In 1974, a covered open-air shopping mall was built at a cost of $5 million to revitalize the Saint-Joseph Street commercial artery. Stretching from Du Pont Street to De la Couronne Street, it offered a kilometre of weather-protected shopping downtown. It thus emulated the very popular suburban shopping malls that were stiff competition for downtown businesses.

1974 - 2012

Decline and revitalization of the downtown Saint-Roch district

The Saint-Roch district in downtown Québec City faced the same destiny as many other North American urban centres. At the end of the 1960s, the commercial artery in the Saint-Roch district gradually emptied as new shopping centres sprung up in the suburbs. To counter the decline of this downtown area, an open-air mall, the Mail Saint-Roch, was inaugurated in 1968 on Saint-Joseph Street. In 1974, more than a kilometre of the mall was covered with a roof. However, popular preference for suburban shopping soon made the area obsolete. In the 1990s and 2000s, a new effort of innovative architectural and social initiatives was made to revitalize this neglected downtown area.

Exterior view of the Mail Saint-Roch roof

Auteur inconnu In 1974, a covered open-air shopping mall was built at a cost of $5 million to revitalize the Saint-Joseph Street commercial artery. Stretching from Du Pont Street to De la Couronne Street, it offered a kilometre of weather-protected shopping downtown. It thus emulated the very popular suburban shopping malls that were stiff competition for downtown businesses.

Chronoscope Can you locate where this photo was taken? (unilingual French for a limited time)

Depicted period: 1974

OPEN