Memories of the Forum – Saint Catherine Street at Atwater, Montréal, Québec

This mural decorates an out-of-the-way corner of the former Montreal Forum.

Located at the northeast corner of Atwater and Saint Catherine West, the Montreal Forum (French: Le Forum de Montréal) has been called "the most storied building in hockey history." It was the home of the National Hockey League’s Montreal Maroons from 1924 to 1938 and the Montreal Canadiens from 1926 to 1996. The building was home to 24 Stanley Cup championships (22 of the Canadiens and two of the Montreal Maroons, for whom the arena was originally built). It was also home to the Montreal Roadrunners and Montreal Junior Canadiens.

The Forum also hosted other sports, including indoor soccer, boxing and tennis. The Forum was a site of five events in the 1976 Summer Olympics: gymnastics, handball (final), basketball (final), volleyball (final), and boxing (final). The gymnastics event included Nadia Comaneci’s famous perfect 10, the first in Olympic history. The Forum was the site of many major professional wrestling matches, as shown in the 1961 National Film Board of Canada documentary Wrestling (La Lutte).

On March 11, 1996, the Montreal Canadiens played their last game at the Forum. After the game, many previous hockey greats were presented to the crowd, most notably Maurice Richard (said to be the Canadiens’ most beloved player of all time), who received a sixteen-minute standing ovation from the crowd as he broke down in tears. A symbolic torch – representative of a line quoted from the poem In Flanders Fields, "To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high," displayed in the Forum’s home dressing room – was carried by Emile Bouchard out of the Canadiens dressing room to the playing surface. The flaming torch was passed on to each of the former Canadiens captains (Jean Beliveau, Yvan Cournoyer, Henri Richard, Serge Savard, Bob Gainey, and Guy Carbonneau), and finally to the then-current captain Pierre Turgeon. The next day, a parade was organized in which the torch was carried down the route to the Molson Centre (which has since been renamed the Bell Centre).

After the Canadiens left the Forum, the building was completely gutted and converted into a downtown entertainment centre called the Pepsi Forum, consisting of a multiplex theatre, shops and restaurants. Centre ice has been recreated in the centre of the complex complete with a small section of the grandstand, along with a statue of a fan leaning forward in delight, while original seats are used as benches throughout the complex. A statue of Maurice Richard can be found next to the grandstand. On the Saint Catherine Street entrance there is a Quebec Walk of Fame consisting of Richard and Celine Dion. Both were on hand for their bronze star’s respective unveiling. The Atwater street entrance has a large bronze Montreal Canadiens logo surrounded by 24 bronze Stanley Cup banners cemented into the sidewalk. Inscribed in French are the words "forever proud." The entire building is themed after the Forum’s storied history with special emphasis on the Montreal Canadiens. The building was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1997