McGill University
Historic Scottish-founded university on a wooded downtown slope, born from a bequest nearly lost to a decade-long lawsuit.
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About this audio guide
McGill University's Montreal campus traces back to an 1813 bequest from James McGill, ten thousand pounds and a country house on Mount Royal that would vanish unless a real college opened within a decade. This guide follows the legal fight that nearly killed it, as his wife's nephew Francis Desrivieres argued in court that a Protestant college had no business claiming a French Catholic city's future. Stand at the gates on Sherbrooke Street and look up at the Arts Building rising behind them as you listen.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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