, photo = Phillips Square, Montreal, Sep 06 2022.jpg , photo_width = , photo_caption = , map = Canada Montreal , map_width = , type =

Town square A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true square, geometric square, used for community gathe ...

, location =

Downtown Montreal Downtown Montreal ( French: ''Centre-Ville de Montréal'') is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The district is situated on the southernmost slope of Mount Royal, and occupies the western portion of the borough of Vil ...

, Ville-Marie

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, nearest_city = , coords = , coords_ref = , area = , created = , operator = City of Montreal , visitation_num = , status = Open all year , open = Phillips Square (french: square Phillips) is a

public square A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true square, geometric square, used for community gathe ...

located in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

. The Square was established in 1842 thanks to a gift from Alfred Phillips to the city of Montreal.

History

In 1842, the square was first laid out in what was then a wealthy residential area on the fringe of the city of Montreal. The first merchant to open a business on Phillips Square was Alfred Joyce; “the high class caterer and confectioner” and one-time mayor of the town of Outremont who built an elegant shop on the south side of the square in 1878. In 1891,

Morgan's Henry Morgan & Company ( colloquially Morgan's) was a Canadian department store chain founded by Henry Morgan in 1845. The first store was located in Montreal, and expanded to include 11 stores in Ontario and Quebec before being bought by Hudson's ...

department store established itself on the north side of the square. That site is of particular interest to visitors from the United States because Confederate President

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

sent his family to live in Montreal during the American Civil War. A brass plaque installed on the west side of the store, today called The Bay, was dedicated to his memory. Davis came in 1867 to stay in John Lovell’s house, which then stood on the site. The plaque was removed in 2017. The head office of Henry Birks and Sons was built soon after on the west side of the square in 1894. The fast food outlet on the corner of the east side of Phillips Square was the site of Montreal’s first art gallery, which was inaugurated by the governor general of Canada, Sir

John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, (6 August 1845 – 2 May 1914), usually better known by the courtesy title Marquess of Lorne, by which he was known between 1847 and 1900, was a British nobleman who wa ...

(also known as the

Marquis of Lorne John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, (6 August 1845 – 2 May 1914), usually better known by the courtesy title Marquess of Lorne, by which he was known between 1847 and 1900, was a British nobleman who wa ...

) in 1879. When its collection grew, it eventually moved to the present-day

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA; french: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square ...

. On the south side of the square, where Alfred Joyce once had his pastry shop, is the Canada Cement Building, built in 1921. Designed by Barott and Blackader, the dignified 10-storey building was the first office tower to be built completely of reinforced concrete. Canada Cement was founded by

Max Aitken William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics o ...

, later Lord Beaverbrook, and Barott convinced him to use concrete in the building of his head office to advertise his cement-based products. The building was considered avant-garde when it opened because it was the first skyscraper in Montreal to have an underground parking garage, and there were then only a few automobiles on the road. The square was most recently renovated in 1995. On August 31, 2012, a memorial to the victims of the Blue Bird Café fire, which occurred nearby in 1972, was unveiled by the city of Montreal on the south side of the square to mark the 40th anniversary of the tragedy.

Monuments

The square features a bronze

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

of King Edward VII, who ruled from 1901 to 1910. He visited Montreal in 1860, while he was still the Prince of Wales, and opened the Victoria Bridge. The statue was designed by

Louis-Philippe Hébert Louis-Philippe Hébert (1850–1917) was a Canadian sculptor. He is considered one of the best sculptors of his generation. Career Hébert was the son of Théophile Hébert, a farmer, and Julie Bourgeois of Ste-Sophie de Mégantic, Quebec. At ag ...

and was erected in 1914. The four allegorical figures at the base of the monument represent Peace, the Four Founding Nations, Abundance, and Liberty.

Gallery

Image:Monument au roi Edouard Square Phillips 1914.jpg, 1914 Image:Square Phillip Montreal.jpg, 1922 Image:Phillips Square Montreal Conrad Poirier.JPG, 1937 File:Feature. Rush Hour BAnQ P48S1P09123.jpg, 1943 File:Edward VII Monument, Montreal, Sep 17 2022.jpg, Edward VII Monument in Phillips Square File:Four Nations, Edward VII Monument, Montreal, Sep 17 2022 (cropped).jpg, Four Nations File:Winged Genius, Edward VII Monument, Montreal, Sep 17 2022.jpg, Winged Genius File:Abundance, Edward VII Monument, Montreal, Sep 17 2022 (cropped).jpg, Abundance File:Peace, Edward VII Monument, Montreal, Sep 17 2022.jpg, Peace

References

{{reflist Downtown Montreal Squares in Montreal