|
Ravenscrag was a mansion built between 1860 and 1863 in the Golden Square Mile of Montreal, Quebec, for Sir Hugh Allan. In 1940, his son, Sir Montague Allan, donated the property to the Royal Victoria Hospital for use as a medical facility, when its famously sumptuous interior was completely stripped and gutted. Today the building is known as the Allan Memorial Institute and is part of the McGill University Faculty of Medicine. It stands on Pine Avenue at the top of McTavish Street on the slopes of Mount Royal. On its completion, the mansion of 72 rooms excelled "in size and cost any dwelling-house in Canada," exceeding Dundurn Castle, built by Sir Allan Napier MacNab in 1835.〔Dictionary of Canadian Biography (1881-1890), Volume XI〕 Although reduced in size and lacking its former grandeur, Ravenscrag continues to dominate what remains of the Golden Square Mile today. ==Construction== In 1860, Sir Hugh Allan purchased fourteen acres on the slopes of Mount Royal, for $10,000 from the estate of the late Simon McTavish. The property was then considered in the countryside and was outside the confines of Montreal. He commissioned the Liverpool-born architects, Victor Roy and John W. Hopkins of the firm William & Wily, to design and build a mansion on the land. By 1863, Hopkins and Roy had completed Allan's residence in the style of an Italian Renaissance villa or palazzo, made popular in England since the construction of Osborne House for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1851. Allan named his new residence after one of his favourite childhood haunts, the ruins of Ravenscraig Castle, Ayrshire.〔(Biography of Sir Hugh Allan ), ''Clydesite Magazine,'' Scotland]〕 As Allan intended, from the outside Ravenscrag was both imposing and intimidating.〔Archives of the City of Montreal on the Allan Memorial Institute (Royal Victoria Hospital), 2012〕 It had a 300-foot frontage and a Gate Lodge at the end of the drive that now filters out onto Pine Avenue. The view from the house looked over Old Montreal, across the Saint Lawrence River and over to the Green Mountains of Vermont. From the 75-foot tower rising over the house, Allan could occasionally be glimpsed with a brass telescope in hand scanning Longue-Pointe for the safe arrival of the weekly Allan Line Steamer arriving from Glasgow.〔''The Square Mile - Merchant Princes of Montreal'' (1987); Donald MacKay〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ravenscrag, Montreal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|