page_title: Golden Square Mile
section_title: 1870 to 1889
hierarchical_section_title: Golden Square Mile / Periods / 1870 to 1889
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph, Sherbrooke Street in winter, Montreal, QC, 1896, Silver salts on glass - Gelatin dry plate process - 20 x 25 cm Français&#160;: Photographie, La rue Sherbrooke en hiver, Montréal, QC, 1896, Plaque sèche à la gélatine, 20 x 25 cm
context_page_description: The Square Mile and also known as the Golden 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, Quebec, Canada. The name "Square Mile" has been used to refer to the area since the 1930s; prior to that, the neighborhood was known as 'New Town' or 'Uptown'. 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 of the slopes of Mount Royal north of Sherbrooke Street, creating a neighborhood notorious for its grandeur and architectural audacity. At the Square Mile's peak, its residents included the owners and operators of the majority of Canadian rail, shipping, timber, mining, fur and banking industries.
context_section_description: Following the Confederation of Canada, the mercantile elite was led by the Allan brothers (Sir Hugh and Andrew), described by the Gazette as the "pioneers of our commercial greatness". In 1878, the Marquis of Lorne and Princess Louise were posted to Canada as the new Vice-regal couple, while Montreal was attracting celebrities of the day such as Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln. At the same time in London, the likes of Emma Albani and Sir Gilbert Parker were representative of Quebec's culture.
  In the 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed under the direction of Lord Mount Stephen, Lord Strathcona and R.B. Angus, after which it was continued by Lord Shaughnessy and Sir William Cornelius Van Horne. Celebrating their success, they spared no expense on their homes, with interiors decked in detailed mahogany and private art galleries housing works of the likes of Raphael, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Constable and Gainsborough etc. Van Horne's collection of Japanese pottery brought connoisseurs from Britain, the United States and Japan; and the Old Masters collection belonging to James Ross was frequently loaned out for public exhibition around the world.
  Ashton Oxenden was Bishop of Montreal from 1869 to 1878. As an Englishman, previously well travelled in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Spain, he paid a high complement to "this flourishing and wealthy city" when he stated that, "upon the whole, I prefer Montreal, as a place of residence, to almost any town that I have ever seen." Oxenden particularly enjoyed the "picturesque city's cheerfulness (and the) kindness of its inhabitants":
  There is an abundance of charitable institutions at Montreal (and) all well managed.. among the Roman Catholics especially there are many institutions on an enormous scale.. I have hardly seen a beggar in the streets or in the country. There is a great absence of poverty, except perhaps among the lowest French population.. Happily there is at present (1871) a kindly feeling between the Roman Catholics and Protestants, each pursuing their own course without molesting the other. The general cost of living (is) much the same as in an ordinary English town.. Dinner parties are frequent in Montreal. There is perhaps a little too much expense devoted to them; and this prevents all but the wealthy from indulging in such hospitalities.
  The Upper parts of the town are of more recent growth, and contain commodious and detached houses, belonging to the men of business and persons of fortune. The streets in this part of the town are as yet incomplete, showing at present certain gaps, which will ere long be filled up with handsome houses. They are all flanked by trees, chiefly maples (which) greatly add to the beauty of the town. The Montreal builders are excellent. They not only run up their houses at an indescribable speed, but they build them well and substantially.
  Aside from the men at the very top, the CPR had also brought about another housing boom to the Square Mile: In 1885, Sir John Abbott, the company's chief lawyer, built his new home on Sherbrooke Street and Peel, and in doing so set a trend among his boardroom colleagues, as Oxenden had correctly predicted, filling the gaps within the Square Mile.
  List of principal structures built
  Van Horne Mansion; built in 1869 for John Hamilton, President of the Merchant's Bank. In 1890, it was purchased and enlarged to 52 rooms by Sir William Cornelius Van Horne. It remained in the Van Horne family until it was controversially demolished in 1973.
  Bellevue Hall, at the foot of Bishop Street on Dorchester Street; built before 1870 for William Edmund Phillips, since demolished.
  Elmbank, off Dorchester Street; built in the 1870s for Andrew Robertson, since demolished
  John James Redpath House, Sherbrooke Street; built in 1870, demolished 1955.
  Tiffin House, Sherbrooke Street. Built in 1874, demolished in 1896.
  Burland House, University Street. Built in 1875 for George Bull Burland; designed by J.W. Hopkins. Purchased and restored by architect Claude Gagnon in 1973.
  Rok
caption: Sir George Drummond's House, built in the 1880s on Sherbrooke Street, at the corner of Metcalfe Street. Torn down in 1930, the site was used as a car wash
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