While it's not on the more common (for a bank building) corner lot, the small details which mark the building as a one time bank are the little pediment with Classical or Romanesque brackets over the transom of the entrance and the terra cotta cornice below the parapet. Built in 1917 by the Merchants Bank, it remained so until the bank's merger with the Bank of Montreal, at which time said bank took over the premises. The "Great Depression" took its toll here, forcing closure of the bank in 1934.
The building was purchased by Jack Mah Ming in January of 1935, in which he opened a men's clothing store. With the aid of family members, Jack et al remained in business here for 68 years, enlarging the premises in 1950. As a historical reminder, the large painted JACK'S MEN'S WEAR sign, a bit faded with time, remains emblazoned across the façade.
As well, from 1950 to 1959, the Imperial Bank of Canada occupied part of the building, creating a second association with banking for the building.
The Merchant Bank/
Jack's Men's Wear Building
The heritage value of the Merchant Bank/Jack's Men's Wear Building lies in its initial historical association with banking as the Ponoka branch of the Merchant Bank of Canada, first established in Reid's Store on 51 (Donald) Avenue circa 1914, and relocated in this imposing custom built structure constructed in 1917, signifying the prosperity enjoyed by the town through the 1920s. It demonstrates the competitive evolution and fortunes of banking in Canada; the Bank of Montreal merged with the Merchant Bank of Canada in 1921, and took over the premises. By 1934 the economic depression had affected the world of finance and the Ponoka clients of the Bank of Montreal found their accounts closed and transferred to the Canadian Bank of Commerce located on Railway Street since the turn of the 20th Century. The closing of the Bank of Montreal signified the local economic downturn in Ponoka and marked a significant change in the structure's function when it was bought by Jack Mah Ming in January 1935 to house his clothing business. An association with banking was rekindled for the Merchant Bank/Jack's Men's Wear Building when the Imperial Bank of Canada rented the rear south half of the store from June 1950 until 1959, when it moved into a new structure.
The Merchant Bank/Jack's Men's Wear Building is equally valued for its continuous 68 year connection to Jack's Men's Wear, which sold a myriad of items including hats, coats, pajamas, suits, pants, sweaters, shoes, winter rubbers and swim suits in summer, providing tailoring services as well as housing a steam cleaning plant, including a press in one of the bank's vaults that was located in the basement.
The Merchant Bank/Jack's Men's Wear Building is significant for its association with the Mah Poy family who ran the Union Café. In 1946 Glen Mah Poy, returned serviceman, together with his wife, Toy Win (née Chun) Mah Poy went into the clothing business with his sister Song and brother-in-law Jack. In 1950 they extended the premises with a 60 foot two-story addition that housed apartments up stairs, accessible by two sets of exterior stairs and new openings on the side brick walls of the 1917 structure. The divided lower floor served as bank premises in the south half of the original structure, while the clothing business expanded into the addition on the north side, with a modernized street entrance and continued as Jack's Men's Wear under Glen Mah Poy's proprietorship until 2004.
Hailed by the Ponoka Herald in 1917 as a handsome structure that would add much to the streets appearance, the Merchant Bank/Jack's Men's Wear Building has architectural value as the only remaining example in Ponoka of the type of brick masonry design with cast stone features that characterized the contemporary image of permanence and solidity projected by the chartered Canadian banks. Its significance lies in its imposing principal façade, notably its unaltered second story façade featuring high brick parapet walls with projecting molded brick detail, five window openings with cast stone sills and lintels, a projecting pressed metal cornice, a painted decorative brick belt course serving as a sign band that indicates the subsequent retail function of the building, as well as the central stepped doorway surmounted by a cast stone hood supported by volutes on the lower story. The asymmetrical arrangement of the lower story demonstrates the remodeling of the main floor of the structure into a retail store when a large display window was installed to the west of the original entrance and a separate secondary recessed entrance opening cut into the east side of the main façade in 1950.
From the Ponoka Heritage Inventory