herr2ck: Montreal Trip, pt. 6 - Rue Saint-Jacques to Place d’Armes

August 2025.

This will be the first of several posts covering Old Montreal, which will make up the remainder of my Montreal dump articles. This post specifically covers the east side (even addresses) of Rue Saint-Jacques from Rue du Square-Victoria to Place d’Armes.

Ottawa Hotel

We’ll begin with a simpler Neoclassical building, dating to 1846. It was built by George Browne as the Ottawa Hotel for hotelier George Hall, intended as a more well-to-do hotel. It was expanded eastward with a separate facade facing Rue Notre-Dame in 1867. It was converted into a commercial building c. 1882-1883 and remains one today.

Much of the facade has pared-down classical ornament, such as the pilasters, cornices, and window framing. The most detailed element is probably the metal cornice atop the building.

Commercial Union Assurance Building

I had to squint to make out what the third-floor cornice once read (“COMMERCIAL UNION BUILDING,” good thing my camera has high resolution), and that opened some doors when it came to research. This is a loftier Beaux-Arts building, which probably employs a steel frame as opposed to the earlier bearing-wall structures nearby. It was built between 1904 and 1905 by Howard Colton Stone for the Sovereign Bank, which occupied the first two floors. The space above was offices. The Sovereign Bank sold it in 1908 after its dissolution to the Commercial Union Assurance Company, who would give the building its current name and occupy it until 1969. It is presently owned by Gestion Georges Coulombe, and a restaurant/nightclub operates on the first floor today.

Ghost sign on the north side:

Corbels supporting the pediment above the entrance:

Medallion detail on the third floor:

Nice shot of the building’s crown, with its pedimented windows and broad cornice:

The classical ornament here seems more abstracted and geometric versus the naturalistic designs common in antiquity. An early foray into Stripped Classicism?

Savage & Lyman Building/Canadian National Building

1917 view of the building. (McCord Stewart Museum)

This is the quintessential Second Empire commercial building that dots Old Montreal--prepare to see many, many more buildings that look pretty similar to this one. It was designed as the Joseph Tiffin Warehouse by architect William Tutin Thomas and completed in 1867. Savage & Lyman was a jewelry store that occupied the building from 1872 to 1877, when it went bankrupt. An annex to the rear (facing Rue Notre-Dame) was completed in 1872. The following occupant was the New York Piano Company until the turn of the 20th century.

After Joseph Tiffin’s death in 1882, there was an ongoing dispute about his will by his heirs, and ultimately it was granted to his granddaughters. They sold the building in 1906 and it was planned to be demolished for a new 10-story skyscraper, but the plans fell through and a different company acquired it. More notably, it was the home of the Canadian National Railroad’s head offices between 1914 and 1962.

1996 view, showing the alterations to the first floor that have since been removed. (Vieux-Montreal)

It’s not in the greatest shape today, as many delicate stone carvings are worn from age (particularly on the first floor), but others show signs of restoration. The tiny projecting entablatures above each column on the first floor were knocked off at some point, and part of it was filled in with cinder blocks, but today they have been restored. In addition, the cornice and roof have been cleaned up, and some of the stonework above has also been restored. This work was done by Victor et Francois Inc.

Note how worn this Corinthian column is versus the brand-new cornice it supports:

Columns of the second floor’s end bay, which are Composite:

The center columns are Ionic, though. I’m confused why two different orders are used on one floor and they are stacked incorrectly as opposed to precedent.

Cornice and roof:

Columns, and columns, and columns.

Insurance Exchange Building

1928 view of the building, looking northwest from the corner of Rue Notre-Dame and Rue Dollard. (McCord Stewart Museum)

A large 1924 Beaux-Arts commercial building, the Insurance Exchange Building forms an L-shape around the Molsons Bank Building. With 200,000 square feet, it was once one of the largest commercial buildings in Canada, and it represents the early 20th century sensibility for large, palazzo-like Beaux-Arts buildings. It was built for the Insurance Exchange Corporation by architect David Jerome Spence. The Insurance Exchange Building was also the first Montreal building to be 11 stories tall, one higher than the previous building code allowed.

It replaced the 1894 Carsley Building, pictured below:

(Wikimedia)

The Insurance Exchange Corporation sold the building in 1973, and it remains an office building today. It has the typical tripartite expression of early skyscrapers--base, shaft, capital:

The base has simple rectangular windows with Beaux-Arts ornament engraved in the iron framing:

City & District Savings Bank

Historic engraving of the building showing its original footprint. (Vieux-Montreal)

An 1871 Second Empire design expressed as two individual buildings and used as a hotel today, the City & District Savings Bank was designed by Michel Laurent. It was expanded thrice to create its current form--the Rue Saint-Jean facade was extended by 50 feet in 1873 and to Rue Notre-Dame in 1883, and the Rue Saint-Jacques facade was doubled in 1876.

1900 view of the building, which is similar to its appearance today. (McCord Stewart Museum)

The building was used by the City & District Savings Bank (Laurentian Bank today) until 1988, when its head office was moved to Avenue McGill College. However, the bank only occupied a small portion of the building, and other tenants included the British American Bank Note Company and the first telephone companies in Montreal: Canadian Telegraph Company and Canadian Bell. The building was converted to a hotel in 2001.

One of the two entrances:

Lots of carved ornamentation on the pilasters and arches. Here’s a closer look at the broken pediment above:

One of the second-floor windows:

Third-floor window:

Detail of the mansard roof, dormers, and hood molds:

A little crusty, but no damage from rust.

Repetitive north facade:

The rear, from Rue Notre-Dame:

London & Lancashire Insurance Building

1890s view of the building. (Wikimedia)

An eye-poppingly Baroque Revival design, this one actually dates to 1898, though it harmonizes with the nearby Second Empire buildings. It was designed by Edward Maxwell and his brother William Sutherland Maxwell for the London & Lancashire Life Insurance Company, and it is an office building today with a first-floor restaurant. It replaced the Barron Block, which burnt in 1896:

(Wikimedia)

Oblique view of the building:

The main bulk of the building itself is normal Beaux-Arts design, but the ornamentation is really crazy and makes me think of Baroque Revival instead.

Pediment above the main entrance:

Cherubim, lions, mascarons, and shields. It’s got it all.

Keystone of the central arch, which also confirms the building’s date of construction in 1898 (in Roman numerals):

There’s just so much going on here. Baroque and Rococo buildings had so much ornamentation that the more sober Neoclassical style was created as a reaction to it.

Guardian Building

1915 view of the building. Note the now-missing light fixtures along the balustrade. (Vieux-Montreal)

Designed by notable American architect Henry Ives Cobb in association with Finley & Spence, this is another typical Beaux-Arts building with its tripartite expression. It was built for the Guardian Fire and Life Assurance Company (later just Guardian Assurance Company) and completed in 1902. Ironically, the company’s former building burned down after construction began.

Other tenants of the building beyond Guardian Assurance included Dominion Bank, Sun Life, and Finley & Spence’s offices. Guardian Assurance sold the building and moved to the current downtown in 1975, and the Dominion Bank’s branch operated until around the end of the decade. Major renovation work occurred in 1983, which did not alter the building much.

Lots of detail to take in around this entrance. Arched windows with egg-and-dart borders, elaborate festoons hanging from lions’ mouths, and various other Beaux-Arts ornamental designs.

Detail of an arched window--note the caryatids on the window mullions:

Head relief on the pilaster capitals:

One of the corbels supporting the balustrade above:

One of the capitals of the main shaft, the crowning cornice, and various ornamental details:

Bank of British North America [demolished]

1843 Neoclassical bank building, which was demolished in 1912. (Wikimedia)

Although the site is a parking garage today, 214 Rue Saint-Jacques once held the Bank of British North America. Its first building was a straightforward Neoclassical design by George L. Dickinson, completed in 1843. This building was demolished in 1912 and replaced by a Beaux-Arts building designed by Barott, Blackader, & Webster.

Despite this newly constructed building, the Bank of Montreal purchased Bank of British North America in 1918, and its usage afterwards is unknown. It was demolished in 1989 and replaced by a Postmodern parking garage.

500 Place d’Armes

This black International tower sticks out like a sore thumb and is frankly inappropriate along a street where the most modern buildings are Art Deco (which still respect their context through height and materiality). Its construction required demolition of two buildings on the site: Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance, designed by Hutchison & Wood in 1902, and the Transportation Building, designed by Carrere & Hastings with Ross & MacFarlane in 1910: