page_title: Golden Square Mile
section_title: Early estates
hierarchical_section_title: Golden Square Mile / Periods / Early estates
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of William Workman's house, Sherbrooke and University Streets, Montreal, QC, about 1878. William Notman (1826-1891) 1930-1950, 20th century Silver salts on film (safety) - Gelatin silver process 17 x 12 cm Purchase from Associated Screen News Ltd.
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: 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". 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. 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".
  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". 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. 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". 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.
  List of principal structures built
  Beaver Hall. Built in 1792, for Joseph Frobisher, it stood between the McTavish and McGill properties on the site that is today commemorated as Beaver Square. It stood amidst 40 acres made up of forest and apple trees, roughly where the Sun Life Building is today. The house measured 80 feet across and his dining room comfortably sat forty guests. It burned down in a fire in 1847.
  Burnside Place. Built in 1797, for James McGill. Unlike the mansions built by McGill's contemporaries, Burnside was a comfortable farmhouse of two stories over a basement for the kitchen and servants, standing on 46 acres of land, and used by the McGills during the summer. In his will, McGill bequeathed the property and £10,000 to establish a university, which would become McGill Univers
caption: William Workman's house on Sherbrooke Street, Montreal. Built 1842, demolished 1952
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