About
The Hutline
The Hutline is a site devoted to the old boys of Weredale House. The primary goal is to use this site as a funnel for contacting old boys all over the world, to show statistics and to reflect in photos. Anybody that was in this Home is truly an old boy, whether you're feeling it or not, good shape or bad, the numbers tell the story.
The Boys Home of Montreal was founded in 1870 and finally closed in 1977. There must have been thousands of kids passing through its doors. For some it was a hell on earth. With its line ups and check offs and almost daily brawls, it congured feelings of being in jail. But for others it was all they had, like it or not, this was your home! Good or bad, this place took a piece of your lives and this site will help to reflect those times.
About Weredale
The Boys' Home of Montreal, later known as Weredale House, was founded in 1870 by Charles Alexander, one of Montreal's leading philanthropists. Mr. Alexander, who came to Canada from Dundee, Scotland, in 1840, made his living as a confectionary manufacturer and dealer. He later entered politics as a Liberal, first as a member of the Montreal City Council and later in the Quebec Legislature. Although the Boys' Home did develop a training home for delinquent boys, its main responsibility was homeless anglophone boys between the ages of nine and eighteen. In 1930 the home moved from its Mountain Street building to the newly constructed Weredale House.
As early as 1899 the idea of a boys' home farm in the Laurentians for the training of delinquent boys was suggested by James R. Dick, the superintendent of the Boys' Home. In 1907 this idea came to fruition and a Boys' Farm and Training School was built at Shawbridge with a separate charter granted in 1917. A boys' camp was sponsored in 1918. First called Camp Boy, the following year it was renamed Camp Lewis in Memory of Major John Lewis, a great friend of the boys in the school, who had been killed in the War.
The Boys' Welfare Association was reorganized to carry on the activities of the camp and to develop boys' clubs. This organization joined forces with the Big Brother movement in the 1930s to form the present Montreal Boys' Association. In 1934 the Rotary Club of Westmount gave 260 acres of land on Lac l'Achigan to Weredale House. Here, Camp Weredale was established to serve as a summer home for the boys and the staff. Weredale House was also one of the agencies of the Welfare Federation of Montreal which in the 1950s provided 50% of its funding. In 1977 Weredale House joined with Summerhill Homes (MG 28 I 388), the Girls' Cottage School (MG 28 I 404) and Allencroft Reception Centres to form Youth Horizons.
