Taming wild and unruly Lafontaine Park

Jimmy McShane

   Montreal took over Lafontaine Park - which had been used as a military parade ground - in 1875 but it was hardly the pristine natural space that offers itself to peaceful moments away from the concrete and buildings that have spread over almost every bit of this island.
   For quite some time, the land was a ramshackle, uncontrollable space invaded by squatters.
   One famous showdown between city authorities and the Dansereau family who had built a home on the land took place in 1889.
   The goofs had a home built inside the park, which was then named after the former landowners: Logan Park, or Logan Farm or Logan's Park or Logan's Farm.
  The squatters' 60-foot ramshackle shed stretched beyond the boundaries of the park, 26 feet out onto Sherbrooke St. and 11-feet past the other perpendicular western limit of the park (likely Lafontaine Park Ave.)
   On June 12, 1889 city officials named Leprohan, Flynn and Doran then tried to finally and decisively deal with the problem and went to the house which inhabited by a Mrs. Dansereau and presumably others.
   The woman usually didn't answer the door and she and family members would curse anybody who questioned her about the property.
   After a standoff, police and other authorities finally apprehended her and put her in a cab, while officers Mercier and Parent watched out for the "kiln man" who they thought was armed with a gun.
   According to a separate account, Logan Farm was ugly and practically barren except for two trees on it, very large elms.
   An Irishman named McCall grew vegetables on a plot of land there and the land also contained a massive and hideous sand pit, according to to an account describing the place is 1891.
 The park was renamed in June 1901 in a council motion which English-Montreal councillors vote to oppose.
   By around 1911 there were only 125 acres of parkland in the city but by 1926 that total had increased to 1,775 and greenhouses were also placed in many of them, including in Lafontaine Park, thanks to an initiative from Mayor Jimmy McShane that launched just WWI.
   And yet by 1926 Montreal was spending only a fraction of what other municipalities were putting up to create green space. Montreal spent 37 cents per capita towards city Toronto was spending $2.87, Westmount $2.12, Outremont over $2 and so forth.
   In the 1930s the Nichol family, of Midgets Palace fame, negotiated to return to Montreal but only on the condition that they be permitted to life in a house in the park. They ended up in a home slightly to the West on Rachel where they hosted visitors in a longstanding popular tourist attraction.