in front Loyola College traces its roots to an English-language program at the
Jesuit Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal (today part of the
Université du Québec à Montréal) at the Sacred Heart Convent. In 1896, Loyola College was established at the corner of
Bleury Street and
Saint Catherine Street. Loyola College was named in honour of
Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the
Society of Jesus. In 1898, following a fire, the college was relocated, further west on
Drummond Street, south of Saint Catherine. On March 10, 1899, the institution was incorporated by the Government of Quebec and became a full-fledged college. The construction was done by Anglin-Norcross Ltd. of Montréal. War memorial bronze plaques in the entrance hall are honour rolls dedicated to those from Loyola College who fought in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War. The School of
Sociology opened in 1918. In 1920, the institution became affiliated with the , which began granting degrees instead of Université Laval. Although associated with these universities in order to grant degrees, Loyola College nevertheless had full curriculum control. The inter-war period was marked by the shift of education in the institution, the
collège classique education was replaced by
humanistic education (
Liberal Arts College) in 1940, and Loyola became a four-year university. Loyola College never became a chartered university, and never had the ability to grant its own university degrees.
Theology and
philosophy were subjects taught to all students until 1972. In 1940, the Faculty of Science and the Department of Engineering, which became a faculty in 1964, were created. In addition to providing the same undergraduate programs as other colleges, the institution also offered innovative fields of study at the time, such as
exercise science and
communication studies. Students could enrol in
academic majors starting in 1953 and
honours programs in 1958. Students graduating from Loyola could afterwards pursue
graduate-level education in other universities, with a few earning
Rhodes Scholarships. Starting in 1958, Loyola also began offering its first evening courses for students not being able to go to school full-time. New courses were given in
library science and
faith community nursing. Since its creation, Loyola College had welcomed almost exclusively young English-speaking Catholic men as students. It became
co-ed in 1959 and became less homogeneous with the ever-increasing number of foreign students. In 1964, the Loyola High School Corporation was founded to run
Loyola High School separately from the college. In 1966, a new church was built outside of the school,
St. Ignatius of Loyola Church. Before this, parishioners worshipped in a chapel within the school grounds. When Loyola College merged with
Sir George Williams University in 1974, title to the land that Loyola High occupied was transferred from the college. Obtaining a university charter was an important issue in the 1960s. Although many wanted Loyola College to become Loyola University, the Quebec government preferred to annex it to Sir George Williams University. Merger discussions began in 1968 and ended with the creation of Concordia University on August 24, 1974. Today, the Loyola Campus remains as a campus of Concordia University. ==Loyola Chapel==