When the old city wall existed,  Saint-Jean was located just west of the Port Saint Louis. Until the early 19th century Saint-Jean-Baptiste was sparsely populated in a semi-rural setting. The neighborhood was also caught up in the Second major Quebec Fire in 1845, which is why buildings before the mid 19th century are pretty limited.

This is arguable Quebec’s City best urban district outside of Vieux Quebec. There is an excellent urban business district that runs along several blocks of Rue Saint-Jean and the iconic restaurant district along Grande Allee with its gorgeous late 19th century rowhouses. Mixture of great 19th century architecture and some quality urban infill. Grande Allee is another great street with stunning rowhouses and Quebec’s iconic restaurant row. Boulevard Honoré-Mercier hosts most  Quebec City’s downtown buildings along Saint-Jean-Baptiste’s eastern edge. The neighborhood  also hosts great park amenities, a wonderful array of retail and cultural amenities, good amount of moderately priced housing options and sits on the western border of Vieux Quebec City. Some minor areas for improvements that would allow Saint-Jean-Baptiste to become a top notch urban district including more vibrancy along the wide and often cold Bd rene-Levesque, modern ADA curb cuts, and more bike lanes.

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URBAN STRENGTHS:“

• Grande Allee is another great street with stunning rowhouses and Quebec’s iconic restaurant row.
• Excellent urban business district that runs along several blocks of Rue Saint-Jean. Mixture of great 19th century architecture and some quality urban infill.
• Boulevard Honoré-Mercier hosts most of Quebec City’s downtown buildings.
• Great array of historic architecture from all decades of the 19th century.
• Decent tree canopy.
• Good park access including lots of small and medium parks and the expansive Plains of Abraham.
• For-sale housing is very reasonably priced with 1-bed selling btwn 100K-350K. 2-beds btwn 200K-750K. 3 & 4 beds 300K-900K.
• Great array of restaurants, cafes, & bars. Other cultural amenities include a couple community theaters, the Grand Theatre de Quebe where the Symphony plays, and several night clubs & live music venues.
• Great retail amenities too including several book stores, plenty of gift stores, boutiques/clothing stores, lots of grocerias, a couple drug stores, tons of banks and lots of other interest stores.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Bd René-Lévesque is very wide although architecture while urban contains some uglier mid-century bldgs. Lots of gov’t buildings here with large grassy set backs that hurts vibrancy on the street.
* Curbs are generally not up to modern ADA standards.
* Rent is a  bit pricy.
* Only a handful of bike lanes.