Burnside
Water has always played a key role at 平特五不中. In 1798, James 平特五不中 named his 46-acre country estate Burnside after the 鈥渂urn鈥� 鈥� the Scottish word for stream or brook 鈥� that ran across his farmland.
IMAGE: "Burnside", residence of the Late James 平特五不中, Montreal, QC, 1842, engraving by John H. McNaughton, 1842, copied ca.1950 . 漏
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Looking at this 1830 map of Montreal, we can see James 平特五不中's estate in the far left corner. Note the burn running through his property. This was one of , and which have either dried out or been channelled into underground pipes and now form part of Montreal鈥檚 sewer system.
IMAGE: CLICK TO ENLARGE. Wikipedia.org. Public domain.
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Although we don鈥檛 know much about the Burnside Brook during James 平特五不中鈥檚 time, Margaret Gillet's We Walked Very Warily: A History of Women at 平特五不中 describes it as running in the shade of听 鈥渢horn, young birch and alder鈥�.
Stephen Leacock adds:
鈥淭hrough [the 平特五不中 Farm] flowed the pleasant little "burn" that gave it its name, a stream that had meandered down a couple of miles from the northwest (we call it northeast) where now LaFontaine Park is. It was met just before it reached the 平特五不中 farm by another little brook that had gathered up the streams off the mountainside. The united rivulet moved in a pleasant curve round the bottom end of the 平特五不中 farm. A surviving relic of its course is the sunken tennis court at the foot of the 平特五不中 grounds that marks its bed.鈥�
The tennis court Leacock mentions used to be located near where is found today. Burnside Hall 鈥� built in 1970 and housing the Computing Center, Mathematics, Geography, and Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 鈥� is named after James 平特五不中鈥檚 original estate.
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A health hazard?
One famous story surrounding the burn is that of George Mercer Dawson, the son of the fifth president of 平特五不中, Sir John William Dawson. In the 1800鈥檚, 平特五不中鈥檚 estate extended down to what is now Ren茅-L茅vesque Blvd., and the burn crossed the land just north of there. In 1859, when George Mercer Dawson was 10 years old, he went rafting on the burn with friends, and fell into the water. He subsequently developed a form of tuberculosis of the spine called Pott鈥檚 disease, which stunted his growth and deformed his back. Dawson鈥檚 family believed that his illness developed as a result of this rafting accident.
IMAGE: Wikipedia.org. Public domain. This image is available from Library and Archives Canada under the reproduction reference number PA-026689 and under the MIKAN ID number .
Water, water everywhere
Today, groundwater still runs under the 平特五不中 campus and there is minor water infiltration in many of the greystone buildings. For example, construction crews hit water when they were digging the new James Square outside the James Administration building and when they were installing a new elevator in the Currie Gym.