===West of
Victoria Square=== West of the original boundaries of Montreal (what is now
Old Montreal), Saint Antoine Street was the main thoroughfare of a suburban area known as Faubourg Saint-Antoine, later Saint-Antoine Ward. ===East of
Victoria Square=== Since 1799, the street was known as
rue des Menuisiers, and the street bordered the land reserved for the city's fortifications between
Saint Laurent Boulevard and
Bleury Street. Following the dismantlement of the fortifications in the first decade of the 19th century, rue des Menuisiers was incorporated as part of a road, wide, that the commissioners built between the new
Place des Commissaires (now known as Victoria Square) in the west, and
Champ de Mars in the east. The road passed above an old river that was converted into a canal after the dismantlement of Montreal's fortifications. From 1817 to August 1976, this street was named
Craig Street, after Sir
James Henry Craig, Governor General of British North America and Lieutenant Governor of
Lower Canada from 1807 to 1811. The street was renamed in 1976 to bear the same name as its western portion (at a time when there was a tendency in Montreal to rename streets after French figures and places). ==Transit==