Belvidere

In Montreal in 1850, the Torrance family were as well known as the Molsons and David Torrance was the senior partner in one of the city's leading general merchants that specialised in importing tea, and in doing so rivalled the monopoly once held by Forsyth, Richardson & Co. David was the father of ten children by his wife, Jane Torrance, who counted Sophia, daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, among her several sisters-in-law.

By 1850, David and his family had moved into the house that they named "Belvidere" at what was its original address, 126 Drummond Street. Their new 20-room home was built of dressed limestone, measuring 70-feet across with a depth of 40-feet and standing at the top of Drummond Street neighboured by the 'fine' houses of Judge James Smith and William Cormack. By the time Mrs Torrance died in 1875 her husband was President of the Bank of Montreal, but he survived her by only a matter of months and after both funerals were held here, Belvidere was offered for rent, advertised as: "That substantial family house with stables, coach-house, ice house, and other outbuildings, together with large garden in rear, forming the upper part of the property known as 'Belvidere' fronting on Sherbrooke Street and heretofore occupied by the late David Torrance Esquire".

But in 1876, North America was still in the grips of the 'Long Depression' and Belvidere may have stood empty until it was sold in 1879 for $79,000. At this time, the ground floor contained the principal reception rooms (Drawing Room, Dining Room, Breakfast Room etc.) and a pantry, while upstairs there were five bedrooms plus further rooms for the family. The low-level basement was taken up with kitchens, a laundry and a wine cellar; and, the extensive gardens occupied all the land east to west from Redpath Avenue to Drummond Street, and from Sherbrooke Street in the south all the way up the mountain.

The Refords, 1879 to 1938

Its new owner from 1879 was Robert Wilson Reford Sr. (1831-1913), a Northern Irish workaholic who chose the property specifically in order, "to obviate the necessity of leaving town in summer when busy". Back in 1823, Robert's father, Joseph Reford, had been cruelly duped out of the family's linen mills and bleach-greens in a rigged game of cards and ever since arriving in Canada in 1845, Robert never took a moment off restoring dignity back to the Reford family name - a task he fulfilled with aplomb. He founded the still extant shipping agency, Robert Reford & Co., and as the owner of Mount Royal Rice Mills Ltd. he personally controlled the milling and sales of most of the rice in Canada.

Reford initially purchased the Torrance property as an investment opportunity, selling off much of its prime real estate for development eg., the R.B. Angus House that was built immediately below Belvidere in 1884. But he left the old house and an acre surrounding it, and according to Alexander Reford, Director of Les Jardins de Metis and author of The Robert Reford Story, "he grew to love the ramshackle building". From 1881, Robert's five surviving children grew up here with six servants  - the male servitors dressed in livery complete with silver buttons displaying the Reford family crest - maintained by his stern wife, Kate Drummond, the daughter of an enterprising Scottish family not to be confused with those who lived at Drummond House on Sherbrooke Street.

Reford filled the house with art including over 100-pieces by Canadian artists, 73 of which were oils and water-colours by another Irish-Canadian, Frederick Arthur Verner (1836-1928), known for his depictions of First Nations people and buffalo in the Canadian west. His eminent son, the Neurosurgeon Dr Lewis Reford, married the girl-next-door, Jean McIntyre of Craigruie, and personally tended to what remained of the garden ("spacious grounds with age old maples, a fountain and a flower garden") at his childhood home up until his death, ten years after the house itself was demolished. Shortly before then, an article in the Montreal Star described the materials used within the ivy-covered house: "the floors are of quartered oak and ash. The doors are made of solid walnut 2.5-inches thick. The drawing room mantel is made of hand-carved black walnut, and the gas fixtures... solid bronze," continuing to describe the bathroom with red cedar linen closets.

One Up, Three Down

In about 1910, the Refords added a third floor to their home by way of a very Parisian mansard roof that gave them three further bedrooms, a bathroom and a billiards room - bringing the number of rooms to 25. But Robert would not enjoy the improvements for long, dying here in 1913. His widow, Kate, remained in the house (now renumbered 3468 Drummond Street) and eventually added electricity in the 1920s. She lived to the ripe old age of 94-years old by which time the small, privileged enclave in which the house stood was beginning to become nostalgically referred to as the "Golden Square Mile" (not a term the Refords would have recognised), ironically long since its golden era had passed. Just months after Kate's death, politics and progression saw the house felled in 1938.