The Westmount Historian NEWSLETTEROFTHE WESTMOUNT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION VOLUME 10 NUMBER 1 SEPTEMBER 2009 The Westmount Historian PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE NEWSLETTER OF THE WESTMOUNT If We had liVed here 100 Years ago We WoUld haVe HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION heard a cock crow in the morning and Watched farm- September 2009 ers ploW their fields betWeen the scattered hoUses Volume 10 • NUmber 1 along dirt roads. Fresh spring Water flowed down the hill from the children’s plaYgroUnd that We noW call EDITOR: Doreen Lindsay MUrraY Park. WestmoUnt Park Was a forest of trees With comfortable pathways along a deep ravine. If We CONTRIBUTORS: RUth Allan-RigbY looked Up We coUld see the feW large elegant Villas that doted oUr moUn- Caroline Breslaw tainside. We WoUld, of coUrse, Walk proUdlY on Wooden sideWalks along Barbara Covington neWlY opened macadamiZed streets. CommUnitY life Was actiVe. We Doreen Lindsay could read in the new free Public Library or attend a meeting in Victoria Photos: WHA Archives Hall. All our household necessities of milk, bread and ice Would be de- livered to our door bY horse and Wagon and We could enjoy shopping WESTMOUNT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION for shoes, jeWelrY, or food aroUnd Greene AVenUe or if We liVed closer to BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2009 – 2010 Victoria Avenue, at the new large Biltcliffe department store. Doreen Lindsay, president We became a City 100 Years ago (1908) This newsletter combines the re- Caroline Breslaw, vice-president sUlt of siX months of research bY Caroline BreslaW, RUth Allan-RigbY and David Freeman, treasUrer mYself. RUth concentrates on mUnicipal serVices: the Police and Fire De- Anne Barkman, membership & Website Margarita Schultz, recording secretary partments, the CPR station, transport, the LibrarY and Victoria Hall. Car- Barbara Covington, archivist oline describes the green spaces, priVate sporting clUbs, pUblic and RUth Allan-RigbY, asst. archivist priVate schools, and the shopping. OUr oWn archiVes serVed as a rich in- Joan Clark Jane Martin formation source as did the 1908 Westmount News in the Library. DOREEN LINDSAY PAST PRESIDENTS Flora-Lee Wagner 2000-2003 Aline Gubbay 1994-2000 WHA Fall 2009 Lecture Series Mrs. Shirley Vogel 1986-1987 Miss Henrietta Harvie 1984-1986 Viewing Westmount Through Photographs Dr. Hélène Saly 1981-1984 Thursday, 17 September 2009 Eleanor Earle 1979-1981 THE TURCOT INTERCHANGE IN WESTMOUNT: THEN AND NOW Sally Hooff 1975-1979 Speakers: Brian Merrett, photographer Alice Lighthall 1971-1974 David Carruthers activist With Westmount Action Committee. Mr. Panet-Raymond 1945-48 Jason Prince, Urban planner and coordinator of CURA: W.B. Scott 1944 Making Mega-Projects Work for CommUnities. (Miss Lighthall presided) Thursday, 15 October 2009 THE JAMES K. WARD FAMILY and PHOTOGRAPHIC ALBUM WESTMOUNT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION Speakers: Gary Aitken, Westmount resident and author of P. O. Box 198 Victoria Station Good People: The Kertlands of Canada, 2008 Westmount, QUebec H3Z 2Y6 Denis Longchamps, administrator of the Gail and Stephen 514-989-5510 A. JarislowskY Institute for Studies in E-MAIL: Canadian Art, Concordia University. [email protected] Thursday 19 November 2009 WILLIAM NOTMAN: PHOTOGRAPHER WEBSITE: Speaker: Nora Hague, photographic archivist in the Notman Archives, WWW.westmounthistorical.org McCord MUseum ISSN: 1496-4066 Thursday 17 December 2009 THE ROBERT HARVIE PHOTOGRAPHIC ALBUM GRAPHIC DESIGN: Speaker: Doreen Lindsay WHA researcher and photographer Studio Melrose Talks will take place in WESTMOUNT PUBLIC LIBRARY 310 Victoria Avenue, #105 4574 Sherbrooke Street West – 7 to 9 pm 514-488-7366 Admission free for members. Non-members $5:00 at the door. [email protected] 514-989-5510 or 514-932-6688 The Westmount Historian – PAGE 2 LIFE IN WESTMOUNT 1908 – 1909 MANY GREEN SPACES WERE OWNED BY RELIGOUS ORDERS A PROLIFERATION OF PRIVATE SPORTING CLUBS Priest’s Farm land north of Sherbrooke St. and the new Mother House of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame which opened in 1908. Photographed from Wood Avenue. Westmount Golf Club House where present day Surrey Gardens is above Summit Circle. ports played an important role in Westmount dUring this period and manY priVate sporting clUbs eXisted in Text (pages 3 to 7): Caroline Breslaw Sthe mUnicipalitY. The largest Was the MAAA (the Photos: WHA Archives Montreal Amateur Athletics Association) Which established itself in 1887 on St. Catherine Street at Hallowell. n 1908 WestmoUnt Was a semi-rUral mUnicipalitY With Its 10 acres featured a large field/skating rink, clubhouse, onlY 16% of its land deVeloped. Springs and streams, and roofed grandstand. St. George’s Snowshoe Club and St. Ilarge gardens, and Vestiges of the fields from the earlY George’s Cricket ClUb Were aboVe the BoUleVard at farms and estates still eXisted. VarioUs Catholic orders Aberdeen Avenue. The Heather CUrling Club Was bUilt on owned large tracts of land. The SUlpicians’ property known Kensington AVenUe in 1887. The Montreal Baseball GroUnds as the Priests’ Farm stretched from the corner of Sherbrooke on St. Catherine Street at Atwater Was east of the Montreal and AtWater oVer the Little MoUntain. The Congrègation de Arena With its hockey rink and exhibition hall at Wood Av- Notre Dame owned two large properties: one in the north- enUe. The WestmoUnt Golf Links had its home on the West corner of Westmount down to the Côte Road and the plateau at the SUmmit. The ski rUn of the Montreal Ski club Mother House property on the eastern edge at Sherbrooke Went down Clarke Avenue and over Sherbrooke Street! The and Atwater. The Grey NUns retained part of their farm on Westmount Lawn Bowling Club, established in 1902, is the both sides of Western Avenue (de Maisonneuve) at the cor- onlY one of the 1908 sporting organiZations that is still in ner of Clarke. existence. PAGE 3 – The Westmount Historian PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS –CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT New Côte St. Antoine Academy King’s School Queen’s School opened in April 1894 for 600 students on opened 1896 on Western Avenue (today on Olivier Avenue below Sherbrooke St. Côte St. Antoine corner of Stanton St. 4800 de Maisoneuve Blvd.West) at the foot It was built three years after King’s School around the corner from the first building. of Roslyn Avenue. Space for 350 students. to accommodate 550 pupils. Originally called The Glen School. St. Paul’s Catholic Girls’ School Wykeham House School Roslyn Avenue School in row housing on Sherbrooke St. corner A private boy’s school on Clark Avenue opened in September 1908 on Westmount of Greene Ave. Classes taught in both Avenue between Grosvenor and Roslyn French and English by the Congrégation Aves. to accommodate 550 children. de Notre-Dame sisters. any schools existed to edUcate the rising number ondary edUcation in both English and French for the small of children in WestmoUnt. BY 1909 there Were 4 Catholic popUlation. There Were also a number of small pri- MProtestant schools in the city. vate schools’ SUnnyside, the Misses Shanks’ School, WYke- WestmoUnt AcademY on the Côte Road, King’s School ham House, and Roslyn Ladies’ College, among others. The opened in 1896 on Western at the foot of RoslYn, QUeen’s French Methodist InstitUte on Greene at StaYnor Was a opened in 1899 on OliVier, and the neWlY-constrUcted boarding school for Protestant boYs and girls. The Notre RoslYn School opened in 1908 on WestmoUnt AVenUe. St. Dame Ladies’ College Was located in the neW Mother HoUse Paul’s Catholic Girls’ School on Sherbrooke at Greene and of the CND. St. Leo’s AcademY in Elm Hall proVided elementarY and sec- The Westmount Historian – PAGE 4 LOCAL CHURCHES OF VARIOUS DENOMINATIONS Westmount Methodist St. Andrew’s Church Church 1900-05 on built in 1909 on the north northeast corner of west corner of Cote St. Lansdowne and Western Antoine and Stanton St. Ave. (de Maisonneuve on the site of the original Bld.) Second Methodist church. It was the earliest building to be on the Presbyterian congrgation. same corner. St. Léon de Westmount 1901 First Roman Catholic Church in Westmount. St. Matthais Anglican Church 1875 Notman photo Westmount’s first church built on land donated McCord Museum by the Raynes family on Cote St Antoine Road. he residents of WestmoUnt Were mainlY Protestant Well, citizens belonged to Bethlehem Congregational, West- and belonged to manY denominations. The Anglicans moUnt Baptist ChUrch, and the First ChUrch of Christian Sci- Tattended St. Matthais on the Côte Road, St. Stephen’s entist. The only Catholic church in the city was the recently on Dorchester, and the ChUrch of the AdVent at Western and completed St. Léon de Westmount Which offered services in Wood. There Were 2 PresbYterian churches: St. Andrew’s on French and English. The Mother HoUse of the Congrègation the Cote Was ‘Wet’ and MelVille PresbYterian on Elgin de Notre Dame also had a large chapel designed bY its (MelVille) Was ‘drY’. The red brick WestmoUnt Methodist architect J. Omer Marchand. ChUrch stood on Western at the corner of LansdoWne. As PAGE 5 – The Westmount Historian WESTMOUNT RESIDENCES A CENTURY AGO “The Towers” 4130-40 Dorchester Boul. c. 1880 Westmount’s first terrace. Six houses constructed of local limestone. Mansard-roofed gables. Houses are angled to the street. Houses on Chesterfield Avenue 1910 Designed by architect Robert Findlay and built at corner of Prince Albert. estmoUnters liVed in a Wide VarietY of homes one to be constructed were the stone terraces in the southwest hUndred Years ago. A feW Were French-Canadian corner aroUnd Dorchester. NeXt to be bUilt Were the brick Wstone farmhoUses, sUch as the St.Germain and roWhoUses betWeen the railWaY tracks and St. Catherine HUrtUbise hoUses. Some WealthY residents liVed in Villas Street near the Abbott Street train station. When the neW from the original estates – Weredale Lodge, West MoUnt, train station opened in 1907 at the foot of Victoria Avenue, Forden, Braemar and Rosemount.