A Jewel in a Park: Westmount Public Library, 1897-1918

Bruce Grainger is head of the Public Services Department, Macdonald
Library, McGill University.

In 1897, the Town of Westmount marked Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee
as Queen of the British Empire by building a modern public library in
Westmount Park. Opened in 1899, it was the first public library in
Quebec and was to remain the only such institution in the Montreal area
for many years to come. The failure to develop public libraries in the
province of Quebec can be laid directly at the door of the Roman
Catholic Church, which desired to maintain control over “the mental
and social life” of its adherents.

However, Hanson shows that Quebec was not unique in its lack of public
library service. To the east, the poverty of the Maritime provinces was
such that only a handful of public libraries existed there by the turn
of the century. West of Ontario, public libraries were built in the
major towns and cities, but in many cases ongoing services and
collections were inadequately financed. In contrast, Ontario developed
widespread public library service, and many municipalities received
Carnegie building grants. As late as 1912, it was estimated
that—excluding those in Ontario—there were only 25 public libraries
in Canada.

At the turn of the century, Westmount was a rapidly growing residential
community of affluent middle- and upper-middle-class English-speaking
Protestants. Thus, its residents were not only beyond the influence of
the Catholic Church, but had the economic means to support a public
library service. Hanson lucidly chronicles the steps that a civic-minded
town council took to create a modern public library building; adequately
stock it with reading materials; and expand both services and the
building to include a children’s library, a reference department, and
an open-stack policy. Credit is given to individual councilors; to the
architect; to Charles Gould, the University Librarian of McGill, for his
role in the early planning, building, and stocking of the library; and
especially to the very capable Mary Solace Saxe, who expanded library
service during her tenure as Westmount Librarian from 1901 to 1931.

This carefully documented study, which includes an extensive
bibliography, an index, and a few well-chosen photographs, is a worthy
addition to the growing body of Canadian library history.