Monklands Villa Maria Montreal 2012-09-19-b

Villa Maria is a subsidized private

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

co-educational

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. It was founded in 1854 and offers both a francophone and an anglophone stream. There are roughly 950 students in the French sector and 800 students in the English sector with an average class size of 34 students. Current tuition as of the 2021–2022 school year is $4,500 with $1,900 in extra mandatory fees. Formerly a

girls' school Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...

, it was open, beginning August 2016, to boys in the seventh grade. Between 2016 and 2020, the integration of boys was gradual, with current girls-only classes staying girls-only. This change was speculated to be a means of boosting enrolment, due to decreased numbers of eligible students entering the anglophone stream. The central part of the Villa Maria school is known as the Monklands Mansion and was the home of the

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...

from 1844 to 1849. It is a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of t ...

Monklands

In 1795,

James Monk Sir James Monk (1745 – November 18, 1826) was Chief Justice of Lower Canada. Monk played a significant role in the abolition of slavery in British North America, when as Chief Justice he rendered a series of decisions regarding escaped ...

, Chief Justice of Lower Canada, purchased an estate in Montreal that had previously belonged to the Décarie family. The first Monk residence, built in 1803, was the central section of the present-day Villa Maria. Sir James Monk willed the property known as ‘Monklands’ to his niece, Elizabeth Ann Monk. In 1844, the family leased Monklands to the Crown as a residence for the Governor General of Canada. Modifications were made to create a more imposing residence. Three Governors General— Sir Charles Metcalfe,

Lord Cathcart Earl Cathcart is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. History The title was created in 1814 for the soldier and diplomat William Cathcart, 1st Viscount Cathcart. The Cathcart family descends from Sir Alan Cathcart, who sometime be ...

, and

Lord Elgin Earl of Elgin is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1633 for Thomas Bruce, 3rd Lord Kinloss. He was later created Baron Bruce, of Whorlton in the County of York, in the Peerage of England on 30 July 1641. The Earl of Elgin is the h ...

—resided at Monklands. When Elgin occupied the house, British extremists threatened to burn the structure down after Elgin signed a bill that helped those of the French whose homes had been burnt down during British raids by granting them money to reestablish themselves. However, because Lady Elgin was pregnant at the time, the rebels decided to burn down the parliament building in Montreal, instead. Soon, Lady Elgin gave birth to a son, Victor Bruce, the future Viceroy of India, in a second floor room. When the capital of the Province of Canada moved from Montreal, Monklands was turned into a country hotel that operated for five years. Monklands is one of the oldest remaining

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

-style villas in Canada. Because of its excellent state of conservation and the historic importance of its various occupants, it was declared a National Historic Site in 1951.

School

The third phase of the building’s history began in 1854 when the

Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal The Congrégation de Notre Dame (CND) is a religious community for women founded in 1658 in Ville Marie (Montreal), in the colony of New France, now part of Canada. It was established by Marguerite Bourgeoys, who was recruited in France to create ...

purchased the estate to open a boarding school. They called it Villa Maria. Although some people believe the name is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for Ville Marie, which was Montreal's original name when first settled, it actually translates to "House of Mary". The school stopped boarding students in 1966 and now services young girls and boys of Montreal and surrounding areas from the ages 12–17 (or grades 7–11 according to Quebec Education levels). Villa-Maria

metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

station is named after the school.

Notable students

* Pauline Fréchette (1889–1943; graduated, 1908), poet, dramatist, journalist, nun *

Veronica Lake Constance Frances Marie Ockelman (November 14, 1922 – July 7, 1973), known professionally as Veronica Lake, was an American film, stage, and television actress. Lake was best known for her femme fatale roles in film noirs with Alan Ladd ...

, American actress *

Maybelle Stephens Mitchell Mary Isabel "Maybelle" Stephens Mitchell (January 13, 1872 – January 25, 1919) was an American suffragist, clubwoman, and activist. Born into a prestigious planting family of Irish Catholic background, she was educated at the Villa Maria Conve ...

, American suffragist * Jessica Pare, actress *

Anna T. Sadlier Anna T. Sadlier (1854 – April 16, 1932) was a Canadian writer whose novels were of a Catholic nature, and whose works numbered over forty volumes. She began to write when she was about eighteen. Her published works include a number of translatio ...

(1854–1932), writer

References

External links

Villa Maria's home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villa Maria (School) Catholic secondary schools in Quebec Government Houses in Canada High schools in Montreal Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce