Terminal Club (Montreal)

1. Overview

During the 1930s, Saint-Antoine Street, west of downtown Montreal, was one of the city’s principal centres of Black nightlife. Immediately adjacent to Windsor Station and the railway tracks, the district brought together railway porters, workers, musicians, restaurateurs, gamblers and night owls. It was within this environment that the Terminal Club emerged. ^{[1], [4]}

The Terminal, however, was not an entirely new establishment. It was a continuation of the Standard Club, one of the private Black clubs documented in the district as early as the 1910s. Following a violent incident between its co-owners in 1931, the establishment took the name Terminal Club the following year. ^{[7], [8], [9]}

At its height, the Terminal combined music, food, dancing and gambling. Its significance lies above all in its role in the development of an independent Black jazz scene in Montreal, at a time when discrimination still severely limited Black musicians’ access to the city’s major hotels, orchestras and musical institutions. ^{[4], [12]}

2. Faubourg Saint-Antoine and the Black community

The history of the Terminal is inseparable from that of Little Burgundy and the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The proximity of the railway stations encouraged many Black workers from the United States, Nova Scotia and the British West Indies to settle in Montreal. Many worked as railway porters, one of the few occupations then widely accessible to Black men. ^{[2], [4]}

The community developed its own social, religious and cultural institutions. In his 1928 study, Wilfred Emmerson Israel identified three private Black clubs operating on Saint-Antoine between Windsor and Mountain streets: the Utopia Club, the Nemderloc Club and the Standard Club. ^[3]

3. The Standard Club

The Standard Club was founded in 1914. Sources initially place it at 80 Saint-Antoine Street. The establishment later moved within the same district; the addresses and exact chronology of these moves must be interpreted cautiously because of changes in street numbering and conflicting information in the sources. ^{[3], [6]}

Unlike the more spectacular establishments that would later make Saint-Antoine famous, the Standard initially served a neighbourhood social function. Its clientele included workers and railway porters. Patrons could eat, drink coffee, play billiards and socialize with members of the community. ^[3]

Its existence also provided a legal alternative to part of the district’s underground nightlife, which included gambling houses, unlicensed drinking establishments and other businesses operating on the margins of the law. ^[1]

4. The birth of the Terminal Club

The Standard’s history took a dramatic turn in November 1931. A dispute arose between co-owners James B. Harris and Rubin Denis Saunders. The quarrel ended when Saunders shot Harris twice, killing him. The case was covered by the Montreal press and Saunders was subsequently brought to trial. ^{[7], [8]}

In the aftermath of the affair, the Standard was renamed the Terminal Club around 1932. This change marks the beginning of the period for which the establishment is best remembered in Montreal jazz history. ^[9]

5. A club unlike any other

Recollections of the Terminal describe an exuberant, smoky and unpretentious establishment heated by pot-bellied stoves. Despite its modest appearance and colourful reputation, it attracted a varied clientele that could include musicians, gamblers, night owls and relatively affluent visitors. ^{[1], [10]}

According to surviving accounts, different parts of the building hosted different activities: illegal gambling on the third floor, chorus girls on the second, and food on the ground floor, where the fried chicken was said to be particularly renowned. Jazz continued late into the night. ^[12]

Bartender Wilfy Crooks was said to have prepared a house specialty called the Tobago Teaser. The manager known by the nickname Jelly Roll King, described in some accounts as a friend of Duke Ellington, also became part of the club’s legend. ^{[10], [11]}

6. Mynie Sutton and the Canadian Ambassadors

The figure most closely associated with the Terminal is saxophonist Myron “Mynie” Sutton. As leader of the Canadian Ambassadors, Sutton played a central role in the emergence of professional Black jazz in Montreal. His orchestra is often described as one of the first organized Black jazz big bands in Canada. ^{[16], [17]}

The Terminal became one of the orchestra’s home bases when it was not engaged elsewhere. The club’s resources, however, did not always allow it to hire the full band. Sutton therefore led smaller versions of the ensemble, sometimes known as the Swingsters or simply as Mynie Sutton’s orchestra. ^{[12], [16], [17]}

This flexibility helped make the Terminal less a conventional performance venue than a genuine musical laboratory. Musicians met there after their engagements, improvised and exchanged ideas in an environment far less formal than the major downtown hotels and theatres.

7. An after-hours club for musicians

The Terminal’s distinctive character was most apparent after more conventional establishments had closed. The club then became an after-hours spot where activity could continue into the early morning. Musicians who had finished their engagements elsewhere could gather there to listen, play or simply socialize. ^{[10], [18]}

This function partly explains why major figures of American jazz appear in recollections of the venue. A visit or spontaneous participation in a jam session, however, must be distinguished from an official engagement at the Terminal: the surviving testimony does not always establish that the stars mentioned were formally booked to perform there.

8. Celebrities and visiting artists

Mynie Sutton remembered the Terminal as a place where “anything could happen.” His recollections mention the presence of Johnny Hodges, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington. Chorus girls moved among the tables while musicians and patrons carried on into the night. ^{[18], [19]}

After Sutton’s period there, the Will Mastin Trio was also associated with the Terminal. The group then included a very young Sammy Davis Jr., alongside his father Sam Davis Sr. and Will Mastin. ^[10]

These appearances placed the Terminal within a much broader North American network. Montreal was an important stop for touring performers, while the clubs of Saint-Antoine enabled informal encounters between local musicians and American stars.

9. Trouble with the authorities

Like many Montreal nightlife establishments of the period, the Terminal regularly encountered difficulties with the authorities. Archival records include offences involving Sunday dancing and the presentation of shows without a permit. ^{[12], [20]}

In 1936, a more dramatic episode made the news: the club’s manager or doorman was tied up and whisky was stolen. The incident reflects the sometimes turbulent atmosphere surrounding the district’s nightlife establishments. ^[21]

Period accounts also mention fights and, on occasion, gunfire. Columnist Al Palmer notably recounts the story of Finky Joe, who allegedly fired six shots into the Terminal’s ceiling in a fit of jealousy, causing panic among gamblers gathered on the floor above. ^[15]

10. Decline and disappearance

On October 21, 1939, La Patrie published a notice concerning the sale of the Terminal Club’s furnishings. The notice might suggest an immediate closure, but other evidence shows that the establishment’s history did not necessarily end on that date. ^[27]

In June 1940, singer Mae Johnson was still advertised at the Terminal. Other professional references continued to associate performers with the club in the early 1940s. It is therefore safer to conclude that the establishment remained active, or at least continued to be identified as a performance venue, after the 1939 sale of its furnishings. ^[22]

The Terminal disappeared from Lovell’s directories in the early 1940s; it is absent from the 1942 edition. In the absence of a currently known definitive closure announcement, the exact date of its disappearance remains uncertain. A cautious formulation therefore places the end of its activity around 1941–1942. ^[24]

11. Historical significance

The Terminal Club occupies a distinctive place in Montreal’s musical history. Its importance lies not only in the celebrities who may have passed through its doors, but in the everyday role it played for Black Montreal musicians. At a time when professional opportunities remained restricted by discrimination, the Terminal offered a place to work, experiment, meet and extend the night. ^{[4], [26]}

Together with the Utopia, the Nemderloc, and later Rockhead’s Paradise and the Café St-Michel, it belonged to a constellation of venues that transformed the Saint-Antoine district into one of the principal centres of Canadian jazz. This history is intimately connected to Little Burgundy, where several of the musicians who animated these clubs grew up. ^{[3], [25], [26]}

Finally, the Terminal represents a form of nightlife that has largely disappeared: small clubs where the boundaries between audiences, musicians, night workers and touring artists could blur in the early morning hours. Its memory helps us understand how a community confronted with poverty and racism made a decisive contribution to Montreal’s musical identity.