| Architect: G.W. Northwood of
Winnipeg.
Contractor: Claydon Brothers Contractors
(Winnipeg).
Original
cost: $139,314
Construction materials:
Terra cotta cladding,
brick walls at rear and east sides, reinforced concrete
beams, walls and floors, concrete foundation.
Architectural style:
Beaux - Arts Classicism
and Neo - Classical Revival. Two storeys, full basement,
plus an attic storey. The 8th Avenue facade features
paired Ionic columns, detailed parapets and cornices,
medallions on top of the first storey windows and the art
nouveau style script on the original signboard.
Original interior
details:
6,500 square foot
building, hardwood trim on plaster, terrazzo corridor and
main floor.
Historical highlights:
- lot (50 x 130)
purchased by the Dominion Bank for $100,000 from
the real estate firm of Skinner and Hatfield on
June 30, 1909. Lot first sold in 1884 for
$300.00.
- original building
on the site was G.C.King's general store (1885).
George Clift King came to Calgary as a North West
Mounted Policeman. He later became a successful
merchant, Calgary's first postman and second
mayor, 1886-1887.
- in 1911 a local
newspaper praised building which was still under
construction, describing it as "a very
complete, artistic and beautiful structure."
- the first branch of
the Dominion Bank in Alberta opened in Calgary in
1906.
- offices above the
bank building have been rented to a variety of
tenants over the years, architects, mining
engineers, Canadian Customs Department,
Prudential Insurance and physicians.
- numerous
renovations over the years to accommodate
"modern " banking.
- 1955 Dominion Bank
became Toronto Dominion in merger
- new vault installed
in 1963
- 1979 declared a
Provincial Historic Resource
- glass mansard roof
added in the 1980s
- 1982 renovated by
Raines, Finlayson and Barrett as the firm's
offices
- 1993 extensive
exterior/interior renovations adapting it to
restaurant use
- currently is
privately owned, home to Teatro's Restaurant,
second floor - private residence.
|
Dominion
Bank