The Honourable John Young (1811-1871)

John Young, a resident of Westmount from 1852 to 1872, is best known for developing Montreal as Canada's major port. When he was 41 he purchased an estate in Westmount which he named Rosemount, and retired from active business at age 49. In the following year, however, he sold part of his Westmount estate, and 10 years later he was bankrupt and was forced to sell the remaining part.

The Hogg Family: Five Generations of Westmounters

The ancestors of Westmount's Hogg family arrived in Montreal in 1829, and members of the family have lived in Westmount since 1914, when second generation family member George Hogg left the family farm for a newly constructed residence at 3637 The Boulevard. In 1901-1903 George Hogg purchased the Guaranteed Pure Milk Co., famous in Montreal for its watertower in the shape of a milk bottle, and the Purity Ice Cream Company. Both businesses were run by the family until 1990. In 1992 George Alexander Hogg and his brothers Dave and Allan, George Hogg's great grandsons, opened Hogg Hardware on Sherbrooke Street on the site of the former Pascal's.

Alice Lighthall (1891-1991) A Beloved Westmounter

Alice Lighthall came to live in Westmount in 1894 when her parents built a home on land purchased from the Murray estate. She attended McGill University, served as a Volunteer Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse in the First World War, and is primarily known in Westmount for her role as a heritage crusader and her interest in local history. She was instrumental in saving the Hurtubise house at 563 Côte St. Antoine from demolition in 1955. The WHA organized a surprise party there in 1981 in honor of her 90th birthday.

Titanic Tragedy: the Allison Family and Harry Markland Molson

When the Titanic set sail from Southampton, England on April 10, 1912, there were 5 Westmounter residents aboard. Harry Markland Molson, who had built a home at 2 Edgehill Road, had survived two other shipwrecks. The Allison family of 464 Roslyn Avenue, were a young couple with two young children. The sole survivor of the group from Westmount was the Allison baby, Trevor, who was saved by his nursemaid. His sister, aged 2, was the only child from first or second class to die. Only Hudson Allison's body was recovered. Trevor Allison died of ptomaine poisoning shortly before coming of age.

A Short History of the "Rosemount" Estate

Rosemount was the name given in the 1840's to the estate built on land that was originally part of a Sulpician grant made in 1708 to the Lavallée-Bouchard family. John Young purchased the property in 1852, and made many additions and improvements to the buildings and grounds during the 20 years he owned it. Many of these buildings are still standing, and their location has been influential in establishing the street patterns in the eastern part of Westmount. The Rosemount name has been carried on as well in the names of two streets in the area, Rosemount Avenue and Rosemount Crescent.

From the Archives - Researching Alice

Archivist Barbara Covington and WHA board member Ruth Allan-Rigby went to the Rare Book Room at McGill University to conduct research on Alice Lighthall. Four archival boxes of her correspondence and papers have been preserved there and include letters to and from Alice Lighthall as well as notes she took while attending rudimentary nurses' aid classes intended to prepare her for the field hospital work she was to do in France. Handling the materials that Alice Lighthall herself had handled was an interesting and moving experience which Barbara Covington describes in an article she has contribued to the most recent edition of the WHA Newsletter.