Golden Square Mile
Encyclopedia
The Golden Square Mile (French: "Le Mille Carré Doré") was the name of a luxurious neighbourhood
Neighbourhood
A neighbourhood or neighborhood is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. "Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition...

 at the foot of Mount Royal
Mount Royal
Mount Royal is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its name.The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians...

 in the west-central section of downtown Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The name is still used today in the Montreal real estate world to designate an area where the neighbourhood was once located and today includes many luxurious residential projects along Sherbrooke Street
Sherbrooke Street
Sherbrooke Street is a major east-west artery and at in length, is the second longest street on the Island of Montreal. The street begins in the town of Montreal West and ends on the extreme tip of the island in Pointe-aux-Trembles, intersecting Gouin Boulevard and joining up with Notre-Dame...

. The Square Mile, as a neighbourhood, is generally understood to have existed between 1875 and 1930, at which point, in the face of economic hardship and an increasingly desperate situation in Depression-era Montreal (along with a dawning automobile era, and a desire for more modern homes), many of the former occupants decamped for Westmount and other areas.

From roughly 1850, wealthier families began to migrate out of Montreal's increasingly congested port and downtown core, to settle in new suburban areas built on land formerly given to farming. Of these new areas, the most prestigious were those along the southern slopes of Mount Royal, along Sherbrooke Street
Sherbrooke Street
Sherbrooke Street is a major east-west artery and at in length, is the second longest street on the Island of Montreal. The street begins in the town of Montreal West and ends on the extreme tip of the island in Pointe-aux-Trembles, intersecting Gouin Boulevard and joining up with Notre-Dame...

 west (then little more than a country road); and around McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

. This would become the core of the Square Mile.

Borders

In principle, the neighbourhood had precise borders measuring roughly a square mile, covering the area between Dorchester Boulevard (today's Boulevard René-Lévesque
René Lévesque Boulevard
René Lévesque Boulevard is one of the main streets in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.It is a main east-west thoroughfare passing through the downtown core in the borough of Ville-Marie. The street begins on the west at Atwater Avenue and continues until it merges with Notre Dame Street East just east...

) at the southern end, Pine Avenue at the foot of Mount Royal at the northern end, University Street at the eastern end, and Guy Street at the western end. In effect, however, the Square Mile covered the far smaller territory between Sherbrooke Street and Pine Avenue (between Guy and University streets), an area that covered scarcely nine streets on the north-south axis (from east to west: McTavish Street, Peel Street
Peel Street, Montreal
Peel Street is a major north-south street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Street links Pine Avenue, near Mount Royal, in the north and Smith Street, in the Southwest borough, in the south. The street's southern end is at the Peel Basin of the Lachine Canal...

, Stanley Street
Stanley Street, Montreal
Stanley Street is a north-south street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It links Doctor Penfield Avenue in the north and De la Gauchetière Street in the south...

, Drummond Street
Drummond Street, Montreal
Drummond Street is a north-south street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Spanning a total of 1.2 kilometres, it links Doctor Penfield Avenue in the north and De la Gauchetière Street in the south. Drummond Street opened in 1842 and owes its name to Jane Drummond , wife of Montreal...

, Mountain Street
Mountain Street
Mountain Street is a north-south street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It links Doctor Penfield Avenue in the north and Wellington Street in the south. Notable businesses on Rue de la Montagne, include Ogilvy's and Hôtel de la Montagne.-Name:According to the Commission de toponymie...

, Ontario Avenue (now avenue du Musée), Redpath Street, Simpson Street, and Guy Street
Guy Street
Guy Street is a north-south street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Concordia University's Integrated Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex is located on this street, as is the John Molson School of Business building. The street is home to the Guy-Concordia metro station...

), and three streets on the east-west axis (from south to north: Sherbrooke St. West, McGregor Street (now Avenue Dr. Penfield) and Pine Avenue).

Architecture

The architecture of the area was an eclectic mix of the Neo-classical, Neo-Gothic, Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

, Second Empire, Queen Anne
Queen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...

 and Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...

 (though other styles also figured prominently) - often within the same home. Scottish sandstone and local granite were commonly used materials, most homes had substantial grounds and atria, most streets were lined with spruce or maple trees, and generally, the most sumptuous homes were built north of McGregor. Ernest Cormier
Ernest Cormier
thumb|Église Sainte-Marguerite-Marie-Alacoque, Montréal, thumb|Église Saint-Ambroise, Montréal, Ernest Cormier, OC was a Canadian engineer and architect who spent much of his career in the Montreal area, erecting notable examples of Art Deco architecture.-Life and career:He was born in Montreal,...

 also built his Art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 residence Maison Cormier
Maison Cormier
Cormier House is an Art deco residence in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, located at 1418 Pine Avenue.- Description :It was built by architect Ernest Cormier as his own residence in 1930-31, and also served as the residence of Pierre Trudeau, following his retirement from politics, until Trudeau's death...

 on Pine Avenue in 1930.

Residents

Indisputably the economic masters of Canada, residents of the Golden Square Mile (many of Scottish origin) played a key role in the development of the country during the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. An often-cited (and rarely substantiated) figure holds that at its peak, around 1900, 70% of all wealth in Canada was owned by residents of the Square Mile. Dubious perhaps, however, the truth is that the controllers of most Canadian rail, shipping, timber, mining, fur and banking companies of any size made their homes in the Square Mile, and that it was a neighbourhood of an opulence and architectural audacity theretofore unknown in the Dominion, and never seen since.

Prominent residents included:
  • Sir Hugh Allan
    Hugh Allan
    Sir Hugh Allan, KCMG was a Scottish-born Canadian shipping magnate, railway promoter, financier and capitalist...

  • R.B. Angus
  • William Dow
    William Dow
    William Dow emigrated to Canada from Scotland in about 1818. A trained brewer, he took employment with James Dunn's brewery in Montreal and quickly became a partner. His younger brother, Andrew, who had also trained as a brewer, joined him, and on the death of Dunn, the company became known as...

  • Sir William Christopher Macdonald
    William Christopher Macdonald
    Sir William Christopher Macdonald was a Scots-Quebecer tobacco manufacturer and major education philanthropist in Canada.-Early life and career:...

  • James McGill
    James McGill
    James McGill was a Scottish-Canadian businessman, military commander and philanthropist known for being the founder of McGill University...

  • Peter McGill
    Peter McGill
    Peter McGill was a Scots-Quebecer businessman who served as the second mayor of Montreal, Canada East from 1840 to 1842.- Biography :...

  • Simon McTavish
    Simon McTavish
    Simon McTavish was a Scots-Quebecer entrepreneur and the pre-eminent businessman in Canada during the second half of the 18th century.-Biography:...

  • Charles Meredith
  • Sir Vincent Meredith
    Vincent Meredith
    Sir Vincent Meredith, 1st and last Baronet of Montreal , was a Canadian banker and philanthropist; President of the Bank of Montreal, the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts...

    , 1st Baronet of Montreal
  • John Molson
    John Molson
    John Molson was an English-speaking Quebecer who was a major brewer and entrepreneur in Canada, starting the Molson Brewing Company.-Birth and early life:...

  • William Notman
    William Notman
    William Notman was a Canadian photographer and businessman.Notman was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1826, the same year in which photography was born in France. William Notman moved to Montreal in 1856. An amateur photographer, he quickly established a flourishing professional photography studio on...

  • Frédéric-Auguste Quesnel
    Frédéric-Auguste Quesnel
    Frédéric-Auguste Quesnel was a lawyer, businessman and political figure in Canada East.He was born in Montreal in 1785, the son of Joseph Quesnel, and studied at the Collège Saint-Raphaël. He articled in law with Stephen Sewell, was admitted to the bar in 1807 and set up practice in Montreal...

  • John Redpath
    John Redpath
    John Redpath was a Scots-Quebecer businessman and philanthropist who helped pioneer the industrial movement that made Montreal, Quebec the largest and most prosperous city in Canada....

  • J.K.L. Ross
  • George Simpson (administrator)
    George Simpson (administrator)
    Sir George Simpson was a Scots-Quebecer and employee of the Hudson's Bay Company . His title was Governor-in-Chief of Rupert's Land and administrator over the Northwest Territories and Columbia Department in British North America from 1821 to 1860.-Early years:George Simpson was born in Dingwall,...

  • Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, 1st Baron Shaughnessy
    Thomas Shaughnessy, 1st Baron Shaughnessy
    Thomas George Shaughnessy, 1st Baron Shaughnessy, KCVO was an American-born Canadian railway administrator who rose from modest beginnings as a clerk and bookkeeper for the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Thomas George Shaughnessy, 1st Baron Shaughnessy, KCVO (6 October 1853 – 10 December...

  • Sir George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen
    George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen
    George Stephen, 1st Baron of Mount Stephen , known as Sir Stephen, between 1778 and 1891.-Canadian Pacific Railway syndicate:...

  • William Wallace Watson

Demolition

Most of the wealthiest residents (and their children) left during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 and after World War Two
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and with the exodus, the character of the neighbourhood declined significantly. On the one hand, the old families left their former homes empty or partially-occupied, on the other hand, Sherbrooke street and Pine avenue became major arteries for automobile travel as the centre of Montreal's downtown shifted northwestward. As a result of these developments, over the twenty years following the war, many of the great mansions of the area were acquired by commercial and civic institutions and demolished or repurposed beyond all recognition. The Allen family's Ravenscrag, the Square Mile's masthead mansion at the head of McTavish street, saw its grounds converted and built upon by McGill University, and its famously sumptuous interior entirely replaced, as the Allan Memorial Institute
Allan Memorial Institute
The Allan Memorial Institute , located in Montreal, Quebec, houses the Psychiatry Department of the Royal Victoria Hospital, part of the McGill University Health Centre. Although currently a respected psychiatric hospital, the institute is known for its role in the Project MKULTRA by the CIA...

. A similar fate befell nearly two dozen homes obtained by the university and by commercial enterprises converting the buildings for office use. For the most part, however, the old mansions were simply demolished outright and replaced with high-rise office or apartment blocks. Most famously, the Van Horne Mansion
Van Horne Mansion
The Van Horne Mansion was a classic greystone house in the Golden Square Mile district of Montreal that once belonged to Canadian railway magnate William Cornelius Van Horne. It existed on Sherbrooke Street at the corner of Stanley Street. It was torn down by developer David Azrieli in 1973 under...

, the undisputed centre of Square Mile society for nearly 40 years, was demolished in 1973 to widespread outrage. Yet, the Van Horne mansion actually came at the tail end of a massive demolition spree between 1945 and 1975 that had changed the Square Mile radically. For example, Drummond street south of McGregor street, in 1925 a quiet, tree-lined street on which stood the Queen Anne and Neo-Gothic Drummond, Smithers, Meighen and Molson mansions (along with some seven or eight others) had, just fifty years later, become a tree-less street of concrete tower blocks. Following the establishment of a heritage protection regime at the provincial level, the architectural character of the neighbourhood stabilized, but the Golden Square Mile, the private enclave of vast wealth, privilege and authority, is forever lost.

Quartier du Musée

The Quartier du Musée part of the Golden Square Mile is centered on Sherbrooke Street West between Crescent Street
Crescent Street
Crescent Street is a southbound street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Running perpendicular to Saint Catherine Street, Crescent Street descends from Sherbrooke Street south to René-Lévesque Boulevard....

 and Mountain Street
Mountain Street
Mountain Street is a north-south street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It links Doctor Penfield Avenue in the north and Wellington Street in the south. Notable businesses on Rue de la Montagne, include Ogilvy's and Hôtel de la Montagne.-Name:According to the Commission de toponymie...

. It is well known for its museums such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a major museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1860, making it Canada's oldest art institution, it moved to its current location in 1912 thanks to a large donation from businessman James Ross....

, its high end stores such as Holt Renfrew
Holt Renfrew
Holt Renfrew is a chain of high-end Canadian department stores. It is comparable to Barneys New York and Saks Fifth Avenue in the United States, and to two other upmarket chains owned by the same family, Britain's Selfridges and Ireland's Brown Thomas...

, its jewelers, its decorating stores and its restaurants.

External links

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