
Flat Iron Building - Lacombe
Posted by:
ibycus
N 52° 27.779 W 113° 43.881
12U E 314449 N 5816042
The Merchants Bank of Canada
Waymark Code: WM3G
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 08/16/2005
Views: 112

From Plaque:
This bank was built to impress. It set out to be the tallest and most stylish building in town. At three and one half stories it stood shoulders above the rest of the street scape. The building cost 30,000 dollars to errect in 1904, quite a significant sum for those times. It's design took advantage of the 'Flatiron' angle of the corner block. The design projects a feeling of weight and status with it's stonework, classical columns and overhangings cornice. The ornate scallop-shaped hood over the main entrance is the finishing touch.
There were only two other brick buildings in Lacombe them. The fire of 1906 burned the more modest surrounding wood frame buildings to the ground and left the Merchants Bank standing as the lone survivor on the block. Out of the ashes of ruin rose a new more sophisticated townscape. Brick, cement and stone were all used in the rebuilding of the downtown and a more unified urban appearance arose on Barnett Avenue. The Merchants Bank not only impressed, it inspired the future look of Lacombe. The bank was purchased in 1922 by the Bank of Montreal.