Loyola College - Review Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

Page 13 text:

“In 1913 the architects Peden and McLaren, with Walter J. Murray as an associate, were engaged, and a plan to develop the fifty acres of farmland was presented: that part of the land on the south side of Sherbrooke Street was to be left as an orchard for the col lege to cultivate, and on the other half north of Sherbrooke Street, several handsome buildings were to rise. After a careful study of other in- stitutions, a basic proposal was made: to discard the traditional plan of ‘one large building with its dark and cheerless rooms, and to follow the modern English tendency towards separate buildings for each department’... The new buildings were conceived on the lines of a free adaption of the Tudor and Early Renaissance type of English Collegiate Gothic. “...with gargoyles Here’s a brief run-down on Loyola’s physical history taken from T.P. Slattery’s LOYOLA AND MONTREAL. In 1900 the Decary Farm consisting of 50 acres was purchased by the Corporation of Loyola College. This par- ticular site, it was said, produced the best musk- melons in North America. The cost: $25,297.10. The move west from Deum- mond Street (the site of the original school did not ac- tually take place until 1916.

Page 12 text:

The memories of college years will not only be filled with the faces of friends, the goods times and the bad, but also the places where all this happened. The campus of Loyola plays an integral and vital role in the uniqueness of the college. Loyola’s structural physical development is an interesting one. Did you know that the present site was once a melon-patch? Have you wondered why the Administration Building has its particular ar- chitectural style?

Page 14 text:

around the parapet, tracery and heraldic shields, the Tower was designed to have four octagonals with a large oval window in the center, and the main doorway to the Administration Building was inspired by that of St. Mary’s at Oxford. The taste of Father Thomas MacMahon, the rector, and his desire for beautiful things were manifest on all sides. For example, the magnificent solid oak doors of linen fold design leading to the chapel, offices and parlors on the main floor of the Administration Building, although luxurious for those difficult days, are now valued as prized possessions.”