WESTERN HOSPITAL
This hospital was first projected in 1871, the year in which the Medical Faculty[1] of Bishops College was established. For some time previously the want of a hospital in the West End had been felt and spoken of, but further than this no action was taken. When Bishops Medical Faculty was in its inception, it was feared they might not get full facilities for their students in the existing hospitals. Circumstances which occurred seemed to indicate that this would be realized. As a result a friend of Bishops College, Major Mills, offered to give $12,000 to build a western hospital. This donation was put in writing by Doctor Wilkins, then in Bishops, and signed by Major Mills, and an active canvass commenced. In a short time $30,000 was subscribed, the charter for incorporation was assented to on January 20, 1874, the present site purchased, and on the 29th June, 1876, the foundation stone of the first building was laid with appropriate ceremony. It is not required to notice the vicissitudes, which the building met with, beyond stating that for several years it remained unfinished. When at last completed, the Western Hospital Corporation was not in position to commence hospital work. It was leased, in 1884, by the Women’s Hospital, the charter of which was owned by the Medical Faculty of Bishops and opened for hospital work, there being two departments—a Gynæcological and a Maternity. A most successful work was done by this hospital when, in 1895, the marked growth of the city westward seemed to indicate that the time had arrived for putting the building to its original purpose, that of a general hospital. The lease with the Women’s Hospital was therefore cancelled by mutual consent, and in the fall of 1895, the Western Hospital, as a general hospital, began its active work. The ground owned by the Hospital Corporation is nearly three acres in extent, and is bounded by four streets, one being an avenue of over one hundred feet wide. This avenue leads directly to many of the large manufactories in the West End, and they furnish the Hospital with a large amount of its surgical work.
In 1907 the charter was altered and the new building was erected, the old one becoming the nurse’s home. The late Mr. Peter Lyale was the president at the time, having been in that office from 1906 to his death in 1912. He was succeeded by Mr. D. Lorne McGibbon.
THE ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL
The Royal Victoria Hospital received its name in commemoration of the jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, in memory of which it was founded in that year.
On the 2d of December, 1893, His Excellency the Governor General assisted at the inauguration of the new hospital, which was devoted, by Lord Mount Stephen and Sir Donald Smith, K.C.M.G., etc., to the cure of the sick, of whatever race or creed, to the training of nurses, and to the furtherance of science. The building is erected within a lot of eighteen acres, purchased by the founders for $90,000, to which another five acres, held under long lease from the city, make a convenient addition. It stands on part of the Mountain Park and faces on Pine Avenue and University Street.
The style of architecture is Scottish baronial, to which the limestone of Montreal is well suited. The facade of the administration block is after the style of F’yvie Castle, in Aberdeenshire. Over the main arch of the doorway are the monograms of Lord Mount Stephen and Sir Donald Smith. On the western gable of the central block appear the coat of arms of Lord Mount Stephen with his motto “Lippen,” an old Scotch word, meaning to attend. Sir Donald’s coat of arms is on the eastern gable, and bears the motto “Perseverance.” Both of these mottoes are admirable motives to inspire service in the cause of the sick. The building, begun in 1891, has employed 600 workmen and cost nearly eight hundred thousand dollars. To construction, furnishing and maintenance, the founders have devoted nearly one million five hundred thousand dollars. Designed by H. Saxon Snell, an English architect of eminence, whose specialty is hospitals, the structure combines, with peculiarities of its own, the best characteristics of Mr. Snell’s previous efforts.
The act of incorporation, passed in 1890, provides for fifteen governors, of whom seven shall be the mayor of Montreal, president of the Board of Trade, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, president of the Bank of Montreal, the chief officer of the Grand Trunk Railway resident at Montreal, and the principal and dean of the faculty of McGill College.
The other governors, expressly named in the act, were Sir Donald Smith (afterwards Lord Strathcona), Lord Mount Stephen, Alexander G. Patterson, W.J. Buchanan, Andrew Robertson and Thomas Davidson, Esquires.
The act provided for branch convalescent hospitals at Banff, N.W. Territories, and at Caledonia Springs.