Notre-Dame-de-Grâce

Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, also nicknamed NDG, is a residential neighbourhood of Montreal located in the city's West End. An independent municipality until annexed by the City of Montreal in 1913, NDG is today one half of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. It comprises two wards, that of Loyola to the west and Notre-Dame-de-Grace to the east. NDG is bordered by four independent enclaves; its eastern border is shared with the city of Westmount, Quebec, whereas to the north and west it is bordered by the towns of Montreal West, Hampstead and Cote St. Luc. In 2013, it had a population of 66,495. NDG plays a pivotal role in serving as the commercial and cultural hub for Montreal's predominantly Anglophone West End, with Sherbrooke Street West running the length of the community and providing the principal commercial artery. The community is roughly bounded by Grey Avenue and the Decarie Expressway to the east, Chemin-de-la-Cote-St-Luc to the north, Connaught Avenue in the west and highway 20 and the Falaise-St-Jacques to the south.HistoryAt the time of Montreal's founding in 1642 most of the land stretching past Mount Royal to the northwest would have been a vast forest running the length of a long, narrow ridge known as the Saint Jacques Escarpment. The area that was to become Notre-Dame-de-Grace was founded along that ridge, near a since-drained Lac St. Pierre. The first Europeans to settle in the area did so eight years after the founding of the colony of Ville Marie, on November 18, 1650. They were Jean Descarries (or Descaris) dit le Houx and Jean Leduc, originating in Igé, Perche, France.