Both the neighbourhood and the avenue are named after James Monk, who was the attorney general of Lower Canada, and chief justice to the court of the Queen's Bench from 1804 to 1824. This area in particular became associated with Monk due to the estate he built in 1804 known as Monklands. This estate would later become the Governor General's residence, and was later sold to the Congregation de Notre-Dame who would use the building for the Villa Maria private Catholic school.^[1]

Avenue Monkland (Monkland Avenue) has been a commercial street since the 1930s. Today the strip is transforming into an upscale commercial street. It is home to many small businesses including restaurants (Local75, Monkland Tavern, Lucille's, Al Dente), cafés (Second Cup, Mercanti), bars (Typhoon, Ye Olde Orchard), food stores (Le Maître Boucher, Première Moisson), unique boutiques (Kidlink, 101 artisans, Espace Tricot… ) and a dance school (Les Ateliers Turcotte).

In the summer of 2013 the Monkland Merchants Association organized a very successful street Festival that attracted more than 90,000 people over a three-day period. Between 2014 and 2017, Monkland Avenue boasted one of the city's largest street festivals lasting 3 days and attracts more than 250,000 attendees, over 20 food trucks and 50 independent merchants.

2015 marked the arrival of new merchants such as Café Di Mercanti, LE Cheese, Casa de Mateo (now closed), Food De Toi (now closed), Bistro Amerigo, and Bacaro Pizzeria.