Tobogganing on Mount Royal Park Montreal, QC, 1885

 

This photo shows the members of the Club de la Tuque Bleue practicing their favourite winter sport on the slopes of Mount Royal.

-courtesy McCord Museum

Opened in 1876, Mount Royal Park was then considered by the English-speaking elite of the "Golden Square Mile" to be the "natural" extension of their neighbourhood, and they had difficulty conceiving that the park should be accessible to everyone. As a result, an imaginary boundary divided Mount Royal into two parts in the 1880s. For winter sports enthusiasts, this division meant that "proper people" tobogganed in the western part, while the youth of the working-class districts went down the slopes on the east side.

However, tobogganing, that "new craze," did not appeal to everyone. In 1885, the bishop of Montreal, Bishop Fabre (1827-1896), warned Catholics against the opportunities for sin associated with this activity, which was practiced by both men and women.

 

©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

M is for Mount Royal

Tobogganing on Mount Royal in the 1940's was a highlight for my uncles and mother, they would sled until exhaustion and walk home to hot chocolate and a cozy fire.


Mount Royal (French: mont Royal) is a large hill or small mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of downtown Montreal, Quebec (in Canada), the city to which it gave its name.

The hill is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachian Mountains. It gave its Latin name, Mons Regius, to the Monteregian chain.
The hill consists of three peaks: Colline de la Croix (or Mont Royal proper) at 233 m (764 ft), Colline d'Outremont (or Mount Murray, in the borough of Outremont) at 211 m (692 ft), and Westmount Summit at 201 m (659 ft) elevation above mean sea level.

History of Mount Royal

The Cross on Mount Royal

Mount Royal Funicular Railway - 1900

There are two cemeteries in the area: Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery (Catholic) and Mount Royal Cemetery (non-denominational but primarily Protestant, and including several small Jewish cemeteries) — both of which are now running out of space. In 2008, the refusal of the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery to cede land that it uses as a depot blocked a planned expansion of the park


Outside the park, Mount Royal's slopes are also home to such Montreal landmarks as St. Joseph's Oratory, Canada's largest church; McGill University and its teaching hospitals, including the Royal Victoria Hospital and Montreal General Hospital; McGill's Molson Stadium, home to the CFL's Montreal Alouettes; the McTavish reservoir; Université de Montréal; the École Polytechnique de Montréal; the Îlot-Trafalgar-Gleneagles historic block; and some well-off residential neighbourhoods such as Upper Westmount and Upper Outremont.

Mount Royal is 59 km (56 min.) from St. Hyacinthe and 254 km (2 hrs. 48 min.) from Quebec City.