| 1929 |
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Brother Marie-Victorin, a brother of the Christian Schools and President of the Société de Biologie de Montréal, gives a speech in which he proposes that a Botanical Garden should be created in Montréal. In the audience is Camilien Houde, the city's forward-thinking mayor and one of his former students.
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| 1930 |
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The Association du Jardin Botanique de Montréal is founded by the Société de Biologie de Montréal.
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| 1931 |
9 juin |
Official date for the foundation of the Montréal Botanical Garden.
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| 1932 |
March 12 |
Work starts on the Garden, enabling Camilien Houde to provide jobs for unemployed workers in Montréal hit hard by the Great Depression.
Architect Lucien F. Kéroack designs the administration building in the Art Deco style.
A small administration pavilion (which today fronts the administration building), service greenhouse and heating plant are built.
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| 1933 |
January 16 |
Camilien Houde is ousted as mayor and work on the Garden stals for the next four years. The site is left in disorder and the greenhouses are even turned into a rabbit hutch!
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| 1935 |
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Brother Marie-Victorin's book Flore Laurentienne, is officially launched. Taking advantage of the fact that Camilien Houde, recently re-elected mayor of Montréal, is in the audience, Marie-Victorin reiterates the City's need for a Botanical Garden. One passage from his speech remains famous:
We will soon be celebrating Montréal's three hundredth anniversary. You need to give a gift, a royal gift, to the City, our city. But Montréal is Ville-Marie, a woman...and you certainly can't give her a storm sewer or a police station...It's obvious what you must do! Give her a corsage for her lapel. Fill her arms to overflowing with all the roses and lilies of the field!
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| 1936 |
May 6 |
The Botanical Garden springs to life once again! Brother Marie-Victorin is appointed Director. Henry Teuscher, a famous American botanist, horticulturalist and landscape architect, with whom Marie-Victorin had been working on the plans for the Garden by correspondence for several years already, is appointed Chief Horticulturalist. If Marie-Victorin is the founder of the Garden, Teuscher is its first designer. Work recommences and 2,000 men are hired.
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| 1937 |
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The main building goes up, according to the original plans drawn by architect Lucien F. Kéroack.
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| 1938 |
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Greenhouses for growing and maintaining the Garden's collections are built.
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| 1944 |
July 15 |
Death of Marie-Victorin, who dies from injuries suffered in a car crash.
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| 1954 |
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A statue of Marie-Victorin is unveiled.
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| 1958 |
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The exhhibition greenhouses are built.
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| 1970 |
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The Arboretum is created.
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| 1975 |
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The Société d'animation du Jardin et de l'Institut botaniques (now the Friends of the Garden) is founded.
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| 1976 |
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The Rose Garden is built.
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| 1980 |
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Montréal City hosts the Floralies Internationales de Montréal.
Mr. Pierre Bourque becomes director of the Montréal Botanical Garden.
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| 1988 |
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The Japanese Garden is built and open.
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| 1989 |
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The Japanese Pavilion is built and open.
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| 1990 |
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The Insectarium is open.
The Chinese Garden is built
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| 1991 |
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The Chinese Garden is open.
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| 1992 |
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The Forest of the Montréals of France is created amd the Butterfly tent opens.
Note These spaces were later closed.
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| 1994 |
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Mr. Pierre Bourque retires as director of the Botanical Garden.
He becomes mayor of Montréal in the Fall of 1994.
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| 1995 |
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The Reception Centre and the Molson Hospitality Greenhouse open.
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| 1996 |
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The Chlorophyll Room opens.
The Tree House opens.
Fuji Pavilion opens.
The Administration Building is renovated.
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| 1999 |
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The Courtyard of the Senses opens.
The Botanical Garden website is online.
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| 2001 |
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The First-Nations Garden opens.
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| 2002 |
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The Tea Garden at the Japanese Garden opens.
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| 2006 |
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The Botanical Garden celebrates its 75th anniversary.
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