| Architect:
The bank’s Montreal
architects, Taylor and Gordon. Supervised locally by the
Calgary architectural firm of Child and Wilson.
Contractor:
Thomas Underwood.
A.P.LeSoeur (stonework) and W.D. McDonald and Company
(plumbing and heating).
Original
cost: $50,000
Construction materials:
Rough – faced
sandstone from Butlin’s Elbow River quarry, brick
from McNaughton’s Calgary brickyard and British
Columbia cedar.
Architectural style:
Three - storey sandstone
structure with corner turret designed in the Romanesque
style.
Original interior
details:
The ground floor
consisted of the main banking hall, manager’s
southwest corner office, stationery room, wash room and
janitor’s room. A winding tower staircase led to the
manager’s residential suite on the upper two floors.
His quarters included a drawing room, overlooking 8th
Avenue, dining room, smoking room, kitchen, pantry and
servants’ room. Bedrooms, bathrooms and drawing
rooms were located on the third floor. A river stone
sidewalk built around the Stephen Avenue and Scarth
Street perimeters enhanced the exterior. The building was
equipped with electric lights and bells, speaking tubes,
and hot water heating. The interior woodwork was done
entirely in British Columbia cedar. The Herald reported,
" a spacious vestibule, ornamented with stained
glass opens into an ample apartment devoted to the public
and supplied with necessary desks and counters."
Historical highlights:
- The Bank of
Montreal opened its first Calgary branch October
25, 1886 in rented space in the Dunne and Lineham
Block on the corner of 8th Avenue and
Centre St. S.E.
- By 1889 the young
town of 2,000 showed enough promise that the bank
began construction of its first permanent branch
on the city’s busiest and most prestigious
corner - Stephen Avenue (8th) and
Scarth St. (1st) S.W. The staff was
boosted from two to five; Mr. Braithwaite
(manager), Mr. W.H.Hogg (accountant), Mr. L.
Strachey (teller), Mr. G.L.O. Thompson (clerk),
and Mr. J.S.Harley (porter and messenger).
- The new branch
opened for business on Monday December 16, 1889.
The Herald emphasized the bank’s security
features. "The clerks are separated from the
public by a formidable array of latticed brass
work, with glass doors opening into the several
divisions—accountant, ledger keeper, teller,
etc. The teller is the only official who is
regularly "caged," being protected
overhead by a strong brass covering, that rogues
may not drop fish hooks or other hooking
arrangements on his desk from overhead and rob
him of the bank’s crisp bills, as has been
done elsewhere. He has, moreover his revolver.
The contest between the dexterous thief and the
able inventor is even more fully illustrated by
an examination of the money vault in the rear of
the clerks’ department, where, within iron
walls and stone and brick surroundings reposes
the steel money chest, guarded by bolts and bars,
cross bars, combination locks, time locks and all
manner of skilful circumventions."
- The distinctive
sandstone building with the turret shared the
corner with two buildings that are still
standing; the Alberta Hotel (built 1888 –
1889) and the Alberta Block (built 1930). Across
1st Street was the Alexandra Block, a
mirror image structure, also designed in
sandstone by Child and Wilson and constructed in
1889.
- In 1919, the need
for space prompted the bank to expand into the
adjacent building -to the east - which had
formerly housed the offices of the Bank of
British North America, amalgamated by the Bank of
Montreal the previous year.
- During the 1920s,
two more city banks, the Merchant Bank of Canada
and the Molson’s Bank, were incorporated
into the Montreal. By 1928 Calgary’s
population had grown to 75,000 and business was
booming. The bank turned their attention to the
construction of a larger and more modern bank
building on the same site.
- In August 1930,
Bennett and White Construction Company demolished
the Royal Trust building located behind the
sandstone bank, next to the 1st Street
S.W. alley, in preparation for construction.
- Construction was
completed in two nine - month stages to allow
business to continue without interruption. First
the rear of the new building was constructed and
bank staff moved into the completed portion. In
December 1930, the old 1889 sandstone bank was
demolished and the front of the new building was
then completed. Through the winter of 1930 and
1931, a large tarp hung across the opening as
protection from the elements.
- The 8th
Avenue and 1st Street location was the
site of the Bank of Montreal from 1889 to 1988.
Following the closure of the branch, the building
was sold. It re-opened in 1993 as a retail outlet
for A&B Sound.
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