Parc Westmount

Parc Westmount — the Victorian park that gave birth to a library, a greenhouse and a city

There are few places in Quebec where a park, a library and a community hall were conceived as a single gesture. Parc Westmount is one of them: laid out in the 1890s on former farmland on the southwest slope of Mount Royal, it became the matrix of Westmount’s entire civic identity. A brook winds through it down to a small lagoon frequented by mallard ducks, weeping willows line the paths, and at the north end stands the library-greenhouse-Victoria Hall ensemble, recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada.

Highlights

• The Westmount Public Library — opened on 20 June 1899 and built to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee; it is regularly cited as the first public library in Quebec.
• The heritage greenhouse — physically attached to the library, it carries the park indoors and lets you visit a tropical collection even in January.
• Victoria Hall — the public hall opened in September 1899, originally equipped with a gymnasium, which still serves as a community centre.
• The brook and the lagoon — a landscaped watercourse running through the park, lined with benches and crossed by small footbridges.
• The two commemorative cannons — installed in 1897 for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, they recall the park’s founding years.
• The war memorial — the Westmount cenotaph, the work of sculptor George W. Hill unveiled in 1922, and the gathering point every 11 November.

What’s inside

The park has kept its original structure: curving walks, broad lawns, stands of mature trees and a watercourse that organizes the stroll. Around that landscape core, decade after decade, the recreational facilities were grafted on.

• Modernized playgrounds, laid out so that toddlers are kept apart from older children.
• A wading pool open in the warm season, heavily used by neighbourhood families.
• Tennis courts and a lawn bowling green, inherited from the area’s Victorian sporting culture.
• A recreation centre with indoor rinks, on the edge of the park.
• Mature trees — willows, maples, oaks — several of them dating back to the first plantings.
• Benches set along the brook, the most sought-after spot in the park at the end of the day.

What to do and who it’s for

• Families with children — playgrounds, the wading pool and the lagoon’s ducks: the afternoon fills itself.
• Heritage enthusiasts — the library, greenhouse and Victoria Hall ensemble tells the birth of a city in three buildings.
• Readers — the library and its garden make one of the most pleasant places to read anywhere in the metropolitan area.
• Walkers and retirees — flat paths, dense shade, plenty of benches and short distances.
• Photographers — the lagoon, the footbridges and the greenhouse offer framings unusual for an urban park.
• Neighbourhood athletes — tennis, lawn bowling and the rinks, depending on the season.

Getting there and practicalities

The park occupies the heart of the city of Westmount, an enclave within the Montreal agglomeration, on the southwest slope of Mount Royal. By public transit, métro Vendôme on the orange line is the closest station; bus 24 also serves the sector. Access to the park is free and open at all times. The library, the greenhouse and Victoria Hall each keep their own opening hours, worth checking before a visit; admission to the greenhouse is free. Allow 45 minutes to an hour for the park alone, and two hours if you add the library and the greenhouse.

When to visit

Spring is spectacular here: the willows around the lagoon green up before the rest of the city, and the beds planted around the library are renewed every year. In summer, the shade of the big trees and the wading pool turn the park into a neighbourhood refuge; evenings are especially mild thanks to the slope, which catches the breeze off Mount Royal. Autumn brings the most intense colours in the west end of the island, above all around the brook. In winter the greenhouse takes over: it is one of the rare places in the agglomeration where you can step from a snow-covered landscape into tropical vegetation by pushing open a door.

Worth knowing

In the 1890s the municipality acquired some thirty acres of farmland to create a public park; the grounds officially opened in July 1896, under Mayor Fred W. Evans, on roughly eighteen acres. In 1899 the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted — designer of Parc du Mont-Royal — assessed the result and judged that the available space could not have been put to better use. The public library was inaugurated on 20 June 1899, followed in September by the public hall now called Victoria Hall. Two commemorative cannons were installed as early as 1897 for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. For a time the park housed a small zoological garden with bears and foxes, removed around 1909. A greenhouse was built by the Robertson Brothers in 1913, and the architectural history of the present greenhouse goes back to 1927. In 2005 the ensemble formed by the park and the library was recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada.

Visitor tips

• Enter from the library side: it is the only point from which you take in, at a glance, the relationship between the building, the greenhouse and the park.
• The greenhouse can be visited free of charge, but its hours are shorter than the park’s — check before making the trip.
• In winter, combine the walk with the greenhouse: the contrast between snow and tropical vegetation is the best reason to come in January.

Questions and answers

When was Parc Westmount created? It officially opened in July 1896, on roughly eighteen acres of former farmland acquired by the municipality during the 1890s.

Is the library really part of the park? Yes, and that is precisely what makes the place valuable: the park and library ensemble was recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada in 2005.

Can you visit the greenhouse? Yes, free of charge, during its opening hours. It is attached to the library and houses a collection of tropical plants.

Did Frederick Law Olmsted design this park? No. He assessed it in 1899 and praised the layout, but the park is not one of his creations. Olmsted is the author of Parc du Mont-Royal.

Are there facilities for children? Yes: playgrounds, a wading pool open in summer, broad lawns and the lagoon with its mallard ducks.

What do the cannons in the park represent? They are two commemorative pieces installed in 1897 on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, at the time the park was founded.

Is there an admission charge? No. The park is free and accessible at all times; only certain sports facilities follow a booking system or a set schedule.