The Golden Square Mile (, ), also known as the Square Mile, is the nostalgic name given to an urban neighbourhood developed principally between 1850 and 1930 at the foot of Mount Royal, in the west-central section of downtown Montreal in Quebec, Canada. The name 'Square Mile' has been used to refer to the area since the 1930s; prior to that, the neighbourhood was known as 'New Town' or 'Uptown'.Discover Montréal: an architectural and historical guide - Joshua Wolfe, Cécile Grenier, 1991 The addition of 'Golden' was coined by Montreal journalist Charlie Lazarus, and the name has connections to contemporary real estate developments, as the historical delimitations of the Golden Square Mile overlap with Montreal's contemporary central business district.
From the 1790s, the business leaders of Montreal looked beyond Old Montreal for spacious sites upon which to build their country homes. They developed the farmland on the slopes of Mount Royal north of Sherbrooke Street, creating a neighbourhood famous for its grandeur and architectural audacity. At the Square Mile's peak (1850–1930), its residents included the owners and operators of the majority of Canadian rail, shipping, timber, mining, fur and banking industries. From about 1870 to 1900, 70% of all wealth in Canada was held by this small group of approximately fifty men.
By the 1930s, multiple factors led to the neighbourhood's decline, including the Great Depression, the dawn of the automobile, the demand for more heat-efficient houses, and the younger generations of the families that had built these homes having largely moved to Westmount. During the Quiet Revolution, some of the businesses created in Montreal, on whose fortunes the Square Mile had been built, moved to Toronto. In this period, the Square Mile evolved to gradually become the central business district, and many of its grand houses were demolished. The face of the Square Mile was altered, leading to the formation of Heritage Montreal to preserve historic architecture in the city.
By 1983, only 30% of the mansions in the northern half of the Square Mile had survived demolition; and only 5% survived south of Sherbrooke Street.Rémillard, François; & Brian Merrett (1987). Mansions of the Golden Square Mile. Meridian Press. Many of the remaining mansions, such as the James Ross House, today known as Chancellor Day Hall, are today owned by McGill University. Nevertheless, the mansions of the Golden Square Mile represent a prosperous period during which Montreal was the cultural and financial capital of Canada.
Borders
The neighbourhood had precise borders measuring roughly a square mile, covering the area between Dorchester Boulevard 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 (along with Côte-des-Neiges Road) at the western end. In effect, however, the 'Square Mile' was contained within a far smaller area, between Sherbrooke Street and Pine Avenue, and Côte-des-Neiges and University, covering scarcely nine streets on the north–south axis. From east to west: McTavish Street, Peel Street, Stanley Street, Drummond Street, Mountain Street, Ontario Avenue (now Avenue du Musée), Redpath Street, Simpson Street and Guy Street; and three streets on the east–west axis, from south to north: Sherbrooke Street West, McGregor Street (now Doctor Penfield Avenue) and Pine Avenue.
Architecture The architects of the Square Mile included Robert Findlay, Bruce Price, Sir Andrew Taylor, William Thomas, John Hopkins and the brothers Edward and William Maxwell. The architecture was an eclectic mix of the Neo-classical, Neo-Gothic, Romanesque, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Art Nouveau, though other styles also figured prominently, sometimes within the same home. By World War I, simpler houses were built, such as Herbert Molson's. Maison Cormier was one of only a few examples of Art deco.
Scottish sandstone and local granite were commonly used materials, and most homes had substantial grounds, atria and large conservatories. A great many of the Square Milers were keen horticulturalists and aside from their gardens, they enjoyed keeping hothouse flowers through the long winters. The streets of the Square Mile were lined with elm, spruce and maple trees, but an outbreak of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s destroyed those that had once lined Sherbrooke Street.
Montreal's mercantile community (1642-1930)
In 1642, a fort named Ville Marie was founded on the Island of Montreal by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve. Ville Marie became a centre for the fur trade and French expansion into New France until 1760, when it was surrendered to the British army, following the French defeat of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. British immigration expanded the city.
The British immigrants who came to Montreal after the Conquest tended to be from well-connected mercantile families and immigrated to Canada as a means to further their fortunes, unlike earlier British immigrants who came to North America to escape religious or political persecution.
The city's golden era of fur trading began with the advent of the locally owned North West Company. In the 1760s, the men of the Beaver Club, a gentlemen's dining club, provided the financial backing and necessary management to take control of the fur trade. The new merchants were associated with the North West Company, the Hudson's Bay Company and the agents of the East India Company, and eventually dominated the fur market in most of British North America.
As many of the wealthy French Canadians moved from Canada to France following the Conquest, British merchants were able to cheaply purchase vast tracts of land upon which to build factories, and take control of the banking and finance of the new Dominion. The growing fortune of the Montreal mercantile elite of this era was consolidated through marriage and company mergers. After the collapse of the fur trade in the 1850s, the mercantile elite turned its interest to railways and shipping.
By the mid-19th century, the Montreal mercantile elite, residing in the Square Mile, firmly held the reins of Canada's economy. The merchants successfully connected Canada by building a network of railroads and exploiting maritime routes and the port of Montreal, which l remained the principal port through which immigrants arrived, and also through which Canada's produce was shipped to and from Britain and the Empire.
For decades, the wealth accumulated from the fur trade, finance, and other industries made of Montreal's mercantile elite a "kind of commercial aristocracy, living in lordly and hospitable style," as Washington Irving observed.Astoria (London, 1836) by Washington Irving In 1820, John Bigsby penned his impressions of the city:I found, but did not expect to find, at Montreal a pleasing transcript of the best form of London life — even in the circle beneath the very first class of official families. But I may be pardoned; for I had seen in the capital of another great colony (Cape Town) considerable primitiveness of manners.. (In Montreal) at an evening party at Mr Richardson's the appointments and service were admirable; the dress, manners, and conversation of the guests, in excellent taste. Most of the persons there, though country-born, had been educated in England (Britain), and everything savoured of Kensington. There was much good music.. Some of the show-shops rival those of London in their plate-glass windows, and its inns are as remarkable for their palatial exterior as they are for their excellent accommodation within.. Montreal is a stirring and opulent town.. Few places have so advanced in all the luxuries and comforts of high civilisation as Montreal. The Shoe and Canoe; or Pictures of Travel in the Canadas (1850) by John Bigsby
Periods
Early estates
Before the 1840s, the landed, political and wealthier merchant classes of Montreal lived on their seigneuries during the summers and came to the city only for Parliament or to conduct business during the winter. In 1816, Francis Hall, then a young officer with the 14th King's Hussars, observed that Montreal's gentry "live in a splendid style, and keep expensive tables".Travels in North America, from Modern Writers, With Remarks and Observations; Exhibiting a Connected View of the Geography and Present State of That Quarter of the Globe - William Bingley, 1821 They kept townhouses on St. James Street, Notre-Dame Street and overlooking the Champ de Mars; enjoying among other entertainments the German Orchestra and Viennese dances held at the Hayes House theatre on Dalhousie Square."Moses Hayes", Dictionary of Canadian Biography In 1795, Isaac Weld commented that "the people of Montreal, in general, are remarkably hospitable and attentive to strangers; they are sociable also amongst themselves, and fond in the extreme of convivial amusements".Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during ... 1795, 1796, and 1797 - Isaac Weld (1800)
But lively as it was, Old Montreal with its frequent fires and swelling population was becoming less desirable. The wealthy merchants in particular began to seek large plots of land on which to build homes worthy of their success while remaining close to their business interests; and, their eyes turned to the fertile farmland under Mount Royal. John Duncan observed in 1818 that, "a number of very splendid mansions have lately been erected on the slope of the mountain, which would be regarded as magnificent residences even by the wealthy merchants of the mother country".Duncan's Travels, 1818 In 1820, John Bigsby described the view from Château St. Antoine, then said to be 'the most magnificent building in the whole city and standing within 200 acres of parkland roughly at the end of Dorchester Street:
I had the pleasure of dining with (William McGillivray) at his seat, on a high terrace under the mountain, looking southwards and laid out in pleasure-grounds in the English style. The view from the drawing room windows of this large and beautiful mansion is extremely fine, too rich and fair, I foolishly thought, to be out of my native England. Close beneath you are scattered elegant country retreats embowered in plantations, succeeded by a crowd of orchards of delicious apples, spreading far to the right and left, and hedging in the glittering churches, hotels, and house-roofs of Montreal...
The early residents of the Square Mile enjoyed marked benefits from being the first to settle there: The houses were surrounded by acres of parkland, with long carriage drives, vineries, orchards, fruit and vegetable gardens.My Children's Children (Montreal, 1937), by Evelyn Carter Springett The surveyor Joseph Bouchette noted that the produce from these gardens in the summer months was "excellent in quality, affording a profuse supply... in as much, or even greater perfection than in many southern climes".British Dominions in North America (London, 1831), by Joseph Bouchette In 1822, Sir Richard Phillips commented that,
A number of handsome villas now make their appearance around the town, and there are numerous sites still unoccupied, which will probably be hereafter crowned with elegant seats. Few places in the world possess more capabilities of this kind than Quebec and Montreal; if the latter is less bold than the former in its scenery, it possesses much richness and delicate beauty, which need nothing but wealth and taste to display them to advantage; the former already exists in Montreal to a great extent, and there are also very respectable proofs of the existence and growth of the latter.New voyages and travels: consisting of originals, translations, and abridgments; with index and historical preface - Sir Richard Phillips, 1822
List of principal structures built