What Do Mont Royal And Central Park have In Common?

An integral part of the beauty of Montreal is its park located off Avenue du Parc and Avenue Des Pins Ouest just north west of the downtown core. Inaugurated on May 24th, 1876, the park has been part of city life for over 125 years.

If you have travelled to the lookout point to see the city by night, picnicked at Beaver Lake (lac aux Castors), or visited the Smith House, you undoubtedly know that Mont Royal is both a tourist destination and a favourite of city dwellers.

But what many people fail to realize is Mont Royal's connection with the most famous park in North America, Central Park, New York City. That behemoth of landscape architecture has been the location for millions of New Yorkers to host cultural events, play Frisbee with their dogs, jog incessantly, commit rape and murder, host parties, sell drugs, take up hermitage and almost anything else you can think of.

Although not as documented in American film and television as Central Park, Mont Royal can stand up against the Big Apple's crowning jewel of urban planning and not falter from the comparison. The reason why is a mystery to a majority of Mont Royal visitors. But to those in the profession of landscape architecture, the correlation is quite obvious.

You may thank many architects for the beauty that is parc du Mont Royal, from Susan Bronson and Peter Lanken (who renovated the Smith House) to Paul Melanson and Daniel Chartier (pavilion of parc Jeanne-Mance), from Wendy Graham (redesign and restoration of the Camillien-Houde Lookout) to Mario Masson (renovation work on the Crags path), they all have contributed and are its most recent examples. But if you wish to thank the originator of Mont Royal, the man who began the work back in 1874 on the behest of the City of Montreal, then look no further than the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, the creator of Central Park.

Olmstead is the greatest landscape architect of the new world. Not only did he put together Central Park and Mont Royal, but the Grounds of the US Capitol, Stanford University, Back Bay Fens (Fenway), Franklin Park, and Prospect Park, as well as others. What made Olmstead great were his ideas that parks should be open to all residents (not just the wealthy), that they should enhance ones well-being, that the park would be an escape into tranquility from a busy urban life. Mont Royal was Olmstead's only major work outside the continental U.S. and although all of his original plans for the park were not followed, we should thank him for making the trip across the border and giving Montreal the greatest urban park in all of Canada.

Related Links
Mont Royal Park - Official Site
Mont Royal Park - Pictures