It was near to this spot, previously crossed by the Saint-Pierre river, that the first European inhabitants of Montreal arrived in 1642.

That hospital for the poor, built between 1692 et 1694, was run at first by the Charon Brothers then, from 1747, by the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, or Grey Nuns, founded by Marie-Marguerite d'Youville.

The Georgian building consisted of two long wings, a Portico entrance on one end and a central section topped with a smaller steeple.

The marché Sainte-Anne was so attractive that the Parliament of the Province of Canada moved into it in 1844, where the representatives of Upper and Lower Canada sat (present-day south Ontario and Quebec); a second market building built in 1844 behind the new Parliament building (and later demolished in 1860) substituted the original role of the old market.

The opening up of rue Saint-Pierre towards the port involved the demolition of their former chapel; only the walls and the remains of old windows are left.