In the 19th century, industries and residential areas were concentrated along the Saint Lawrence River and the Lachine Canal. The city was overpopulated and polluted. The bourgeoisie began moving to the country, which at the time included Mount Royal.

As the marble plaque above the main entrance attests, merchant Hosea B. Smith had this house built in 1858. André Auclair, a mason, was hired to carry out the work. Arriving from Boston in 1840, Mr. Smith had purchased several parcels of land on the mountain between 1844 and 1855, consolidating a large estate of 186 arpents (65 hectares), one of the biggest on the mountain.

THE MOUNTAIN BECOMES A PARK
In 1869, the municipal council of Montréal, led by Mayor Aldis Bernard, was authorized to borrow $350,000 from the provincial government to expropriate the 16 private properties on Mount Royal for a public park.

The amount of $1,000,000, an enormous sum in those days, was added to the initial loan to complete the transactions and to carry out the work. The Smith estate received $110,000 for their land, house and outbuildings. It was the most expensive of the 16 properties acquired to form the park.

THE COMMISSIONER’S RESIDENCE
The acquisition of the house and the farm buildings was an important asset in the management of the future park. The commissioner of Parc du Mont-Royal, William McGibbon, lived in the house for about 30 years. The house lodged the park’s guardians until the 1930s.

A POLICE STATION
Throughout the 1940s and 50s, the Smith house doubled as a police and first aid station. The outbuildings, which were still standing, were used as stables and a workshop for park maintenance.

In 1960, new service buildings were erected in the park and the barn, stables and cowshed of the Smith house were demolished. In their place, a huge parking lot was built, drastically changing the pastoral character of the area. The police and their horses, as well as the park’s maintenance services, were moved to the new buildings, situated along Remembrance Road.

AN ART CENTRE
The house remained vacant until the opening of the Mount Royal Art Centre, in 1963. A year later, in 1964, the Art Centre hosted the international sculpture symposium in Montréal, the first symposium of its type in North America. During this event, the artists were lodged and fed at the Smith house. Its artistic vocation lasted almost 20 years.

A HUNTING AND NATURE MUSEUM
In 1983, the vocation of the house changed again. The Ville de Montréal ceded the residence to the Musée universel de la chasse et de la nature for a ten-year period. The small museum ran into numerous difficulties and closed its doors in 1988.

DEDICATED TO MOUNT ROYAL
In 1989, Les Amis de la montagne and the Ville de Montréal signed an agreement entrusting the organization with the long-term management of the heritage house. The objective was to make it a centre dedicated to the conservation and promotion of Mount Royal.

It took almost ten years to raise the funds needed for the renovation of the Smith House and to carry out the work.