Phillip's Square from The Bay

All but one of the following photographs were taken in 2011 when we used to go to The Bay and my wife would buy clothes at The Bay's Jacques Vert department, I think it was on the second or third floor. In Vancouver The Bay has a terrific cafeteria, full course meals, while the cafeteria at the downtown Montreal Bay store is good but not great.  Next to the cafeteria is a small, free, museum on the history of The Bay and it's worth visiting. Some of these photos were taken from the dress department just above the Ste. Catherine Street entrance to The Bay; that's Phillip's Square directly across the street, this is the entrance where the organ grinder played back in the 1950s.

Spring 2011

June 2011

Where the Burger King is located was the location of the Art Association of Montreal; June 2011

Birks is on the right, now it has a hotel built on top of the original store

The Canada Cement Company building behind the statue of King Edward VII

Taken from Ste. Catherine Street, this is the entrance to The Bay, in 2013

Phillips Square, Some Photographs

There are thousands of historical photographs of Phillips Square, here are a few that follow the changes in the square.

Here is Phillips Square when it was still treed and rural; the AAM in the background;
the city plans to restore some of the trees

The building on the right was owned by Alfred Joyce, a prominent Montreal businessman;
the building was demolished and the Canada Cement Building constructed 
on this site in 1922

The Canada Cement Building is directly behind
the statue of King Edward VII

Morgan's Department store on the left; 

Phillips Square is across the street from Morgan's

Phillips Square, 1950s

Phillips Square, The Art Association of Montreal

Phillips Square in 1916

Phillips Square, located across the street from The Bay department store in downtown Montreal, has always interested me. Just down the street from Phillips Square was the studio of the Beaver Hall artists, and it was not a long walk from there to the Art Association of Montreal, located on the northeast side of Phillips Square. Eventually, the AAM became the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts / Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, located on Sherbrooke Street West, and it now has several buildings at that location. The AAM building was opened in 1879; the Museum's "new" building, on Sherbrooke Street, was opened in 1912. I consider the MMFA / MBAM one of the great attractions of the city, one of the great bonuses of living in Montreal, both for tourists and for Montrealers. 

    The land that became Phillips Square was donated to the city of Montreal in 1842 by the widow of Thomas Phillips, a wealthy Montreal businessman. At that time this was a residential area as it remained for many years. However, over time, businesses began to move to this area and the residents moved out. Today the square is being made more user friendly by the city, trees are being planted and the whole square is being renovated (if that is the right word). Unfortunately, condos are also being built in the area, huge ugly monstrosities that dominate the skyline. The monument in the center of the square is a statue of King Edward VII, the British monarch from 1901 to 1910; Edward was the son of Queen Victoria and, as Prince of Wales, he opened the Victoria Bridge in 1860. 

    Here are photographs of the Art Association of Montreal, on the northeast corner of the square.

The Art Association of Montreal

Art Association building, Phillips' Square, Montreal, QC, about 1890

Art Association of Montreal exhibition, 1905

The Art Association of Montreal is on the right, on the left is
Morgan's Department Store, now The Bay

Phillips Square in 1907, the Art Association of Montreal is on the left behind the horse and sleigh