Sherbrooke Street West is home to many historic mansions that comprised its exclusive Golden Square Mile district, including the now-demolished Van Horne Mansion, the imposing Beaux-Arts style Montreal Masonic Memorial Temple as well as several historic properties incorporated into Maison Alcan, the world headquarters for Alcan.

[1][2] Sherbrooke Street East runs along the edge (both administrative and topographic) of the Plateau Mont-Royal, at the top of a marked hillside known as Côte à Baron, and continues between the Montreal Botanical Garden and Parc Maisonneuve to the north and Parc Olympique to the south.

The street is named for John Coape Sherbrooke, the Governor General of British North America from 1816 to 1818.

Its relative remoteness from "downtown" (at the time; now Old Montreal) made it difficult to establish industries or factories.

Many nursing homes and educational institutions were established on the street in the 19th century, such as McGill University, the École normale Jacques-Cartier, the Collège Mont-Saint-Louis, and the Couvent du Bon Pasteur.