, and television go strongly, even rabidly against the residents in support of the vity and the developers.

Architect Michael Fish is asked by the residents to study the possibility of staying in their homes, purchasing them for their market worth and helping increase the profitability of the developers plans.

The historic value of the building is enhanced by the facts that Lafontaine later served as the first prime minister of the United Canadas from 1848 to 1851.

The City Council votes against the almost-unanimous report of its own committee and accepts the development plan worked out by Gardiner.

Delegates vote to maintain the program of the party, which calls for the integration of buildings and residents into new developments except when such is cost prohibitive.

January 13: Hearings open before the Commission d'arbitrage sur la démolition du patrimoine résidentiel de Montreal to decide the question of whether the Kinkora-Cadillac apartments and the Kinkora St. greystone buildings are to be demolished.

March 16: A Superior Court Judge orders work stopped for a period of 10 days while the issue can be sorted out.

[5] April: Cohen and Landau are issued permits by the city to convert all buildings that will be ordered preserved by the Commission d'arbitrage from residences to commercial and offices.

The permission documents note that the Lafontaine house, with its stone extension, and the Mackay Street row will become a community centre with a fitness club and offices.

The federal Minister of housing, McInnes announces a 100% increase in the number of very low income residents who can live in a nonprofit co-op.

June: The coop offers $700,000 for the buildings again, almost twice what was paid for their value as condos by Landau and Cohen, leaving the surplus land development rights for the whole block.

A letter written by the mayor and Gardiner supports the co-op application to senior governments as a part of the condo development.

June 28: Six more residents and their supporters are arrested by the police for blocking city movers from the buildings and are evacuated force.

July: Residents continue to try to persuade Landau, Cohen, and Doré to sell their home for a 100% profit to their co-op as part of the condo development.

All that remain are three facades on Mackay Street, the Lafontaine house, its grey stone extension, and three brick triplexes fronting on Overdale.

All have been gutted for offices that never materialize, the whole of the rest of the city block is covered with gravel, and a parking lot operates ever since.

June: Fish asks Mayor Gérald Tremblay to step in and at least to homologate the property around the Lafontaine House immediately.

Jean Francois Lisée, Jacques Monet, and other noted historians urge the classification of the building by the province in local newspapers.

They invoke the crucial historic importance of Lafontaine to Canada and to the survival of French speaking people in North America.