Montreal City Hall, City hall in Old Montreal, Canada
Montreal City Hall is a five-story Second Empire building at 275 Notre-Dame Street East, between Place Jacques-Cartier and Champ de Mars. Architects Henri-Maurice Perrault and Alexander Cowper Hutchison designed it with symmetrical stone facades and a copper mansard roof, rebuilt after 1922 in a Beaux-Arts version modeled on the city hall of Tours.
Construction began in 1872 under architects Henri-Maurice Perrault and Alexander Cowper Hutchison and was completed in 1878. A fire on 3 March 1922 gutted the interior, sparing the outer walls and the room holding the city archives. Louis Parant rebuilt it with a steel frame inside the shell, modelled on the city hall of Tours, and it reopened on 15 February 1926.
The building serves as a gathering place where Montrealers connect with their city's governance and public life. Inside, exhibition spaces tell the story of how municipal decisions shaped the neighborhoods and communities we see today.
The building sits directly on Notre-Dame Street in the heart of Old Montreal and is easy to reach on foot. You can admire the exterior anytime, and it's worth asking locally about current access to interior exhibitions or viewing opportunities.
The 1922 fire destroyed the interior but spared the room holding the city archives, so Montreal's records survived. Rebuilt inside the old walls, the hall was modelled on the city hall of Tours, France, and reopened on February 15, 1926.
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