Rue du Petit Champlain

Rue du Petit-Champlain is identified by its narrow, cobblestone path running directly at the base of the massive cliff beneath the Château Frontenac. Known as the oldest commercial street in North America, this area began in the seventeenth century as a modest trail leading to a fountain. By the eighteen hundreds, it had become a dense, working-class neighborhood for shipyard laborers and their families, eventually falling into such disrepair by the mid-twentieth century that officials once considered clearing the site for a parking lot.