The making of Westmount, Quebec, 1870-1929: a study of landscape and community construction

This thesis analyses the making of the landscape and community of Westmount, Quebec from 1871 to 1929, when it grew from a quiet rural area into Montreal's foremost anglophone elite inner-city residential suburb. A cultural materialist approach to landscapes is adopted, viewing them analytically as a means to organize and assign existential meaning to human action towards the environment at a given time and place. The making of Westmount is placed within the context of Montreal's society in the 19th century, when rapid industrialization created massive wealth for the city's English-speaking business elite, but threatened its political domination. Westmount became the 'suburban solution' to this problem, providing a sanctuary where, by careful and pioneering use of municipal bylaws governing both land use and social conduct, a 'model' elite community and landscape was created and maintained. The degree of control obtained through the maintenance of Westmount's suburban autonomy allowed a strong expression in the landscape of a shared ideology of difference and privilege.