Longueuil

History

The territory of New France was divided into seigneuries in order to ensure the colony's defence. Longueuil was founded in 1657 by Charles Le Moyne, a merchant from Ville-Marie (present day Montreal), as a seigneurie. According to Abbé Faillon, Charles Le Moyne, lord of the area starting in 1657, named Longueuil after the village of Longueil (note slightly different spelling) which is today the seat of a canton in the district of Dieppe in his homeland of Normandy. His son, Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil, built Fort Longueuil as his fortified residence. It was constructed of stone between 1685 and 1690 and had four towers. Fort Longueuil was believed to be occupied by American troops during the American Revolutionary War. It was subsequently occupied by the British. It was demolished in 1810 due to its poor condition. The archaeological remains of Fort Longueuil were recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada on May 25, 1923. The site extends beneath the present-day Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue Cathedral. The seigneurial system ended in 1845 and Longueuil was turned into a parish municipality named Saint-Antoine-de-Longueuil. In 1848, a portion detached from the parish and officially established as the village of Longueuil. This same village became a town in 1874, and then a city in 1920. Musician Paul Pratt notably served as the city's mayor from 1935 to 1966. Longueuil's city limits expanded for the first time in 1961 when it merged with Montréal-Sud, and again in 1969 when it merged with Ville Jacques-Cartier. In both cases, Longueuil was chosen as the name of the new city. On January 1, 2002, as part of the 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec, the provincial government amalgamated the former Longueuil with Boucherville, Brossard, Greenfield Park,…

Geography

Longueuil occupies 115.59 square kilometres (44.6 sq mi) of land. The city is bordered by the cities of Saint-Lambert to the west, Brossard to the southwest, Boucherville to the northeast, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville to the east, and the Saint Lawrence River and Montreal to the northwest. The city of Longueuil is located approximately 7 kilometres (5 mi) east of Montreal on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Longueuil is located in the Saint Lawrence River valley, and is a vast plain. Areas near the river were originally swamp land with mixed forest, and later prime agricultural land. Agricultural land still exists in the portions of the city furthest from the river. The city of Longueuil also includes Île Charron, a small island in the Saint Lawrence River, and part of the Boucherville Islands. Street addresses in Longueuil increase west and east from the Chemin de Chambly, with suffixes of "Ouest" and "Est" used on east–west streets that cross it, and south from the Saint Lawrence River. (As in Montreal, the local cardinal directions are skewed to align with the shore of the river, and local grid "north" is closer to geographic northwest.) Like Montreal, Longueuil is classified as humid continental or hemiboreal (Köppen climate classification Dfb). Longueuil has long winters, lasting from November to March, short springs during April and May, average summers, lasting from June to August, and short autumns during September and October.

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  93,711
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  89,249
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  80,330
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  76,821
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  68,150
• Ring-billed Gull

  Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 · Aves
  67,869
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  65,102
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  64,239

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2025-10-14
  4 km NNW of Chazy, New York
• M 2.6 — 2024-10-02
  7 km ENE of Chertsey, Canada
• M 3.8 — 2024-09-01
  5 km SE of Pierreville, Canada
• M 2.8 — 2024-07-29
  11 km SSW of Sainte-Martine, Canada
• M 2.5 — 2024-06-05
  10 km S of Franklin, Canada
• M 3.1 — 2024-02-01
  6 km WNW of Huntingdon, Canada