Royal Vic: The Story of Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital, 1894-1994 9780773564602

Citation preview

W)t

&opal #tt

"Gazed down benevolently from the landing of a magnificent double staircase." (Photo: M. Slobodian)

The

Royal Vic The Story of Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital, 1894-1994

NEVILLE TERRY

Published for the Royal Victoria Hospital

by

McGill-Queen's University Press M O N T R E A L & K I N G S T O N • L O N D O N • BUFFALO

The Royal Victoria Hospital 1994 ISBN 0-7735-1170-9 Legal deposit second quarter 1994 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Terry, Neville, 1913— The Royal Vic: the story of Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital: 1894-1994 Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7735-1170-9 (bound). — 1. Royal Victoria Hospital (Montreal, Quebec) — History. 2. Hospital — Quebec (Province) — Montreal — History. I. Royal Victoria Hospital (Montreal, Quebec) II. Title RAg83.M6B.69 1994 362.1'1'0971428 C94-900256-9

Cover illustration: Georges Delfosse Original drawings and diagrams: Neville Terry Images not otherwise credited are from the Archives of the Royal Victoria Hospital The Editorial Committee, which guided the writing of this book, consisted of M. Entin, M.D., Chairperson; E. McGarry, M.D.; and F. Wallis, Ph.D. Ce livre est egalement disponible en francais sous le titre Le Royal Vic — L'histoire de VHopital Royal Victoria de Montreal, 1894—1994. This book was typeset by Typo Litho Composition Inc. in 12/13.5 Walbaum.

CONTENTS FOREWORD

Lord Strathcona

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

vii

ix

1

Founding Fathers

3

2

Scottish Baronial

21

3

Years of Growth

41

4

The Doctors

71

5

The Nurses

147

6

Administration and Supporting Staff

7 "The Greatest of These Is Charity" 8

From Bench to Bedside

9

Whither Now? INDEX SOURCES

269 277

267

235

177 217

i The original Hospital buildings.

FOREWORD

BY THE RT. HON. LORD STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL B.SC. (MCGILL) 1950 IT is WITH MUCH PLEASURE — and some family pride — that I introduce the centennial story of the Royal Victoria Hospital. After all, this great Montreal landmark and centre of healing owes its beginnings to three members of my family. It is generally known that one of my greatgrandfathers, Donald Smith, and his blood cousin George Stephen (who later became Lord Mount Stephen), together put up the money to build and endow the Hospital. What is not so widely recognized, however, is the important part played by my other great-grandfather, Robert Palmer Howard. Way back in the i88os, when Smith and Stephen were first considering this project, Dr Palmer Howard was the dean of McGill's Medical Faculty. Throughout a long and distinguished career (the young William Osier was one of his most promising pupils) Dr Howard cherished a dream of a fine new hospital for his beloved Montreal. As long ago as 1870 he wrote: "how noble it would be ... to erect an entirely new set of buildings ... upon some suitable site where it would stand as a monument of benevolence and munificence of the inhabitants of this prosperous city." Robert Palmer Howard was George Stephen's family physician. He was also a close friend of Donald Smith. In 1888 Palmer Howard's son, Robert Jared, married Smith's only child, Margaret Charlotte (my grandmother), who, by "special remainder," became the second Raroness Strathcona. Indeed, that is why the family name of Howard rather than Smith now attaches to the Strathcona title.

Foreword

Thus, when my two Scottish forebears sought expert medical advice about the proposed new Hospital, what was more natural than to turn to their distinguished friend and physician? Records show that in fact Dr Howard exerted considerable influence on the organization, layout, and equipment of the Hospital. Therefore perhaps it would not be too fanciful to suggest that the Royal Vic originated as a twinkle in the eye of my great-grandfather Robert Palmer Howard as long ago as 1870? Unfortunately he died in 1889, only four years before his lifelong dream of "an entirely new set of buildings" took shape on Montreal's mountainside. These three nineteenth-century members of my family were undoubtedly visionaries. But they could not have begun to foresee what would follow their act of creating "an hospital at Montreal for the reception and treatment of sick and injured persons of all races and creeds, without distinction." The truly remarkable story of what followed is unfolded in the pages of this book. It is particularly pleasing that this excellent work should have been written by an old friend, with whom I trained some forty years ago in the early days of management consultancy in Britain, and who then went on to make his home in Canada. STRATHCONA

hie of Colonsay Argyll — Scotland

vm

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IT WAS IN THE FALL OF 1989 that the Centennial Committee invited me to research and write the story of the Royal Victoria Hospital. Since that time a number of people have contributed, in one way or another, to the creation of this book. Without two of them, however, the stoiy might never have seen the light of day. These were my dear wife, Dr Trudie Terry, and my good friend, Dr Martin Entin. For more than two years Trudie read every page as it appeared — not once, but sometime twice and thrice. Her observations and suggestions were those of a keen-eyed family physician. Her patience and forbearance were those of a wife of forty-seven years. As chairman of the Centennial Volume Subcommittee, Martin provided the guidance and insight that could only come from a surgeon who has walked the wards of the Royal Vic for half the years it has existed. His enthusiasm and support have been unflagging. To these two people I address my heartfelt thanks. I also gratefully acknowledge the support and guidance I received from the other members of the Subcommittee, namely Dr Eleanor McGarry and Dr Faith Wallis. In particular, I must recognize the infinite pains with which they edited, expanded and rewrote my drafts on the Hospital's research activities (chapter 8, "From Rench to Redside"). Finally, I extend my sincere thanks to all those other people who, in their different ways, helped me to research and breathe life into the Royal Vic story. Foremost among them have been: Edgar Andrew Collard, Rrenda Cornell, Phebe Chartrand, Ovid Da Silva, Sandra Duchow, Nevine Fateen, Lynda de Forest, Rosa HarrisAdler, Helene Joly, Susan Kingsmill, Mona Kravitz, Cecily LawsonSmith, Agnes MacFarland, Joanne MacPhail, Robert Michel, Ngan Siumui, and Retty Watson. N.T.

Saint-Lambert, Quebec

This page intentionally left blank

Only a maker of books can appreciate the labours of others at their true value. SIR WILLIAM OSLER ( i Q O l )

CHAPTER 1

FOUNDING FATHERS OPENING DAY

2 Plaque in the entrance hall of the Hospital

MONTREAL'S ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL was formally opened on Saturday, 2 December 1893. The day had dawned cold and grey, with only occasional flurries to portend the heavy winter storm that next day would bring the entire city to a standstill. Invitations for the opening had been issued for half past two o'clock, but by midday many citizens could be seen climbing the steep wooden sidewalk of University Street, bent on inspecting their splendid new Hospital. Curious sightseers streamed through the lofty entrance hall, up the wide staircase, and past the marble bust of Queen Victoria. They crowded along corridors to peer into offices, dining rooms, the nurses' parlour, the huge kitchen, and the silent, empty wards. As the hour of the official opening approached, people pushed their way into the Women's Medical Ward B, where the ceremony would be held. Some 750 persons had been formally invited, but by half past two many more had crowded into the room. The great throng delayed entry of the official platform party, and it was well after three o'clock when the Governor General, Lord Aberdeen, and his retinue were greeted with a spirited rendition of "God Save the Queen," led by a choir of McGill medical students. The proceedings were opened by the president of the Hospital's Board of Governors, Mr R.B. Angus, reading a lengthy address of welcome. It included the following sentiments:

Founding Fathers

The hospital owes its existence to the munificence of two citizens of Montreal, Sir George Stephen and Sir Donald Smith. In the year 1887, in commemoration of the golden jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen, they jointly made a donation of one million dollars for the purpose of erecting and maintaining in Montreal a hospital for the reception and treatment of sick and injured persons of all races and creeds, without distinction; for the advancement of medical science, and for the establishment of a training school for nurses ... Your Excellency, as official Visitor and protector of the constitution, will ever be received with cordial welcome by the governors. In his reply to this loyal address, the Governor General heaped further praise on "the princely liberality" of the two founders. Noting the absence of Sir George Stephen (who had been detained in London), His Excellency humorously commented upon the selfeffacing modesty of the other benefactor, Sir Donald Smith: "Quite characteristically, he is not present on this platform ... he may be hiding himself in some corner of the building, but I hope he is within measurable distance. [Applause and laughter.]" Donald Smith was in fact there. He stood unrecognized at the rear of the crowd, beside Mr J.J. Robson, the Hospital Superintendent. Robson later recalled that the thought uppermost in both their minds was whether the floor was going to prove adequate to support the weight of the throng. The Governor General's lengthy oration was followed by more laudatory speeches. Dr Craik, Chairman of the Medical Roard, and the city's Mayor Desjardins added their own words of thanks for the public-minded generosity of the two benefactors. Their tributes were warmly acclaimed by the audience. Rut on the platform that day there sat another man who had played a key role in the historic events leading up to the generous foundation of the Royal Victoria Hospital. It was the impressive, bearded figure of William Van Home, an ex officio Governor of the Hospital, by virtue of his position as President of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. In 1893 these three men — Stephen, Smith, and Van Home — had much in common. They were all successful immigrants to Canada. Two of them were of humble Scottish stock; the third, Van Home, was of Dutch pioneer descent. They all became respected citizens of Montreal, where they managed to combine a lavish and elegant mode of life with the worthy pursuit of public duties. 4

Founding Fathers

CANADIAN PACIFIC For the past several years these three men had dominated the top executive committee of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Thus they collectively controlled the biggest and most far-reaching financial, social, and political undertaking in Canada. According to a Montreal historian, Marjorie Munroe, "This first transcontinental railroad was connected either directly or indirectly with almost every contemporary development, and the influence of its leaders was felt far beyond the realm of steam and steel." How did these men, the founding fathers of the Royal Victoria Hospital, reach such pinnacles of power and prosperity? What talents did they possess? What risks did they take? What hardships and set-backs did they suffer on the way? One thing is certain. Many of the most important events in Canadian history are reflected in the stories of their lives.

DONALD SMITH Donald Alexander Smith, who at the age of seventy-seven was to become Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, was born in 1820 at the town of Forres in northern Scotland. His father, a struggling small tradesman, found it hard to support his growing family, and so young Donald was sent to the local charity school, where "the children of necessitous parents in the parish should be instructed in reading, English, writing, arithmetic, and such other branches of education as the provost, magistrates and town council should think proper." He proved an apt pupil, and at the age of sixteen he entered the office of the town clerk to learn about the law. But after a couple of years of dry and dusty studies, Donald decided to travel to London, there to seek out his mother's older brother, John Stewart, an intrepid fur trader recently returned from the distant wilds of Canada. Arriving in Aberdeen on foot in April 1838, Donald booked passage on a coastal schooner to London; a month later he embarked for Montreal, armed with a letter of introduction from his uncle to George Simpson, the governor of the Hudson's Ray Company. Writing to his mother, Smith describes his voyage, fraught with danger and discomfort, in the 8oo-ton timber ship Royal William. It took seven weeks — a fact that might give pause to those London-toMontreal airline passengers who are inclined to impatience when their scheduled flight time of just seven hours is delayed thirty minutes by head winds.

5

Founding Fathers

On reaching the Hudson's Bay Company headquarters at Lachine, Donald Smith was hired as an apprentice clerk at a salary of $100 a year. Thus began a connection with the Company that would continue for the rest of his long life. The early years were not easy. He was moved around different trading posts, each more remote from civilized amenities than the last, but each posting bringing him more responsibility for the conduct of the Company's affairs (mainly the profitable purchase of furs from local trappers). Promotion was slow. Working conditions were always arduous, and sometimes downright dangerous. But for more than thirty years Donald Smith loyally served the Company in these isolated trading posts. He grew ever more highly regarded for the qualities of vitality, enterprise, and integrity he brought to his work. His physical and mental vigour were constantly under challenge. Round trips of up to two thousand miles by dogsled and canoe between the far reaches of Labrador and Montreal could be nightmares of danger and discomfort, but Smith undertook them regularly. Apart from the need to maintain his own health in remote and wild places, Smith was often called upon to minister to the ailments of others. Half a century later, speaking to the students of Middlesex Hospital in London, he described the method of antisepsis he used in Labrador in the 18405: It was a primitive and somewhat rude form of treatment that was practised in those days before Lord Lister's new discovery. For the treatment of wounds, ulcerated sores, etc., a pulp was made by boiling the inner bark of the juniper tree. The liquor was used for washing and treating the wounds and the bark, beaten into a plastic mass, was applied to form a soft cushion, lending itself to every inequality of the sore. Scrupulous cleanliness was observed throughout. As an amateur doctor Smith dealt fearlessly with dread diseases like scarlet fever; sometimes he even had to perform minor surgery. He always kept up his early interest in medicine and the health ol the people around him, and in later years gave large sums of money to improve the medical services in Labrador. Donald Smith showed enterprise and initiative in another area of health care: he set himself the task of producing fresh food on a small farm he created at the remote trading post of North West River. In 1860 an American scientist described a visit to the post: The astonished ear is greeted with a lowing of cattle ... in the rear of the agent's house is a barn from whose open windows

6

j Donald Alexander Smith, first Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, GCMG, ccvo, FRS, 1820—1914. (Photo: RVH Audio-Visuals Department)

Founding Fathers

hangs fragrant new-mown hay; and a noisy cackle within is ominous of fresh-laid eggs! Donald Alexander Smith, the intelligent agent of the post, is a practical farmer who, by continued care and the employment of proper fertilizing agents, succeeds in forcing to maturity, within a short summer season, most of the vegetables and grains produced in warmer latitudes ... There is no other place like Smith's in Labrador, in all its area of 420,000 square miles! (Willson, The Life of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal) Donald Smith's shrewd husbandry extended also to the management of money. Over long years spent in the wilds he had carefully invested the bulk of his wages, some of it in profitable Company

4 Bust of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal

8

Founding Fathers

shares. Because they trusted him, he also served as banker-investor for fellow employees, and by 1869, when he rose to become head of the Montreal department of the Hudson's Bay Company, Smith had amassed a modest fortune. It was about this time that the Company agreed to sell most of its vast Canadian territories to the government for the sum of $300,000. This decision gave rise to unrest that amounted to rebellion on the part of French, English, and Metis settlers in the Red River region. They were fearful that their lands and rights were being stolen. Smith's fluent French — learned from Roman Catholic missionaries — and his long associations with trappers and traders made him very well qualified for his appointment as special commissioner to investigate the rebellion and to restore order at Red River. His delicate mission was successful. Although the same problems were to arise over and over again, Smith's cool and fearless negotiations with the hot-headed rebel leaders brought an end to an episode of threatened violence. Reporting on his mission to the Prime Minister, he wrote: "I would respectfully submit that it is of the utmost importance there should be a strong military force in the North-west as soon as possible." This suggestion was acted upon by the government; the North West Mounted Police force was formed in 1873. In 1870 the Red River colony became the Province of Manitoba, and Smith embarked upon a political career. He became a member of the new provincial legislature and was then elected as an M.P. in the Confederation Parliament at Ottawa.

GEORGE STEPHEN For some years Donald Smith had had business associations with his cousin George Stephen. They were both significant shareholders in the Bank of Montreal, and their friendship and mutual trust were doubtless fostered by their common heritage. In 1873 these two Scotsmen joined forces in a venture that would lead to incalculable consequences for the growing Confederation of Canada. George Stephen, who at the age of sixty-two was to become Lord Mount Stephen, was born in 1829 at Dufftown in Scotland. Though the village was a mere fifty miles from Forres, the birthplace of Donald Smith, these first cousins were not to meet until fate brought them together in Montreal in 1866. George's father was the local carpenter. The family occupied a couple of rooms above the workshop of a small stone house; water 9

Founding Fathers

was drawn from the public well in the village square and after dark the living-room-cum-kitchen would be lit by candles. At the age of five George went to the nearby parish school. His schoolmaster was the minister of the local kirk, John MacPherson, M.A., who had taken first prize in mathematics at the University of Aberdeen: "... a fine-looking man about six feet high ... an excellent sportsman ... and an extra good fisher." It is interesting to speculate on the extent to which, over the following nine years, this dedicated Scots schoolmaster was responsible for forming the mind and character of the future Lord Mount Stephen. We do know that MacPherson numbered George Stephen among the three outstanding mathematicians he encountered in his thirty-odd years at the school. We know, too, that when a boy had tackled a problem in mathematics with conspicuous success, his reward was an invitation to go salmon fishing. It seems certain that this was how Stephen came to love the sport that was ever to be his main recreation. By the time George was fourteen there were six other Stephen children to feed and clothe. He left school and worked as a stable boy at the local Fife Arms Hotel. At the age of fifteen he set out for Aberdeen, where he apprenticed himself to a draper and silk mercer in Union Street. His early tasks were menial — dusting, sweeping, window-cleaning, shovelling snow, delivering parcels. Nearly sixty years later, when he returned as Lord Mount Stephen to receive the freedom of the city, he spoke of his Aberdeen apprenticeship.

/ George Stephen, first Baron Mount Stephen, GCVO, DL, 1829—1921. (Photo: HVH Audio-Visuals Department)

I had but few wants and no distractions to draw me away from my work. It was impressed upon me from my earliest youth ... that I must aim at being a thorough master of the work by which I had to get my living, and to be that, I must concentrate, I was told, my whole energies on my work, whatever it might be, to the exclusion of everything else ... The ability to bring steadfast single-mindedness to the job in hand was to serve George Stephen well through the challenges and setbacks that lay ahead. In 1848, having finished his apprenticeship, Stephen made his way to Glasgow in search of employment. There was a trade depression and the outlook was not promising. He moved on to London where at last he found a job with a wholesale dry goods merchant, F. Pawson and Company, of St. Paul's Churchyard. The story is told that when he arrived in search of work it was stocktaking day, and the store was in chaos; no one had time to talk to the youth, who 11

Founding Fathers

eventually turned away disappointed. On his way out he stooped, picked up a pin, and stuck it carefully behind the lapel of his coat. The foreman, who had observed him, called him back and gave him a job. George Stephen had been at Pawson's for two years, and had risen to departmental senior, when he had another lucky break. His father's second cousin William had emigrated some years before and established a wholesale dry goods business in Montreal. He came into Pawson's one day to place an order, and it was George who served him. Seeing his young kinsman's signature on the invoice, and struck with his efficiency, William Stephen made himself known and offered to take George back with him to Montreal. And so it was that in March 1850 the twenty-one-year-old George Stephen sailed from London in the John Bull, a regular Montreal liner of 456 tons. He joined the firm of William Stephen, "Importer of British and Foreign Dry Goods," at 226 St Paul Street, and before long he became a junior partner. He showed remarkable aptitude for commercial dealing and soon began to travel to England in the capacity of buyer. He happened to be there when the Crimean War loomed up, and on his own initiative he bought up all the cotton and woollen goods he could lay his hands on and shipped them to Canada in anticipation of scarcity and high prices. It was not the first time that he had alarmed his senior partner by taking such risks, and on this occasion William Stephen was heard to say, half seriously: "Well, it's clear that young George is going to ruin the firm, so it might as well come now as later." In fact, it proved to be the most profitable deal that the firm had ever transacted. Business continued to thrive, and in 1862, when Stephen Senior died, George took over the Company. He began to extend its range from marketing to manufacturing and he acquired control of four woollen mills in Quebec's Eastern Townships. From there on his ventures were many and diverse: the Montreal Rolling Mills in 1869; the Canadian Rolling Stock Company in 1870; the Canadian Cotton Company in 1872. By now he was a director of the Bank of Montreal, the largest in the country. He was rapidly becoming a power in the land, with his finger in many profitable pies. Soon, however, his business acumen and his remarkable staying power were to be taxed to their limit. For in 1873 his cousin Donald Smith persuaded him to participate in what was to prove an exciting but highly risky venture.

12

Founding Fathers

ST. PAUL AND PACIFIC RAILROAD As a Manitoba member of Parliament, Donald Smith was required to travel frequently between Winnipeg and Ottawa. Transport arrangements at the western end of this route were slow and primitive. They involved a gruelling six-hundred-mile journey by swirling river boat and bumpy stage coach from Winnipeg south to St. Paul in the United States. Thence the journey was completed by rail via Chicago and Toronto. Perhaps because of these wearying journeys, Donald Smith saw an opportunity. Winnipeg obviously needed a railway link with St. Paul to carry people and goods to and from the new province of Manitoba. In 1862 a company bearing the grand name of the "St. Paul and Pacific Railway" had been chartered in Minnesota to build a railroad northward from St. Paul. It had had the typically chequered financial history of a pioneer railway company, staggering from receivership to receivership with intervals of building in between. In 1872, with scarcely two hundred miles of rusting railroad built, it again went bankrupt. The fiscal and political background was a complicated tangle that involved Dutch major bondholders, the state legislators of Minnesota, and other U.S. political and business interests. Into this perilous financial jungle stepped Donald Smith and George Stephen, as directors of a small syndicate they had put together to acquire the St. Paul and Pacific Railway. They staked their own money, and they borrowed heavily from the Bank of Montreal. For the first few years it was a touch-and-go, white-knuckle operation. But by 1878 they had managed to extend the railway to the Manitoba border and connect it with a line they had built from Winnipeg. The payoff was enormous. They got millions of acres of now valuable public lands, which the United States Congress had promised to grant them when the American line reached the Canadian border. Smith and Stephen were now millionaires.

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY When British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871, the Canadian government undertook to build a railway to the Pacific within ten years. Conspiracies to secure a charter for the contract led to a political scandal that brought down the government in 1873. It was not until 1881 that the Canadian Pacific Railway was incorpo-

!3

14

Founding Fathers

rated and the contract was awarded to a syndicate led by George Stephen and Donald Smith. From the outset the partners faced enormous problems. Financial crises constantly threatened to halt construction of the railway; no bigger private enterprise has ever been undertaken in Canada — before or since. Time and again Stephen and Smith pledged their personal fortunes as security for loans. In her book Awakening Continent Heather Gilbert records that when Treasury officers visited Stephen's magnificent home in Montreal, "They not only counted all his cash and securities, but valued, with expert assistance, his paintings, his statuary, his furniture, also his household linen and silverware. The old gentleman looked over the long list carefully and, without the flicker of an eyelid, signed it all away" (Fig. 6).

WILLIAM VAN HORNE Along with these frequent financial crises came the sheer physical difficulty of driving a railroad across 3,000 miles of virtually unexplored prairie, forest, lake, and mountain. Here the partners were 6 The dining room of more fortunate. They had chosen one man, William Van Home, to George Stephen's Montreal home, 1894. take sole charge of the building and operation of the railway. They "They [The Treasury had chosen wisely. officers] not only counWilliam Cornelius Van Home — who at fifty-one was to receive a ted all his cash and seknighthood from Queen Victoria — was born in 1843 to poor Dutch curities, but valued, with expert assistance, his parents who had settled in Illinois. At the age of fourteen, to help paintings, his statuary, support his widowed mother, he got his first job as a telegraph mesHis furniture, also his senger with the Illinois Central Railroad. He quickly taught himself household linen and telegraphy, and was soon standing in for seasoned operators of this silverware." new method of transmitting messages to control trains. This was an (Photo: Notman Photographic Archives, era of frenzied railroad development in America, and young Van McCord Museum of Home rapidly widened his experience by moving from one pioneer Canadian History) company to another. To all his posts he brought an enthusiasm for efficiency that seemed to infect others around him. At twenty-five he was superintendent of the entire telegraph system of the Chicago and Alton Railway. He sought yet more responsibility, and four years later, at the age of twenty-nine, he was probably the youngest general manager of a railway operation in the world. By 1881, when William Van Home accepted the Canadian challenge, he had become a legendary figure, "a railroad general manager who could make or break towns, build them up in his favour !5

7 William Van Home (Photo: Notrnan Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History) l6

Founding Fathers

into flourishing centres, or make grass grow in their streets." His appointment was probably the most decisive single factor in the historic saga of the CPR. From the outset Van Home brought all his surging vitality and drive to the gigantic task. He set up an elaborate organization to ensure the regular flow of materials and supplies. By the end of the first year, 12,000 men and 5,000 horses, working in 1,700 teams, had pushed the line nearly 500 miles westward. And Van Home was everywhere — directing, encouraging, threatening. According to Van Home's biographer, Walter Vaughan, "Van Home's drive for performance shook some of the men who had to carry out his orders. Some fell by the wayside, others were fired when they were found to be using their connection with the Company for their own profit. But the pressure was such that people produced more than they themselves thought possible." Time and again the difficulty of finding enough money to feed the insatiable maw of this vast project returned to haunt Van Home. The wages car was frequently delayed for lack of cash. Yet despite these and myriad other problems, Van Home was able to announce that he would complete the railway in five years — half the time allowed in the government contract, and he was true to his word. In 1885 the last rail was laid to connect the line between Montreal and Port Moody, B.C., a distance of 2,893 miles. On 7 November of that year a group of people posed for what was to become the most famous photograph in Canadian history: Donald Smith, with William Van Home at his side, stooping to drive in the ceremonial last spike, which would make the connection between eastern and western 8 Map of the Dominion of Canada showing how the CPR track connected the country from east to west (1883). (Courtesy of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill University Libraries)

!7

Founding Fathers

9 Donald Smith driving in the last CPB, spike at Craigellachie, British Columbia, on 7 November 1885.

Canada real and tangible (Fig. 9). The Prime Minister of the day, Sir John A. Macdonald, was probably echoing the feelings of many Canadians when he said: "Late events have shown us that we are made one people by that road, that that iron link has bound us together in such a way that we stand superior to the shafts of ill-fortune." Though today we may see a certain irony in that hopeful rhetoric of a century ago, one thing is sure: by their vision, their courage and their enterprise, those three adopted sons of Canada, now citizens of Montreal, had made an enormous contribution to the explosive development of a country where, before construction of the railway, less than i per cent of Canada's 5.5 million people were to be found west of Toronto. It is true that all three, Stephen, Smith, and Van Home, amassed great personal wealth from the enterprise, and that public honours were bestowed upon them by a grateful government. But it is also true that they later gave a great deal of their resources and of themselves to the service of the community. As we look back on that chill winter opening day in 1895, it is perhaps not too fanciful to suggest that, beyond and above the substantial amounts they gave to build and support the Hospital, these founding fathers also bequeathed some part of themselves, some measure of their own remarkable vitality and spirit, to the newborn

18

Founding Fathers

centre of healing. In recounting the story of the Royal Victoria Hospital over the past hundred years, will we see any signs of the single-minded dedication of a George Stephen? Will we detect the downright, practical attitude of a Donald Smith, or sense the surging infectious enthusiasm of a William Van Home? The reader may find some answers to these questions in the pages that follow.

!9

C H A P rr K R 2

SCOTTISH BARONIAL A DIFFICULT SITE ON TUESDAY, 5 DECEMBER 1893, a lengthy letter appeared in the Montreal Daily Star over the name of James R. Rhind, "Assistant Architect." To the Editor: SIR — At the opening of the Royal Victoria Hospital on Saturday, I heard a number of people remark that they could not tell where they were, and that they were absolutely lost in the building. This was not strange when you consider the extent of the buildings and the many and various departments into which an hospital is divided.

10 "Designed in the Scottish baronial style."

Mr. Rhind goes on to spell out and describe, with admirable clarity, the forty-odd different departments contained within the H-shaped cluster formed by the Administrative Block and its East and West Wings (see page 22). He then continues: When Mr. Henry Saxon Snell, Fellow of the Royal Institute of Rritish Architects, London, Eng., was appointed architect and handed the plan of the site, and began to consider the arrangements best suited to the peculiarities of the ground, he said it was the most difficult task he had ever had to perform. These very difficulties which to most architects would be insurmountable, Mr. Snell has in a masterly way taken hold of and actually enlisted in his service and made to serve him as his servants,

DRAWING OF THE ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL IN 1893 SHOWING THE "H-SHAPED CLUSTER FORMED BY THE ADMINISTRATIVE BLOCK AND THE EAST AND WEST WINGS" THE

PATHOLOGY WING Museum Professors' room THE WEST iSURGICAL) WING

Large public ward Private wards Gynecological wards Children's ward Locked ward Ward kitchens Nurses' rooms Medical officers' bedrooms Napery stores and patients' own clothing cupboards Surgical theatre with anesthetic room After-recovery rooms and nurses' room attached Surgeon's consulting room

Lecture and demonstrating theatre Mortuary and cold mortuary Post-mortem room Funeral waiting room THE ADMINISTRATIVE BLOCK The Board of Governors and secretary Medical resident officers Visiting doctors Dispensary Waiting room for outpatients Consulting room for patients Casualty operating theatre Nurses' parlour Domestic servants Men servants Storeroom for fuel, etc.

THE EAST (MEDICAL) WING

Large public wards Private wards Children's wards Ward kitchens Nurses' rooms Medical officers' bedrooms Napery stores and patients' own clothing cupboards Medical theatre with professors' room attached Clinical chemistry room

FRONT ENTRANCE

Diagrammatic outline of the Royal Victoria Hospital 1893, showing the location of departments (not to scale)

22

Scottish Baronial with the result a noble and beautiful pile of buildings, conveniently and scientifically constructed and arranged. In explanation of this loyal tribute to his boss, the principal architect, Mr. Rhind then dwells on problems presented by the steeply sloping mountain site. Today, a century later, some of the facts he recites will be painfully familiar to people who have to move around the Royal Vic. For instance: From the lowest point of the ground to the highest point of the ground which the buildings cover, there is a difference in level of sixty-two feet, the height of an ordinary building of six stories. The large medical ward on the principal floor, where the building was declared open on Saturday, is 46 feet 6 inches above the level of University Street just outside, and you can walk right along on the same level through the bridges to the other side of the building and step on to the green turf with which the grounds about the buildings have been so beautifully covered. The bridge on the medical side is thirty-six feet from the ground: the bridge on the surgical side and on the same level, is just high enough to allow a man on horse-back to pass under it ... One of the many conveniences of the general arrangement of the buildings is: a nurse has never to walk up or down more than one stairs from her room in her duties. When she crosses the bridge, she enters an elevator which will convey her to the floor on which her work is to be done. Mr Rhind next makes the enthusiastic claim that the heating and ventilation systems of the Hospital "are as near perfect as has yet been attained — especially in a climate like ours." He describes how fresh air "is taken from the outside, passes over heated coils of pipe and comes into the wards at a temperature of 96 degrees, when it is many degrees below zero outside." He particularly admires an ingenious arrangement whereby vitiated air is drawn from the wards through a shaft which surrounds the iron smoke pipe from the boilers. "This system acts automatically and constantly without the aid of fans driven by steam. It does not depend on any machinery that might get out of order at any time and leave you with a badly ventilated room." Having thus enlightened his readers about the interior of the Hospital, the assistant architect proceeds to inform them about its exterior:

23

Scottish Baronial The building is in the Scottish baronial style of architecture. It is a style of great dignity and beauty. In the hands of a master it is pliable and lends itself to any form of plan, symmetrical or irregular, plain and severe or rich and picturesque ... Mr. Saxon Snell chose the Scottish baronial style for these reasons — and also because the generous donors were of "the land of brown heath and shaggy wood." (Fig. 11)

EARLY PROBLEMS When James Rhind sat down to pen his laudatory letter to the press, his thoughts may well have turned back to the six troubled years that preceded the Hospital's opening — years that were punctuated by arguments, setbacks, and muddle. The story of the Royal Vic really began on the evening of 18 April 1887, when Montreal's City Council considered a formal missive received from Sir George Stephen and Sir Donald Smith. The preamble to this document declared the intention of these two citizens to do something about improving existing hospital accommodation for the sick and poor of Montreal, increasing the facilities for acquiring a medical education, and providing for the training of professional nurses. They were prepared to put up the sum of one million dollars for the erection and maintenance of such a hospital, provided that the Council would donate the most suitable available site. This was specified precisely as "a detached portion of the city property of Mount Royal Park, lying immediately north of the reservoir with a frontage on Pine Avenue." The document referred to "the approaching celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the reign of Her Gracious Majesty" and stated that the hospital, with her permission, was to be named "The Royal Victoria Hospital, and to be for the use of the sick and ailing without distinction of race or creed." While they were invoking help from the City Council to secure a site they had already earmarked, the general tone of their letter suggests that Stephen and Smith were resolved from the outset to keep tight personal control over the project. This is aptly illustrated in the closing paragraphs: The Governor General, for the time being, to be the patron and visitor of the hospital, and the other members of the governing body thereof to be named by us. When the corporation has made over the land in question to 24

// The Royal Victoria Hospital, 1893. "Mr Saxon Snell chose the Scottish baronial style ..." (Photo: attributed to James Rhind)

2

5

.The.Royal.Victoria.Hospital.Montreal. .H.Saxon.Snell.F.R.I.B.A.London.

12 Architect's original concept of the Royal Victoria Hospital, it

26

27

ij Architect's sketch, 1888.

28

Scottish Baronial the trustees to be appointed by us, steps will at once be taken for obtaining a charter incorporating the Royal Victoria Hospital... and creation of the hospital building may be commenced without unnecessary delay. (Author's italics) The formal offer was received warmly by the City Council, and members vied with each other to voice their "grateful appreciation of the princely munificence of this magnificent endowment to honour the name of our beloved Queen." A site committee of four members, headed by His Worship the Mayor, was charged "to consider and report to this Council on the necessary steps to take for this purpose." The committee reported to a later Council meeting that it had visited the site in question, that it was eminently suitable for the Hospital, and was not essential for the purposes of the Mount Royal Park. Among its advantages, the committee noted, was the fact that the site was readily accessible from streets that already existed and that "these streets afford a convenient and unobtrusive route to the cemetery." The committee recommended that the property be conveyed forthwith to the Hospital trustees. The Council adopted the report, but it was found that, under the City's Charter, approval of the lease would have to be obtained from the Quebec provincial legislature. It was thought that this would be a simple formality, but unforeseen complications arose and final approval was delayed for almost a year. Meanwhile, the two donors took steps to ensure that the Charter for the hospital would be granted by June 1887, the month marking the Queen's Golden (fifty-year) Jubilee. Their purpose was achieved with astonishing speed. First, Crown permission had to be sought to name the institution the "Royal Victoria Hospital." Then a government bill to incorporate the Hospital was introduced in Ottawa. The bill passed through a total of six readings in the Commons and the Senate, and on 23 June 1887 the Hospital Charter received royal assent. Only nine weeks had elapsed since the proposals were first mooted by Montreal City Council. The bill's swift passage through swathes of governmental red tape echoes the dynamism and influence that George Stephen and Donald Smith exercised in the Canada of their day.

2

9

Scottish Baronial

THE CHARTER The Charter (or Act of Incorporation) is a formidable document, which proclaims in ten clauses the origins, purposes and the constitution of the Hospital. The first clause names those empowered "to establish an hospital in the city of Montreal, in Canada." Then, somewhat surprisingly, it goes on "and also convalescent cottage hospitals and branches thereof, at Banff, in the North-West Territories, and Caledonia Springs in the Province of Ontario." The inclusion of these two places, one sixty and the other over two thousand miles from Montreal, as suitable locations for branch establishments, reveals that mineral springs and health resorts represented likely sources of revenue at the time - and both of the settlements were located on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Up to now the Royal Vic has not sought to avail itself of this legal provision. One of the most significant clauses in the Charter reads as follows: 9. The corporation shall have power to make arrangements with any other hospital corporation for the acquisition thereof, or for the amalgamation thereof with and under the name of the corporation hereby created: provided that such terms and conditions shall not change or modify in any respect the constitution of the governing body of the corporation hereby created ... (Author's italics) Subsequent events suggest that this restrictive clause signalled a clear intention by Stephen and Smith to safeguard the autonomy of the institution they were creating. For at the time the Charter was drawn up, the only feasible contender for "acquisition or amalgamation" was the Montreal General Hospital. Rut for many people 14 An early plan later this was not mererly a possibility, it was an attractive probability — considerably modified. perhaps even a heaven-sent answer to some of the General's longstanding problems. The Montreal General Hospital had occupied premises on downtown Dorchester Street East since 1822. Buildings had been extended to accommodate the increasing size of the city's population, but despite extra wings, overcrowding was chronic and pressing. As early as seventeen years before, Dr Palmer Howard, chairman of the Hospital's Medical Board, had ended his 1870 Annual Report with the words: "noble would it be ... to erect an entirely new set of buildings ... upon some suitable site where it would stand as another 31

Scottish Baronial

/j Drawing of East Wing, 1888

monument of the benevolence and munificence of the inhabitants of this prosperous city." This appeal resulted in an additional wing, but ten years later overcrowding again became an urgent subject of debate: the Medical Superintendent reported that "patients were sleeping on the floors of the men's medical wards, and with recurring typhoid epidemics, tents had to be erected in the hospital yard to care for these patients." Plans for a new hospital structure were prepared, but had to be shelved in 1885, due to shortage of funds. When proposals for the Royal Victoria Hospital were first announced in 1887, it seemed that the new institution would provide the answer to all of the Montreal General's problems of overcrowding. But soon another idea began to be bruited about: that one large hospital might be better than two small ones, and that the question of amalgamation ought to be explored. These overtures led to a series of meetings between representatives of the governing boards of the two institutions. The first of these discussions took place in October 1887. Delegates from the General Hospital criticized the proposed site of the new hospital. They claimed that the property would encroach on Mount Royal Park, "one of the showpieces of Canada," that it would be remote and steeply difficult of access to patients and their friends, and that it would be impossible to provide emergency accident services to the lower parts of the city. Most of these objections had already been voiced by other interested parties — notably, some of the local landowners in the vicinity of the site. Rut the clinching argument put forward by the General Hospital was a new and formidable one. The chosen site lay just above the McTavish reservoir, which at that time was not covered over. So the General Hospital's delegation enquired whether "consideration had been given to the possibility of contaminating the civic water supply by sewage and by airborne emanations from the hospital windows." This proved to be such a cogent argument against the original site that it eventually forced the donors to purchase adjoining land and move the site toward University Street, where the hospital buildings would be erected east of the reservoir. Negotiations between the two hospitals continued intermittently for a couple of years, first by actual meetings and later by correspondence. Arguments and counter-arguments were advanced about the pros and cons of an amalgamation. Neither side showed any great enthusiasm for linking up with the other except on its own

33

Scottish Baronial

terms. In this regard the Royal Victoria held tenaciously to its chosen site, and to the powers of its governing body as vested in the constitution. Records show that by the end of 1889 negotiations had reached an impasse, and the Royal Victoria Hospital began to go ahead on its own. There are compelling reasons for believing that the idea of amalgamation was doomed from the beginning. Both Smith and Stephen were very close to Dr Palmer Howard, the distinguished physician who for years had been campaigning for a new hospital in Montreal. Not only was Dr Howard chairman of the Medical Board of Montreal General Hospital (where he had made his impassioned plea for a new building nearly twenty years before) but he was now Dean of the Medical Faculty of McGill University. He was also the personal physician and close friend of George Stephen. And he was related by marriage to Donald Smith. Dr Howard appears to have been associated with the Hospital project from its inception, often giving advice and guidance to Smith and Stephen. It was he who originally briefed the English architect, Mr Saxon Snell, about the special needs of the hospital, with particular regard to such aspects as climatic conditions. It was Dr Howard who later examined and commented on the architect's sketch plans and suggested modifications. But above all, it was almost certainly Dr Howard who kept the donors closely informed about a storm of protest that had arisen in Montreal medical circles. It stemmed from the fact that in 1887 the Life Governors of the Montreal General Hospital passed over the Medical Board's nomination of McGill's gold medallist of that year for an appointment to the Hospital's resident staff. It is significant that the Royal Victoria's constitution (which proved to be a major stumbling block in the Montreal General negotiations) contained restrictions about the appointment of Governors and their powers to upset nominations for hospital appointments. Unfortunately Robert Palmer Howard died in 1889, never having lived to see the fulfilment of his dream, a splendid new Hospital for his beloved Montreal.

FINANCIAL PROBLEMS The first meeting of the Board of Governors of the proposed hospital was held on 3 September 1887. Section 2 of the Charter spelt out that: "There shall be fifteen governors of the said corporation, namely, seven persons holding office as such by reason of their of54

Scottish Baronial ficial position, and eight persons individually appointed or elected." Section 2 then went on: The first board of governors shall consist of the following official persons, namely, the Mayor of Montreal, the president of the Board of Trade of the city of Montreal, the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, the president of the Bank of Montreal, the chief officer, resident at Montreal, of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada, the principal of the University of McGill College, and the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the said University ... and of the following persons, namely, Sir George Stephen, Baronet; the Honorable Sir Donald Alexander Smith, the Honorable John J.C. Abbott, Alexander T. Paterson, James Wentworth Buchanan, Richard Angus, Andrew Robertson, and Thomas Davidson. At their inaugural meeting this gathering of distinguished citizens elected the Hon. John J.C. Abbott, ex-mayor of Montreal and now a federal cabinet minister, to be the first president of the Board of Governors. Although approval of the site had not yet been obtained, Abbott was charged to approach Saxon Snell, the London architect who had been nominated by the donors. The initial letter, which John Abbott wrote to Snell in November 1887, contained the following passage: I think I may say that the Board of Governors will desire to have the building of such a character and with such accommodation for patients as can be constructed with one-fourth to one-third of the foundation money, one million dollars. The hospital will be sustained by the revenue of the balance. It will therefore have to be on a comparatively modest scale, and the expenditure on anything not essential to the comfort and care of the patients, must be restricted to the lowest possible figure ... The last sentence of Abbott's directive will strike a familiar chord in the mind of anyone associated with the Royal Victoria Hospital today. Plus QCL change ... Saxon Snell paid a short visit to Montreal in January 1888. He viewed the site and discussed some preliminary sketch plans with John Abbott and Dr Howard. Both of them thought the plans were too elaborate, and Snell promised to cut them down. Abbott reinforced his concern in a letter to Snell dated 8 February: I presume you fully appreciate our position with regard to the question of cost ... that the building must be capable of being

35

Scottish Baronial

created at a cost not exceeding three hundred and thirty thousand dollars ... this is the utmost limit to which the Board will go ... therefore I cannot too strongly impress upon you the absolute necessity of keeping the plans within this expenditure. Again, on 28 March, replying to a letter from Snell, John Abbott wrote: The number of patients to be accommodated is by no means a fixed quantity. The reason why 300 beds was fixed upon, was that Dr. Howard and myself, in reading over the statistics of other hospitals ... came to the conclusion that an average of one thousand dollars a bed would suffice for the cost of construction. If we cannot construct a hospital sufficient for that number of patients with the amount of money at our disposal, we must be content with accommodation for a smaller number of beds. The next four years would prove that John Abbott's early fears were well justified, and that gross overruns of construction costs are by no means peculiar to the Montreal of more recent years.

HEATING PROBLEMS Because the question of polluting the reservoir had become so acute, further planning was suspended for almost a year. But after the site had been changed to the corner of University Street in March 1889, Saxon Snell submitted some detailed plans for the central administrative block. A small meeting of Governors expressed grave doubts about the heating arrangements. The plans indicated that the building would be heated by sixty fireplaces, which seemed quite unsuitable for the Canadian climate. This resulted in Snell attending the next meeting of the governors in May, and he reluctantly agreed that a form of steam heating would be substituted. However, it was also agreed that the exterior design of the building should not be changed, and that the chimney stacks for the redundant fireplaces should be allowed to remain (Fig. 16). These smokeless stacks remain to this day as ornamental anachronisms, like the narrow windows of the pepperbox towers, slits through which the defenders of a Scottish baronial pile would aim their arrows at attackers. In view of the disagreements about the heating system, Saxon Snell wanted to delay the building until he had prepared revised plans. But the two founders insisted on going ahead with construe-

36

Scottish Baronial

16 The smokeless chimney stacks remain to this day as ornamental anachronisms.

tion at once. A local architect, J.R. Rhind, was engaged as superintendent of works at a salary of thirty-five dollars a week. He was directed to call for tenders and to proceed with excavation of the site, even if final plans were not available. Revised plans for the central Administration Block arrived in January 1890, and James Rhind explained the drawings and specifications to the governors. It was plain that increasing building costs were becoming a serious problem, so attention was focused on the use of materials for which cheaper substitutes might be found. For instance, a great deal of mahogany seemed to be featured in the bathrooms: couldn't cheaper woods, such as birch or maple, be used instead? At a Board meeting in May there was a lot of discussion about the mounting costs, and it was suggested that parts of the proposed building might be cut out without impairing the outward ap37

Scottish Baronial

pearance of the whole. The idea was approved, and the architects were instructed to prepare modified plans. Nine days later they reported that seventy-five feet of Block C at the rear of the administration building might be omitted (see Figure 14). This change resulted in a drastic reduction of space allotted to the Out-Patients Department. (It will seem to some people that the Hospital has been trying ever since to catch up on shortage of space for out-patients.) In August 1890 plans arrived from England for the East (Medical) and West (Surgical) Wings. Again the plans came under fire for being too elaborate and expensive. At an informal meeting on 12 August, John Abbott foresaw that the total cost of the project would climb to around $500,000 — more than 40 percent above their budget limit. He painted a dreary picture of the hospital's prospects. He said that assistance would not be forthcoming from the public, as the Hospital was regarded as a self-supporting private venture. George Stephen, who attended this meeting, took a more sanguine view. After praising Saxon Snell as a leading world authority on hospital design, he said that if Abbott's gloomy predictions came true, he and Donald Smith would be prepared to make further provision for the unforeseen costs. This seemed to clear the air, and, shortly thereafter, tenders were invited for erection of the buildings.

RAPID BUILDING CONSTRUCTION On 28 June 1891, the fifty-fourth anniversary of the Queen's Coronation Day, the first sod was turned and the roots of the Royal Victoria Hospital began to take hold on the mountainside. The original buildings — the central block flanked by two wings — were completed in eighteen months. This was a remarkable feat, considering the difficulties of the steep, rocky site and rigours of a long Canadian winter. It must also be borne in mind that the limestone structure was built in an era before the advent of giant cranes, steel scaffolding, and poured concrete. An article in Harper's Weekly in December 1893 reported: "In the construction, 200 stone masons, 80 carpenters, 40 plasterers, 20 steam-fitters, and over 200 labourers were employed ... The building itself cost $650,000, the heating, plumbing and electric wiring $50,000 more, and fixtures, furniture and machinery about $70,000 in addition ..." Thus we see that, of the original million dollars, more than twothirds had been spent on the building, leaving less than one-third for use as an endowment. Here was a complete reversal of John Abbott's ambitious 1887 plans for disbursing the donation money.

38

Scottish Baronial

Happily, the founders came to the rescue. Stephen and Smith stepped in with further gifts to cover the Hospital's immediate deficits. Then they set up a permanent endowment fund of one million dollars, the income from which was to provide for current expenses of the Hospital. But this rescue operation did not materialize until after the opening of the Hospital. So on that chill Saturday in December 1893 there must have been many deeply concerned people present at the ceremony. One of the most worried would have been J. J. Robson, the Secretary-Superintendent of the Hospital. On his shoulders had fallen most of the multitude of problems and anxieties preceding the event. For example, Montreal historian D. Sclater Lewis has written: "Following frantic cables, the beds had only arrived in Halifax from England on Thursday. They reached Montreal by express on Friday night, December i st, and were installed in the last few hectic hours before the ceremony." However, after close on six years of disputes and delays, the Royal Victoria Hospital had at last become a greystone reality. On 2 January 1894 its portals opened wide to welcome sick and injured persons of all races and creeds.

39

1893

1993

17 These drawings provide some idea of the growth of the Royal Victoria Hospital over the last one hundred years.

CHAPET 3

YEARS OF GROWTH BUILDING EXPLOSION WHEN IT OPENED IN 1893 The Royal Victoria Hospital consisted of three buildings clustered close together on the side of Mount Royal. The main Administration Block and its Medical and Surgical Wings stood separately, joined only by covered bridges. At a time when interior structures consisted mostly of flammable timber, this was a safety measure against the possible spread of fire. It was a precaution that would prove its worth in years to come. By the year 1993 the Royal Vic had expanded and spread out in all directions (Fig. 17). Its total floor space in 1893 was 180,000 square feet (estimated figure); in 1993 the number of square feet had risen to 1,200,000. This sevenfold explosion of building construction started shortly after the Hospital opened. The mushroom growth continued in phases over the next hundred years (page 42). 1894—1906 During the Hospital's early years several building problems came to light. Some of the defects reflected lack of expertise and foresight in

Years of Growth

ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL MAJOR BUILDING PROGRAMMES 1893 1895 1893 1894 1895 1898 1905 1906 1916 1917 1922 1926 1950 1931 1952 1934

Administration Block Medical Wing (easl) Surgical Wing (west) Laundry (north) Pathology Department Outpatient Clinic Isolation Hospital Nurses' Residence Ross Memorial Pavilion Nurses' Residence New Wing New Outpatient Clinic Women's Pavilion New Interns' Residence New Laundn, Garage, Workshop Nurses' Residence Additional Wing Neurological Institute

1937

Extension of Interns' Residence

1944 1951 1954 1956 1959

Allan Memorial Institute Women's Pavilion additions Animal House and Laboratories Surgical Pavilion Medical Pavilion

1963 1964 1976 1986 '993

Ross Memorial Institute modernization Surgical Pavilion additions Nurses' Residence renovations Allan Memorial Institute Annex New Emergency Department, etc., etc.

designing and constructing a major hospital on an inhospitable mountain site. Other problems were legacies of the nervous costcutting measures adopted by the Board of Governors in the planning stages. In 1897, however, the promised new donation of one million dol42

Years of Growth

lars by the founders (now Lord Strathcona and Lord Mount Stephen) became a reality. This deed of gift would free the Hospital from debt and would assure revenue for its future upkeep. Accordingly, the Governors began to take steps to revive some of the deferred building projects. In his Annual Report of 1898 the Hospital Superintendent, John J. Robson, wrote: The Out-Patient Department, the erection of which was contemplated by the Founders and deferred for a time, is now in process of construction ... it will provide an ample Waiting Hall, Consultation, Examination and Operating Rooms. This will greatly facilitate the work that has been carried on under many difficulties owing to lack of space and suitable accommodation for patients and doctors. A fact that did not appear in Robson's report was that the OutPatient Department was becoming increasingly popular. Seemingly undeterred by the long climb from the city below, many more patients were presenting themselves than had been anticipated. So the brand-new department — still only two-thirds of the size originally planned — quickly became hopelessly overcrowded. Also in the year 1898, an extension was built at the eastern end of

18 Sign over the original Outpatient Department, 1898.

43

Years of Growth the Administration Block. This added extra bedroom space for interns and provided a large dining room for nurses. In 1907, when the nurses had been moved to their new home, this room was lavishly refurbished to become the doctors' dining room. It remained in use for more than fifty years, and was described in 1969 by the historian D. Sclater Lewis: While the governors were often penurious about salaries, they never seemed to spare money when construction was in progress, and the doctors' dining room was no exception. Its finish was characteristic of the dining rooms of the day, with leaded glass windows, panelled walls, a beamed ceiling, and china cupboards in each corner. But the southern end of the room was its key point. (Fig. 19) To modern taste this end of the room would seem rather crowded. In the centre there was a large red brick fireplace with a door at either side. One of these doors led to the entry hall and the other one to the serving pantry. Over the fireplace was a large mantel-piece with a wooden bas-relief picturing the hospital buildings with a heavy wreath of leaves surmounted by a crown. The door frames or architraves were equally massive, and over one door was the word "Perseverance" and over the other, "Lippen." These proved to be the mottoes of the founders. According to a journalist of the day, "Perseverance" meant that the members of the staff "should persevere in their care of the sick and not be led into idleness by the luxury of their surroundings." The meaning of "Lippen" was much more mysterious. At first thought to be Gaelic, it finally proved to be of lowland Scottish origin and glossaries of the Burns' poems give "Trust or Be Trusted" as the English equivalent. The closing years of the century saw the Hospital still pressing forward with its deferred developments. A new three-storey Pathology Wing was erected north of the Medical Wing. It consisted of a lecture theatre for students, laboratories, a library, and a mortuary. On the same floor as the mortuary was a delirium tremens room. Commenting on this feature, the Montreal Star of the day reported: "The room will be dark as far as sun or daylight are concerned, and will be lighted only from above, so that there will be no corners for imaginary horrors to lurk in." The Hospital's Annual Report for 1897 expressed loyal words of gratitude that "the very beautiful and appropriate group of statuary representing Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria ... sculp44

/9 Doctors' dining room, iyo6. "To modern taste this end of the room would seem rather crowded."

tured by the Countess Feodora Gleichen ... and presented by the Founders, Lord Mount Stephen and Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal ... has been received and now adorns the entrance hall of the Hospital." For the ensuing fifty-six years this marble image of the Queen, flanked by two children representing the sick and injured, gazed down benevolently from the landing of a magnificent double staircase (Figs. 20, 21). Since 1953, when new construction necessitated removal of the stairway, she has graced the marble-lined elevator lobby of the Surgical Wing. The Countess Feodora Gleichen, who was commissioned to carve the statue, was a German-born niece of Queen Victoria. A sculptress of repute, she had her studio in London's historic St. James's Palace. The Countess wanted to depict the Queen seated with two small

45

20 Original Entrance Hall (Photo: McGill Archives)

46

Years of Growth

children at her skirts. Searches for a suitable young boy to act as model for the children finally settled on Ashley, the three-year-old son of Constable James, a member of the palace security guard. Sittings began and Mrs James brought her boy almost daily to the cold studio, where Ashley would pose in the nude as the Countess created her first clay model of the group. Nearly seventy years elapsed before this same Ashley James, now a retired actor-playwright, was to enter into a lively exchange of correspondence with Dr Gilbert Turner, Executive Director of the Hospital. Reminiscing about those studio sittings in the nineties, Ashley recalled that he did not get on too well with the severe old lady who was also sitting for the statue. The Queen frequently admonished him for fidgeting, and issued instructions about how he should pose. The child, who had already been carefully coached by the Countess, did not take kindly to these imperious orders. Years later, when Ashley James first saw a photograph of the finished statuary, he was surprised to learn that both the children were clothed. He distinctly remembered the discomfort of posing nude in the cold studio. Could it have been Her Majesty herself who ordained that the two childish figures should be modestly clad in marble shirts before being put on public display? The statue of Queen Victoria is one of the best-loved features of the Royal Vic. Generations of student nurses and medical students have regarded her as their patron saint, and passing her on their way to exams or tests have touched her for luck (Fig. 21).

THE LAUNDRY In October 1891, when the initial building work was well under way, the newly appointed Superintendent Robson had pointed out that no provision was being made for laundry facilities. This omission was hastily corrected by erecting a separate building some hundred feet from the main structure. It was an ornamental edifice, artfully designed to harmonize with its park-like surroundings and nothing in its appearance suggested that it housed the Hospital laundry (Fig. 22). Unfortunately, because of its distance from the main structure, it proved extremely difficult to operate — especially in winter. After the Out-Patient Department had been added and staff quarters in the Administration Rlock extended, the heating and electrical facilities — always uncertain — became downright inadequate. Mima Russell, a student nurse at the time, wrote: "Three nights a week the 47

Years of Growth electricity went off at eleven p.m. The night watchman brought lamps which were placed on the window sills in the corridors and one in the office. For treatments in the wards, candles were used." To overcome these problems it was decided to upgrade the heating, electricity-generating and laundry services and to centralize them in a new building adjoining the Medical Wing. The boilers and engine room would occupy the basement, and the laundry would be located on the upper floor. Moreover (in the words of Professor Woodridge 21 "Generations of student of Boston, who was consulted on the matter), "The staff clothes nurses and medical iji i j . i r ^1 i- j 5 i • students have regarded could be-• washed separately irom the patients — a course now being ^ to T/. . . as their +, . •,-, i i . -i , (Jueen Victoria 0 adopted in all modern hospitals (Munroe, Training School for patron saint... and touched her for luck. "

Nurses].

48

Years of Growth

22 The original laundry building, "artfully designed to harmonize with its park-like surroundings."

THE ISOLATION PAVILION Late in 1902 it was decided to reconstruct the abandoned laundry building as an isolation pavilion. Architect Saxon Snell's early plans for a separate isolation hospital had been shelved in the Governors' cost-cutting exercise, and during the first years a ground-floor ward of the Medical Wing was used for isolation purposes. This temporary arrangement was viewed with increasing concern by both the Governors and the medical staff. Their fears became reality when a patient admitted, supposedly with measles, was found to have smallpox. With the great smallpox epidemic of 1885 still fresh in his mind, the City Health Officer was taking no chances. He clapped the whole Hospital into strict quarantine. At the end of sixteen days there were no further cases and the quarantine was lifted — but a salutary lesson had been learned. The opening of the new Isolation Pavilion was marked by the introduction of an elaborate system of rules and regulations for its staffing and methods of operation. But in the event, practically no use was made of the accommodation. The building was closed in 49

THI HOSPITAL CHAPEL

I

n his report to the Governors for the year 1900, Superintendent Robson drew attention to the fact that the Hospital lacked a chapel - not only for devotional use by staff and patients, but also for funeral services when families of decease^ patients could not make suitable arrangements at home. (This was before the days of funeral parlours.) He reported that funerals were being held in the medical amphitheatre (right) and that "this gave a bad impression to families and Mends who attended the service,** Two years later he was able to report that, thanks to the generosity of the Governors, a small chapel had been provided in the Pathology Wing, The new chapel opened onto the quiet backwater of upper University Street, in

2^ Edward Burne-Jones windows in the Hospital Chapel, Hersey Pavilion. (Photo: M. Slobodian)

those days a rough gravel track bounded by a wooden fence. It was from this dpomj^.toi^^^oofll^ii were taken away for burial, and we aretodebted to historian 0, Selater tewis f$ra"I*$