The Story of a wrong name – Montreal Daily Witness Jan 31, 1890
A city surveyor put in two superfluous letters.
“How do we come to have a ‘Carleton’ road and a ‘Dorchester’ street, or two throughfares named after one man?” was asked a Road Department official.
“There’s a little story connected with that,” was the reply. “A former Deputy City Surveyor at the request of Sir William Dawson was instructed to call the new road at the reservoir ‘Calton,’ after the Calton Hill beside Edinburgh. In the plans we wrote it ‘Carleton,’ and as such was approved by the court and could not be altered when the mistake was discovered. It is likely that a movement will be made to change this name also along with that of Pine avenue.”
(Ed’s note: Guy Carleton was the 1st Baron Dorchester. His name was given to Dorchester Boulevard in 1844. In 1987 Dorchester Boulevard was renamed after the death of Quebec premier René Lévesque)