19th-century cemetery unearthed on Ren-Lvesque opens 'small window' into Montreal history

Long before Ren-Lvesque Boulevard became one of Montreal's busiest streets, it was home to a Protestant burial ground where some of the city's early Scottish settlers paid tribute to their dead.

Hydro-Qubecworkers installing a new electrical line recentlyuncovered40 skeletons at the site of the old cemetery, which wassituated between what is nowJeanne-Mance and St.Urbainstreets.

Two of the skeletons were found intact, protected by what remained of their wooden coffins,saidAndr Burroughs, an archeologist with Hydro-Qubec.

"It's a small window we're opening on Montreal history," he said in an interview."It gives us an idea of how the city developed."

The cemetery was in use between1799 and the middle of the 19th century. At the time, the area was a suburb of Montreal; what is now Old Montreal was the original city centre.

This one-time suburb is now home totowering sky scrapers, a far cry from the homes,small shops and dirt roads of that period.

Both civilians and military personnel were buried at the site, which ran along what used to be Dorchester Street.

JamesMcGill,a Scotland-bornbusinessman and philanthropist best known as the founder ofMcGillUniversity,was among those laid to rest at the cemetery.

His bones were later moved to the front of the Arts Building on the campus of the university that bears his name.

In 1854,the cemeterywasturned into a parkcalled Dufferin Square,and families were given the option of relocating the remains of their loved ones to the cemetery on Mount Royal, Burroughs said.

Not everyone took up the offer, perhaps because they couldn't afford to, he said.

After studying old city maps before undertaking the project,Burroughssaid,Hydro-Qubec was aware it would be digging at the site of aburial ground.

But finding the skeletons some of whichwere close to the surface was a profound experience for the archeologist.

"We always talk about clay pipes and bottles being found, but when you have skeletons it's different," he said.

The skeletons have been excavatedandare being analyzed by a team of archeologists hired byHydro-Qubec, Burroughs said.

Old cemeteries have been discovered under Montreal's streets before, including during construction at Place du Canada in 2012.

Last summer, the remains of an 18th-century village were foundat the site of the new Turcot Interchange.