page_title: Timeline of Montreal history
section_title: 1880–1900
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of Montreal history / 19th century / 1880–1900
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Monument à Maisonneuve, Place d'Armes, Montréal.
context_page_description: The timeline of the history of Montreal is a chronology of significant events in the history of Montreal, Canada's second-most populated city, with about 3.5 million residents in 2018, and the fourth-largest French-speaking city in the world.
context_section_description: 1881 – Mark Twain visits in November, remarks that "this is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window."
  1882 – Redpath Museum established.
  1882 – Opening of the Montreal-Sorel railway.
  1882 – Montreal has its first electric lighting.
  1883 – First winter carnival in Montreal.
  1883–1985 – Montreal Locomotive Works opens.
  1883–84 – Dalhousie train station is built.
  1884–1933 – Montreal Hockey Club established.
  1884 – First issue of the newspaper La Presse.
  1884–1920 – Mount Royal Funicular Railway brings sightseers to the top of Mount Royal.
  1885 – Last Spike (Canadian Pacific Railway) on November 7.
  1885 – The Fraser-Hickson Library opened.
  1885 – Saint-Joachim de Pointe-Claire completed.
  1885 – A smallpox epidemic in February kills 3,164 Montrealers (out of over 150,000 inhabitants).
  1885–86 – Massive flooding and fires recorded in Griffintown.
  1886 – First Trans Canada train departure on June 28.
  1886 – On July 4, the first scheduled Canadian Pacific Railway transcontinental passenger train reaches Vancouver, after travelling for five days, 19 hours.
  1886 – Worst flooding recorded – also two major fires.
  1886 – Dominion Bridge Company founded.
  1887–1889 – Windsor Station (Montreal) built.
  1888 – Lafontaine Park created.
  1888 – Mont-Saint-Louis College is founded.
  1889 – Saint James United Church (Montreal) built in June.
  1890 – Sanctuaire du Saint-Sacrement built.
  1891–94 – Monument-National built.
  1892 – April 3 – Bonsecours Market sustains its fourth serious fire. The uninsured loss is $20,000.
  1892 – The era of public transportation in Montreal begins with the inauguration of the electric tram. The trams constitute a practical way to get from one end of the city to the other, especially for workers.
  1893 – Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal established.
  1893 – The Montreal Hockey Club is the first hockey team to win the newly donated Stanley Cup.
  1893 – Jacques Cartier Monument unveiled.
  1894 – Pioneers Monument Obelisk (Montreal) unveiled on May 17.
  1894 – Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral consecrated.
  1895 – The monument in memory of Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, by artist Louis-Philippe Hébert, was unveiled on July 1 on Place d'Armes.
  1896 – Motion pictures are first shown in Canada for the first time at the Palace Theatre at 972 St. Lawrence, corner Viger, on June 27.
  1897 – Lion of Belfort (Montreal) unveiled on May 24.
  1897 – A survey of living conditions is conducted by Mr. Herbert Brown Ames. He points out the discrepancy in living conditions between wealthy areas of Montreal ('the upper city') and the areas inhabited by the working class ('the city below the hill'): "The sanitary accommodation of 'the city below the hill' is a disgrace to any nineteenth century city on this or any other continent. I presume there is hardly a house in all the upper city without modern plumbing, and yet in the lower city not less than half the homes have indoor water-closet privileges. In Griffintown only one home in four is suitably equipped, beyond the canal (in Pointe-Saint-Charles) it is but little better. Our city by-law prohibits the erection of further out-door closets, but it contains no provision for eradicating those already in use."
  1897 – Canadian Car and Foundry's history goes back to 1897, but the main company is established in 1909 from an amalgamation of several companies and later becomes part of Hawker Siddeley Canada through the purchase of Avro Canada in the late 1950s.
  1898 – Place Viger constructed.
  1898 – Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal founded on June 1.
  1898–1903 – Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church built.
  1899 – The Montreal Shamrocks win the Stanley Cup.
  1899 – Incorporation of Loyola College on March 10.
  1899 – October 30 – The First Canadian Contingent of the Boer War sets sail to South Africa on the SS Sardinian of the Allan Line, bearing Canada's initial quota of fighting men, including the men of "E Company" of Montreal.
  1899 – In the afternoon of November 21, Montrealers see their first car. At the wheel of this first steam-powered automobile
caption: Monument Maisonneuve
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