Bank of Montreal
Description of Historic Place
The old Bank of Montreal is a two-storey brick commercial building. Built in 1894 as Vernon’s
first stand-alone Bank of Montreal on the southwest corner of Barnard Avenue and 32nd
Street, the building was moved in 1909 to its present location one lot to the south. Faced with
brick from the Vernon brickworks, the building is a restrained example of Queen Anne Revival
commercial architecture. The cutaway corner entrance comprises a brick archway and this
motif is repeated in the upper and lower windows.
Heritage Value
Designed by the prominent architect Robert Mackay Fripp, the old Bank of Montreal is valued
as an early and important commercial building in the City of Vernon and one of the earliest
brick commercial buildings in the Interior of British Columbia. This building faced with local
pressed brick, includes many fine architectural details, including the arched windows,
decorative corbelling and a stringcourse above the second-storey windows, and the prominent
cutaway entrance, which would have emphasized its original corner location. In 1909,
contractor T. E. Crowell moved the building on log rollers to its present location. At this time,
the building was extended. The decorative quoins around the entrance and windows are
additions that are more recent. When the building was moved, it was divided into various
businesses, the most notable of which was the Vernon News.
The old Bank of Montreal is significant as a symbol of the growing prosperity of Vernon in the
1890s, and its place as the financial centre of the Okanagan Valley. The Bank of Montreal was
closely associated with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and its subsidiary land and transportation companies. The bank provided loans to the land development companies in the
Okanagan Valley and to emerging commercial enterprises. The arrival of the Bank in
November 1892 (temporarily renting space in the Schubert Block while the new structure was
commissioned), along with the railway, marked the transition of the Okanagan from ranching
to intensive agriculture, town-site settlement, and supporting infrastructure such as irrigation
systems, packing houses, and transportation. At the time of construction, the bank served all
of the Okanagan, Similkameen and Grand Forks electoral districts, an area from the Canadian
Pacific Railway main line to the U.S. border...
...The arrival of the Bank of Montreal was an important step in the development of the
commercial core of the city. The construction of the bank and the Kalamalka hotel cemented
the position of 30th Avenue as the main street of the new town.
CHARACTER- DEFINING ELEMENTS
- the prominent location of the bank facing 32nd Street
- the scale and massing of the building as expressed by its two storey height, symmetrical
form in the Italianate Commercial style, cutaway corner entrance, and its arched entrance
and windows
- decorative brickwork, including corbelling and a stringcourse in the upper storey
- expansive cornice and horizontal banding above the first and second storeys, emphasizing
the horizontality of the massing
- compatible additions in 1909
- use of Vernon pressed brick
From the City of Vernon Heritage Register, Page 47