McGill’s eye in the sky
McGill MemoriesIn 1862, a graceful house with verandas wrapping completely around its first and second floors, was built on the corner of Sherbrooke and University streets, where 688 Sherbrooke, McGill’s tallest building, sits today.
Lady Meredith House: A long history of health and healing
McGill MemoriesArdvarna was built in 1897 for Andrew Allan, a partner with his brother Hugh in the Allan Shipping Line. The turreted, brick mansion was designed by renowned Montreal architects Edward and William Maxwell and situated on the corner of Pine along the city’s famed Golden Square Mile. You might know it now as Lady Meredith House.
Currie Memorial Gymnasium: Rising from the (cigarette) ashes
McGill MemoriesIronically enough, if you are one of the thousands of students, staff or faculty members who run, lift, swim or play at the Currie Memorial Gymnasium each year, you have smokers to thank in part for the top-flight facilities.
McGill Memories: Chancellor Day Hall, Faculty of Law’s storied seat
McGill MemoriesJames Ross was a Canadian businessman, art collector and builder, who oversaw the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway across Canada. In 1892, he commissioned Bruce Price, an American architect who has also designed McGill’s own Royal Victoria College and Quebec City’s Chateau Frontenac, to build a house on Peel St. on a huge lot along Montreal’s famous Golden Square Mile. Today that house is McGill’s own Chancellor Day Hall.
Three Bares: McGill’s cheeky fountain of goodwill
McGill MemoriesWhile it has many names – the Good Will Fountain, the Friendship Fountain, the Whitney Fountain, the Three Graces, etc. – McGill’s most famous piece of public art is most widely known as the Three Bares.
Lord Strathcona, champion of women’s education
McGill MemoriesMcGill Memories looks at the contributions of Donald Smith, a.k.a. Lord Strathcona, the Chancellor of McGill from 1899 to 1914.
Engineering building rises from the ashes
McGill MemoriesThis is the first installment of what will be a regular feature in the McGill Reporter. Based upon MacKay Smith’s 2009 book, Memories and Profiles of McGill University, McGill Memories will look at the history of some of the University’s oldest and most interesting architecture and, by extension, some of the builders and philanthropists who helped shape the face of McGill.
