The mountain, comprised of a cluster of three hills that Jacques Cartier named “Mont-Royal,” was a vital site for the Indigenous peoples in the area prior to the arrival of European settlers. Today, this 10-km2 emblematic site is home to residential neighbourhoods, many of Montreal’s founding institutions, expansive cemeteries, neighbourhood parks, and the magnificent Mount Royal Park that stretches over an area of 200 hectares.

In the early 19th century, the mountain attracted wealthy businessmen who wanted to take advantage of this green oasis with its views of the city and the river. Among them was James McGill, who bequeathed his domain for the creation of one of Canada’s first universities, McGill University, founded in 1821. This turned the mountain into an important site of knowledge, and soon thereafter other learning institutions were built on its slopes, including Collège de Montréal (1862), Collège Notre-Dame (1881) and Université de Montréal, which inaugurated its campus in 1943.

In the second half of the 19th century, the mountain also became a funereal site of choice. The first large Protestant cemetery was created there in 1852, followed by a Catholic cemetery in 1854, which became the largest cemetery in Canada. In 1854 and 1863, two Jewish cemeteries were created.

At the end of the 19th century, while Montreal was undergoing a major period of industrialization and the hygiene campaign was in full swing, Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal moved to the foot of the mountain, followed by the Royal Victoria Hospital (1893) and the Shriners Hospital for Children (1925), turning this territory into an important site of health.

It was also during the era of industrialization that the first initiative emerged to protect the mountain. In 1859, a decision was made to preserve the mountain and to open it up to Montrealers with the creation of a public park. Renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was hired in 1874 to design the park, which was inaugurated in 1876.

In 2005, under the Cultural Property Act, Mount Royal became a historic and natural district. The district was then recognized as a heritage site by the Quebec government and much of the mountain was placed under protective measures that provided a framework for its development and the embellishment of its spaces and buildings.

The hospitals: Hôtel-Dieu, Royal Victoria and Shriners

Montreal’s first hospital, Hôtel-Dieu, was founded by Jeanne Mance and the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph in 1645. It moved to its current location in 1861. The site was Neoclassical in design. It included the hospital, a chapel, the Sisters’ motherhouse, an orphanage, gardens and an orchard, all surrounded by an imposing stone wall. Over the years, particularly after its nationalization in 1960, new pavilions were added to expand the hospital. Certain elements helped to unify its various components, including the use of greystone, the wall and the notable presence of the chapel cupola and bell turrets. The Hôtel-Dieu complex is a testimonial to Montreal’s arc of history, in particular the development of hospital care and medicine in the city.

The Royal Victoria Hospital opened its doors in 1893, with the contribution of two businessmen, Donald A. Smith and George Stephen, who ran the Canadian Pacific and made their fortunes in the railway business. Their wish was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1887. British architect Henry Saxon Snell incorporated the Scottish Baronial style in his design of the hospital, a style that was highly prized at the time and was a nod to the donors’ Scottish background. This style is characterized by a very broad architectural vocabulary and plays of volumes. From the outset, the hospital was associated with McGill University and quickly became an internationally renowned centre of teaching and clinical care, as well as a pioneer in research. Its successive expansions and its location on the slope of the mountain produced an elaborate and prestigious complex with stunning views of the city. The parcelling of volumes and the asymmetrical arrangement of more recent wings highlight the topography of the site.

The former Shriners Hospital for Children is a private institution that was erected in 1925 thanks to the efforts of the Shriners, members of a North American Masonic fraternity, founded in 1872 in New York. Architects Hugh Vallance and John Melville Miller designed the Villa-style building.

Places of knowledge: the McGill campus

McGill University was the first major institution to be built on the mountain. While the University was founded in 1821, construction of its first pavilion, designed by architect John Ostell, only began some 20 years later. Through time, the University underwent several phases of expansion. Today, more than 80 buildings sit on its 80-acre campus. These include several former bourgeois homes as well as new pavilions, built between the end of the 19th century and the present.

Hôtel-Dieu

The Communauté Saint-Urbain, a grouping of several community organizations, has lobbied to develop a mixed and inclusive housing project for a varied clientele (families, people vulnerable to homelessness, students, seniors, artists). The complex would also include health care services, community services and green spaces. The project would cover the northern portion of the Hôtel-Dieu site (the Pavillon Jeanne-Mance, Le Royer) as well as the site of the Montreal Chest Institute.

The Pavillon Jeanne-Mance is currently being used for CHUM outpatient clinics. The building should be completely vacated by 2021. The southeast portion of the site should continue to be used for health services. In February 2019, the Communauté Saint-Urbain met with the CHUM to inquire as to its long-term intentions. Overall, the CHUM’s plan at the time was to create a local health centre. In 2020, the sites were put to use to respond to immediate and urgent needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The oldest sector in the western portion of the site was purchased by the City of Montreal in 2017. In collaboration with the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, it is developing the Cité des Hospitalières project. The City, which has committed to respecting the site’s historical value, plans to build social housing there and to open up the gardens to the public and expand the museum. A space will be officially dedicated to the Religious Hospitallers. In fall 2019, the City of Montreal mandated the organization Entremise to establish a transitional use program to test the possibility of accommodating a community of occupants and to participate in defining a long-term project.

Royal Victoria

In June 2018, the Quebec government mandated the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) to reclassify the entire real estate project. This 13-hectare site is currently undergoing a study to determine the feasibility of converting it and integrating it into the McGill University campus. The SQI has been allocated $5 million to develop its vision of the site and prepare a development plan for the heritage site, in collaboration with McGill University and the City of Montreal, for the enhancement of this major hospital complex, given its historical, architectural and social value, as well as its commanding presence on the collective landscape.

Despite the centralization of hospital services, a trend that has also been observed in other major cities, the Royal Victoria Hospital has not been abandoned while awaiting reclassification. The overflow shelter at the hospital was used as an emergency homeless shelter during the cold snaps in 2019; with needs growing, this initiative was repeated in winter 2019-2020 with some improvements, including more beds and a floor reserved exclusively for women. In March 2020, it was converted into an isolation centre for the homeless as part of efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The same year, the Royal Vic for the Public, a coalition of several organizations concerned about the privatization of this major hospital complex, mobilized to lobby against the sale of part of the Royal Victoria to McGill University.

Shriners

In 2019, the Shriners Hospital was sold to the Chinese government for $17.5 million to be used as the site of the future Chinese consulate. It is not known if the Chinese government plans to demolish the building or redevelop it. Several civil society organizations, including Friends of the Mountain and Heritage Montreal, have shared their concerns and asserted their preference for keeping the property in the public domain.

Heritage Montreal’s interest in Mount Royal, its recognition as a heritage complex, its protection and enhancement, including as an emblematic element of the landscape of the metropolitan region, has been undeniable for more than 30 years. It was expressed in particular in our action to safeguard the perspective of McGill College Avenue for which we submitted a request for classification under the Cultural Property Act in 1984 and, in the context of multiple projects (observatory, ski slopes and collective mausoleums, for example), that of attribution of a status to the mountain.

On May 27, 1986, Heritage Montréal sent a request for classification of Mount Royal to the then Minister of Cultural Affairs, Mrs. Lise Bacon, then, on June 8, 1987, a request to establish a heritage site that the City of Montreal made diligently.

As a member of the Mont-Royal concertation table since its creation in 2005 (at the initiative of the mayor of Montreal), Heritage Montréal participated in the advisory working group formed in 2015 at the invitation of the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications to support the preparation of the draft of the Conservation Plan for the heritage site. We thus had the opportunity to comment and make suggestions upstream of this consultation stage.

In addition, Heritage Montréal participated in the consultations conducted by the Conseil du patrimoine culturel du Québec on the draft conservation plan for Sillery, presenting a brief on April 2, 2013. Although the principle of national status deserves the attention of the the entire population and organizations such as Heritage Montreal, this choice is based in particular on the issues shared by the heritage sites of Sillery and Mont-Royal; for example, the landscape dimension and the presence of large institutional estates and cemeteries of heritage interest.

Over the years, Heritage Montreal has submitted several letters, briefs and resolutions concerning various surplus hospital buildings in Montreal including the Hôtel-Dieu, the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Shriners.
Heritage Montreal has also been a part of various committees and groups of experts in this regard, always taking the opportunity to rule on the importance of these places in the collective memory of Montreal.

Résolution 2013 : on the future of Montréal’s institutional heritage

Résolution 2018 : on the future of the buildings and sites of the institutional heritage of the metropolis

In 2019, at the invitation of the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), Heritage Montreal is participating in an expert committee that supports the preparation of a master plan for the vast site of the former Royal Victoria hospital. At the request of the Government of Quebec, this planning is coordinated with the one carried out by McGill University, which is developing its plan to occupy certain former pavilions.