Royal Victoria College - McGill University (Montreal)

The Royal Victoria College, McGill's college for women, was named in honour of Queen Victoria, one of the most prominent female figures of her time. Its first, and central, wing was built by the American architect Bruce Price in 1899 at the request of Lord Strathcona, formerly Donald Smith, one of the most charitable of McGill's donors. Lord Strathcona gave the University £50,000 for the new project, and also purchased the Tiffin and Learmont properties on the northeast corner of Sherbrooke and University Streets. This provided funds and an ideal site for the new edifice, but in the process destroyed the old, nineteenth-century mansions previously located there. At the opening of the building, in 1899, a statue of the Queen, executed by Princess Louise, was presented to the College and today still sits enthroned on the steps of Strathcona's building.

The original, central edifice, named the Hurlbatt Wing after the College's first warden, is of the British chateau style. Its five storeys crowned by many gables and dormers still create a fine facade on Sherbrooke Street and are supported by a steel frame covered by a layer of the grey, Montreal limestone, featured by many campus buildings. The first roof of steel and terra cotta was replaced by the present copper sheets in 1932. The building is decorated by many carvings that refer both to wisdom and to its namesake, the Queen. The interior contained eight classrooms, an assembly hall that could seat 700 students, a dining hall, and various reading and drawing rooms. It also provided housing for the warden, tutors, and fifty-two female students who comprised the original College. Each resident was given a spacious bedroom with access to a lounge shared by three people at most. Every detail of the building was designed with great care, right down to the linens and cutlery, to provide comfort to its inhabitants who were named Donaldas after the first name of Lord Strathcona.

In the 1930s, the College had grown so large that it became necessary to greatly increase the number of rooms. Thus, in 1931, the four-storey Vaughan Wing was erected by Percy Nobbs, Professor of Design at the School of Architecture and a noted architect of many campus buildings, Macdonald Engineering among them. Nobbs' extension, located just west of the Hurlbatt Wing, right at the northeast corner of Sherbrooke and University, added living quarters for sixty-two more students, four tutors, and a second warden. The reinforced concrete frame, again covered in Montreal limestone, was designed to allow slightly smaller, more economical rooms, but still possessed a pleasing facade on both Sherbrooke and University Streets. Named after a warden of the College, as were all the wings of the ever-expanding complex, the Vaughan Wing is still part of RVC; its rooms, spacious by today's standards, house a new generation of female students.

Royal Victoria College was extended still further between 1948 and 1949 by the addition of the Reynolds Wing to the east side of the Hurlbatt Wing. Built by the firm of Barott, Marshal, Montgomery, and Merrett, this new steel-framed structure, faced with brick, stretches north up what is now Aylmer Street. The Garfield-Weston pool, running further east along Sherbrooke, was also added at this time. This new section of the complex of RVC provided 163 new rooms to satisfy the ever-growing needs of the women's residence.

In 1964, the twelve-storey tower of the Muriel V. Roscoe Wing was opened on the east side of University Street and is, to date, the last extension made to the Royal Victoria College. Durnford, Bolton, Chadwick, and Ellwood was the company entrusted with the construction of this steel-framed high-rise. The exterior of the building features precast concrete alternating with yellow brick facing, the whole interrupted regularly by plentiful windows which give a far-reaching view of the city and provide light to each room. The structure is set back from the street by a two-storey entrance hall and large lounge. It is quite efficient in its use of space, yet provides modern conveniences. The central core contains four elevators for ease of transport and flow of traffic. On each floor, fourteen rooms are located around the core, adjacent to the perimeter of the building, giving them a maximum of light. On every other floor, a warden uses two rooms, bringing the total occupancy to 156 students. There is a kitchenette and a laundry room on every second floor, reducing the use of the elevators somewhat, and a large cafeteria in the basement. Although the rooms are considerably smaller than those of Strathcona's original Hurlbatt Wing, they each have a large window, complete with tailored curtains, and all the furniture a student could need.

In 1971, the Royal Victoria College, now used only as a residence, was limited to the new Roscoe Wing and Nobbs' Vaughan Wing of 1931. The older Hurlbatt Wing and the Reynolds Wing of 1948 were given to the Faculty of Music in 1971 and are its permanent home today after much recent moving. From 1904 to 1964, musical instruction had existed in the Workman Mansion, a large, nineteeth-century style abode on the northwest corner of Sherbrooke and University, purchased for this purpose by Lord Strathcona. The Music Faculty was officially recognized and named in 1920. The Workman edifice was torn down in the 1940s due to an unstable wall; the Otto Maass Chemistry Building stands on this site today. At this point the Faculty of Music temporarily moved to the Shaughnessy house on Drummond Street until a more suitable location could be found. In 1971, the two easternmost wings of RVC were given to the uprooted faculty. In 1973, the firm Bland, Lemoyne, and Shine were commissioned to give the Faculty of Music a new concert hall, named Pollack Hall after Maurice Pollack, owner of a retail store company and donor of this auditorium, capable of seating 600. This "Welcome Home" present was very much appreciated by the Faculty which had been using Redpath Hall as its auditorium since the 1950s. The Marvin Duchow Music Library, named for its organizer and first librarian, was also established in space rented from an office building at 550 Sherbrooke. Today, the Hurlbatt and Reynolds Wings of the old RVC have been renamed the Strathcona Music Building, and Queen Victoria still reigns over the steps.

Picture(s) from McGill website