Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, Quebec


Saint-Joseph-du-Lac is a municipality in the Laurentides region of Quebec, Canada, part of the Deux-Montagnes Regional County Municipality.

History

The territory of the municipality of Saint-Joseph-du-Lac was part of the Lac des Deux-Montagnes Seigneury for over a hundred years. This seigneury was granted on October 17, 1717, to the Sulpician Order of the Ecclesiastical Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, who already were lords of the Island of Montreal. In 1783, the Sulpicians signed a total of 25 concessions. Over the next ten years, from 1782 to 1793, 81 lands on the Saint-Joseph side were granted to settlers. In 1803, Côte Saint-Joseph Road was extended northward to allow settlers to travel to Saint-Benoît.
Around 1850, the inhabitants of the Saint-Joseph Concession started the process to obtain a parish, which was formally established in 1853. Two years later on July 1, 1855, the Parish Municipality of Saint-Joseph was formed. It extended over a length of from Lake of Two Mountains to the limits of Saint-Benoît Parish, and a width of. The population at that time was 1020 people in about 180 families.
In 1856, the post office opened, being identified as Saint-Joseph-du-Lac in order to distinguish it from the many other locations called Saint-Joseph. In time this name also came to be used for the entire municipality.
In 1953, the southern portion of the municipality along Lake of Two Mountains separated from Saint-Joseph-du-Lac and became the Village Municipality of Pointe-Calumet.
In the 1970s, Autoroute 640 was built through Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, putting economic pressure on the municipality. This led to new housing developments for Montreal commuters and a noticeable growth in population that had previously been stable for nearly 80 years. During the following two decades, several more new developments were built, including the Paquin, Brunet, and Parc Sectors.

Transportation

Saint-Joseph-du-Lac is served on Highway 344 by circuits 80 and 81 of the Exo Laurentides sector out of Terminus Saint-Eustache by way of the Deux-Montagnes station. The other end for both circuits is in Pointe-Calumet

Demographics

Population trend:
Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 2268
Mother tongue:
The Commission scolaire de la Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles operates Francophone public schools.
Secondary students are zoned to École secondaire d'Oka in Oka.
The Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board is the area English school board. Several Anglophone schools in Deux-Montagnes serve this community: Mountainview Elementary School, Saint Jude Elementary School, and Lake of Two Mountains High School.