Westmount Park

Sherbrooke and Melville Angle

1,141,002 sq. ft. – 26.19 acres

Second in size but first in popularity, Westmount Park is central to many City events and programs. As the city’s first public park, it has also established itself as a landmark within Westmount.

Guided by criteria which stipulated that it be central to Westmount, the location of the park was identified in 1892. Its inception was a small terrain originally earmarked for a Corporation Yard. Six years later, the purchase of additional land extended its boundaries from Sherbrooke Street to de Maisonneuve Boulevard (then Western Avenue), and from Melville Avenue to the back of the properties on Lansdowne Avenue. Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee brought the City an unexpected windfall, which allowed for the construction of Westmount’s first library, Victoria Hall, as well as a revamping of the park which, for the most part, was a largely wooded area.

In 1912, M.J. Howard Manning undertook the landscaping for the City. The park was laid out in the spirit of Frederick Law Olmsted – landscape architect for Mont Royal Park and New York’s Central Park – following the natural streams, ravines and wooded areas on the site. A more formal arrangement of the foot paths, fountains, ponds and borders was made in the twenties, which the present day scheme resembles closely.

Today, its 26 acres contain a wading pool, extensive playground, beautiful floral plantings, three baseball diamonds, a playing field, and clay and hard-surface tennis courts.

A serpentine waterway flows gently beneath aged willows and past shady benches.

The Westmount Recreation Centre, which includes two underground ice rinks, activity rooms and the municipal swimming pool, lies at its southwest corner, with the Public Library and Victoria Hall Community Centre in the northwest.

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