In 1731 the
Société de Saint-Sulpice (Sulpician Order of priests), a Catholic mission in Quebec, granted the first concession of territory to be apportioned to the
Paroisse Sainte-Geneviève, one of eighteen parishes that occupied, by 1834, the
Island of Montreal. Situated along the north-west shore of the Rivière des Prairies, between Saraguay to the east and
Senneville to the west, it was divided in 1731 into 85 smaller parcels of land, and a chapel was constructed there, on parcel number 67, completed in 1739. Antoine Faucon, parish founder, began registering with parishioners two years later. In 1751 a larger church was constructed and stood until 1847 when it was razed and re-integrated into current structures on the property. A
presbytery was also built in 1830. In 1843, Louis-Marie Lefèvre, the fifth priest of the parish from 1828 to 1872, undertook the promoting of a new church and commissioned
Québécois architect Thomas Baillargé (1791–1859) to begin work on a layout.
Architecture Construction began in 1843 and borrowed heavily from
Neo-classic, Colonial and Spanish revival, using materials that were quarried locally. The facade was finished in
dimension stone and capped off by two silver spires, or flèches, that towered above the ground. In 1868,
Monseigneur Ignace Bourget, bishop of the diocese of Montreal, ordered that two statues, one of
Saint Anne and the other of
Saint Joachim, occupy niches over the main doors.
Interior Between 1844 and 1847, interior work continued, under the creative direction of Victor Bourgeau, by head contractor Felix Barbeau. The main
altar was built by
Ambroise Fournier and the side altars by
Charles Dauphin in 1863. The stained glass windows were created by
O'Shea of Montreal in 1926 and three paintings, situated behind the main altar that depict Sainte-Geneviève, were painted by renowned Quebec artist
Ozias Leduc. The crypt, which lies on a foundation measuring a thickness of , contains the remains of Louis-Marie Lefèvre, church founder, who was laid to rest there in 1972. == Parish ==