Mount Royal Club

45°30′04″N 73°34′40″W / 45.501127°N 73.577857°W / 45.501127; -73.577857The Mount Royal Club is a private social club in Montreal, Quebec. The club was founded as a gentlemen's club in 1899 by a breakaway group from the Saint James's Club, but in 1990 became mixed-sex. In its prime, the Mount Royal was Canada's most prestigious club and was an integral part of Montreal's Golden Square Mile society. During the age when Montreal was the center of commerce in Canada, the club's membership counted many of the country's most powerful executives, bankers, financiers, and industrialists. The Mount Royal's clubhouse on Rue Sherbrooke Ouest was completed in 1906 and was designed by McKim, Mead & White of New York.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the Mount Royal underwent a significant upheaval. Until the 1960s, the club's membership was almost entirely of English or Scottish descent, which mirrored the Protestant nature of Montreal business culture. In the wake of the Quiet Revolution, the commercial center of Canada shifted from Montreal to Toronto. Consequently, much of the city's Anglophone élite migrated out of Quebec, which deprived the club of its historic base. In recent decades, the club has become more Francophone and less associated with Canadian corporate power. Although the Mount Royal remains a prestigious institution, it no longer has the stature it did in its early history.