The origin of the name Mile End

By Justin Bur1

The question that comes up most often – I would even say that it is posed during every history tour I lead – is the following: “Where did the name Mile End come from?” Why does the neighbourhood have this name? While the question is simple and obvious, the answer is neither! But it is a fascinating story.

Of course Mile End is an English term, referring to a place that lies a mile beyond a more central location. Since the Middle Ages, the term has referred to a village near London. With the expansion of the city, this village became a neighbourhood, served by a London Underground station since 1902. The medieval village, first mentioned in 1288, was located one mile east of Aldgate, one of the gates providing access through the fortification wall of the City of London.

We can state with some assurance that the name of our Mile End was based on London’s. But why? And if it is the end of a mile, where are the mile’s endpoints?

The city’s official Répertoire historique des toponymes (historical directory of place names), which can be consulted on the Internet, states that “the name comes from a racetrack… The distance between this track and the Montreal city limits of the time was exactly one mile.” This statement is based on research done in the 1940s by Conrad Archambault, then head archivist for the City of Montreal. It echoes a long tradition linking Mile End to 19th-century race tracks.2

But there is a problem. The racetrack identified by Mr. Archambault, located east of Berri Street between Mont-Royal and Gilford, existed in the 1850s and 1860s, but the name was already in use in 1810! For example, the Mile End Tavern stood at the northwest corner of Saint-Laurent Street and Mont-Royal Avenue (then known as Sainte-Catherine Road) until the turn of the 20th century. It was then replaced by a department store. That building survives to this day and now houses the CLSC. Over the years, the existence of the inn was forgotten by historians…

The innkeepers between 1810 and 1818 were a father and son from Massachusetts. Phineas Bagg, a debt-ridden widower, emigrated to Lower Canada around 1795 with his children to build a new life here. Phineas and his son Stanley, then aged 22, signed a lease with one John Clark, a prosperous butcher of British origin. An advertisement published in the Gazette on August 7, 1815 offered a reward for the return of a horse belonging to Stanley Bagg, which had disappeared from where it was grazing near the Mile End Tavern.

Strayed or Stolen from the Pasture of Stanley Bagg, Mile-End Tavern
Montreal Gazette, Monday, August 7, 1815

The inn was located at a crossroads, the intersection of today’s Saint-Laurent Boulevard and Mont-Royal Avenue. Part of a rural landscape, it became a popular destination for country excursions by city-dwellers. To attract customers, Stanley Bagg became a promoter of various recreational activities. In the spring of 1811, he joined with the Montreal Jockey Club to build one of the first horse race tracks in Lower Canada on the adjacent Mile End Farm. This was the track that Woolford was to paint a decade later. The site was located between what is now Park Avenue and Saint-Laurent Boulevard, on the south side of Mont-Royal Avenue. Of the many race tracks in Mile End history, one was indeed present at its founding – just not the one Conrad Archambault had identified!