Golden Square Mile - Demolition

Demolition

By the end of World War II, the homes within the Square Mile were for the most part left empty or only partially occupied. Montreal's downtown had shifted northwest into Sherbrooke Street, which with Pine Avenue had now become a major motor traffic artery. From 1945 to 1965 many of the great mansions were acquired by commercial and civic institutions and demolished or repurposed beyond all recognition.

Ravenscrag had been left by Sir Montague and Lady Allan to the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1942. Its famously sumptuous interior was entirely stripped out as the building was converted into the Allan Memorial Institute, and McGill University used its fourteen acres of grounds to erect subsidiary buildings. A similar fate befell nearly two dozen homes as they were transformed into university or commercial offices, but these were the lucky ones that survived. The majority of the old mansions were simply demolished and replaced with high-rise concrete office, or apartment blocks.

The mansions were viewed by local government as symbols of Anglo-Canadian power over the French Canadians and a massive demolition spree was undertaken between 1930 and 1975. For example, Drummond Street in 1925 was a quiet, tree-lined avenue on which stood several Queen Anne and Neo Gothic mansions. By 1975, it had become another bland, treeless street lined with back-to-back concrete tower blocks.

The Van Horne Mansion, the undisputed centre of Square Mile society since the 1930s was demolished in 1973 to widespread public outrage. Mayor Jean Drapeau declared that it could not be preserved for cultural reasons because it was not part of Quebec's culture - Van Horne being an Anglo, not French Canadian. This led to the establishment of Heritage Montreal to protect historic buildings at the provincial level. The architectural character of the neighbourhood stabilized, but the original Square Mile as it had been had already changed beyond recoginition.