NCC-CCAD

Type: Community, Feasibility Study

Client: Centre pour les Canadien.ne.s Afro-Descendant.e.s

Location: Montreal, Quebec

Status: In Progress

SOCA is working on a feasibility study to imagine new possibilities for the Centre for Canadians of African Descent. Building upon the site’s rich legacy as the location of the former Negro Community Centre / Charles H. Este Cultural Centre (NCC), new program will include galleries, event space, and housing.

The building housing the NCC, located at 2035 rue Coursol, was initially constructed in 1890 as the West End Methodist Church. The NCC, founded at the Union United Church in the 1920s, was an active and significant Community Centre serving the city's Black community. It operated on Rue Coursol from its merger with the Iverley Community Centre in 1955 until 1993. The centre included offices, a gymnasium, a sewing room, a kitchen, a library, and the Walker Credit Union office. The centre, both at this site on Coursol and at its original home, was a hub for the community and supported jazz greats Oscar Peterson, Oliver Jones, and teacher Daisy Sweeney. It initially focused on youth programming and eventually hosted a daycare, summer camps, dance and music lessons, after-school programs, a seniors program, and language courses. After laying dormant for many years, a wall collapsed, and the building was demolished in 2014. The site was subsequently sold by the NCC to a developer, and the site has remained fenced off and vacant ever since. In December of 2022, the City of Montreal purchased the site to return it to a community use.