herr2ck: Montreal Trip, pt. 7 - Rue Saint-Jacques to Place d’Armes

August 2025.

Concluding part 6, this Montreal post specifically covers the west side (even addresses) of Rue Saint-Jacques from Rue du Square-Victoria to Place d’Armes.

Crown Trust Building

I don’t have an overall shot, and this building is too wide to crop the Google Maps stuff away.

I couldn’t find any history or photos of this one, aside from Wikipedia’s assertion that it was built in 1924 by Philip John Turner. It appears to have been highly altered or gutted for the construction of the World Trade Centre, and the only original portion may possibly be the central portal. I only have two photos, one being a detail of the ironwork that should have been in portrait orientation:

…as well as this zoomed-in view of the cornice’s carving:

Nordheimer Building

1896 view of the building. (Wikimedia)

A Richardsonian/Chateauesque building, this is a rare non-classical building along Rue Saint-Jacques. It has a sort of imposing toughness that its neighbors lack. In 1848, brothers Abraham and Samuel Nordheimer opened a branch of their sheet music and piano store on the current building’s location, which also housed an amphitheater.

A fire in 1886 destroyed said building, and architect John James Browne was commissioned to design a replacement. The existing building opened in 1888 as a larger warehouse store. The Nordheimer brothers occupied part of the first and second floors, which included a piano showroom and repair shop. The remainder of the building was offices, including Browne’s own.

In 1903, Samuel Nordheimer sold the building to Alexander Fraser, who sold wine and other alcohol. Fraser occupied the space until 1919. Various other stores occupied the ground floor, such as Woolworth’s between 1945 and 1976, and the floors above were used as office space.

The Nordheimer Building was acquired by the InterContinental Group in the late 1980s and integrated into the World Trade Centre that defines this block. It was renovated in a process that included preservation and modern updates, and it is part of the InterContinental Hotel that opened in 1992.

I really like the contrast this building achieves with its rusticated dark stone exterior, much different from the smooth limestone of its neighbors. That materiality and the central arch makes me think Richardsonian Romanesque, but the gable form at center is a more Chateauesque feature:

Another closer look:

Merchants’ Bank Building

The Merchants’ Bank Building’s original appearance. (McCord Stewart Museum)

This Second Empire building was originally similar in height to the nearby Molsons Bank Building, but it has been expanded several times. It was designed by Hopkins & Wily for the Merchants’ Bank and completed in 1873. They occupied the entire building and used it as their main branch until 1899, when architect Edward Maxwell was commissioned to design an addition. His project removed the original mansard roof and added four floors above the original three, which created more office space and opened the building to other tenants. By 1905, nearly 40 different businesses rented space inside the Merchants’ Bank Building.

The expanded Merchants’ Bank Building c. 1900. (McCord Stewart Museum)

BMO purchased the Merchants’ Bank in 1922 and likewise acquired their building, which was converted into a BMO branch. It was sold again in 1929 to Nesbitt-Thomson, which added an eighth floor to the building and may have removed the cornice. Nesbitt-Thomson used the building as its offices until 1995, and it was converted into a luxury hotel between 2000 and 2002, which appears to have recently closed.

Many different eras of construction on this one. The first three floors are the most elaborate and feature stacked engaged columns and pilasters, which support entablatures that run the length of the facade. Window openings are richly detailed, and a central pediment crowns the second floor. The top four floors have a flatter wall plane, which is only interrupted by the windows and their hood molds. Above the large cornice, the mansard roof is obviously a modern addition.

Detail of one of the first-floor windows, which has interesting blocks of masonry and is surrounded by two pilasters:

The second floor’s pediment:

It is supported by Ionic columns with contrasting red stone shafts, and the frieze has a band of festoons spanning its length.

Fenestration and ornamentation of the 1899 expansion:

Canada Life Building

1898 view of the building. (Wikimedia)

The Canada Life Building is similar in form to its southern neighbor (the Merchants’ Bank Building), but it is an example of an early skyscraper designed as a unified object. However, its expression as several stacked two-story modules does it a disservice and is no better than the cobbled-together assemblage of the Merchants’ Bank Building.

The Canada Life Building was commissioned by the insurance company of the same name, and American architect Richard A. Waite was the designer, who had also designed their headquarters in Hamilton and a branch in Toronto. It was completed in 1895 as an example of Beaux-Arts architecture and was considered the first building in Montreal with a steel frame (integral to achieve skyscraper height). The exterior sculptures were carved by Henry Beaumont.

Along with Canada Life, CIBC had its original head office on the ground floor at one point, and other tenants were law firms and insurance companies. In 1954, the building was sold to the Federation Assurance Company, which left in the mid-1980s along with the building’s other tenants. Though it was vacant for years afterwards, it was converted to apartments in 2004.

This building definitely has less ornamentation than its neighbor, though it’s still pretty heavily decorated. Lots of classical columns, engraved patterns in the spandrels, and sculpture. Note how the horizontal divisions that the cornices make actually weaken this early skyscraper’s vertical expression, as it appears as a series of stacked two-story buildings instead of a unified object.

Rue Saint-Jacques facade:

Relief on the corner of the second and third floors:

The detailed entrance portico:

Two Ionic columns on pedestals support an entablature above the doors, and a vaulted portal provides the entrance into the building. Two women in low relief are carved to sit upon the arch.

I got a lot of details of this area--here is the carved portion of the column shafts, which feature mascarons, “little green men,” and undulating naturalistic patterns:

Entablature:

Note the carvings on either side with the dates of Canada Life’s founding and this building’s construction. The imprint of a sign reading “CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY” can just be barely made out.

Vaulted doorway:

Canadian Bank of Commerce Building

c. 1910 view of the building. (Vieux-Montreal)

The Canadian Bank of Commerce Building is essentially a colossal Corinthian colonnade along Rue Saint-Jacques, unlike the more conventionally styled buildings nearby. Its site has a pretty well documented history--it first housed the Gothic Revival St. James Methodist Church between 1845 and 1888, which was replaced by the Romanesque Revival Temple Building completed in 1890, pictured below:

(McCord Stewart Museum)

The Temple Building was demolished in 1907 for the existing Canadian Bank of Commerce Building, which was designed by Darling and Pearson in the Beaux-Arts style and completed in 1909. The Canadian Bank of Commerce occupied the building until 1961, when it merged with the Imperial Bank of Commerce to form CIBC and relocated to Dorchester Square, though a branch was operated inside until 2010. It is currently an event venue known as St. James Theatre.

Oblique view of the facade, which is dominated by the six massive Corinthian columns:

(off-center) view of the more conventional facade behind:

Detail of the central second-floor window:

This has quite the telescoping stone surround and pediment.

Column capital and frieze:

The corner has a relief with the date of construction:

Jones-Heward Building

1980s photo with the inscription intact. (Vieux-Montreal)

This Beaux-Arts building was built in 1904 by J. B. Resther & Son to replace an 1864 Italianate that burnt down. It has been a small commercial/office building all its life. Two notable occupants were The Standard newspaper and the Jones-Heward Company, which purchased the building in 1929 and renovated it with architect N. I. Chapman. My source is unclear as to when they left, as it states they departed in 1949 but “continued to occupy premises until 1986.” The facade’s inscription was removed around 1990.

Montreal Star Building I

The older Italianate building demolished for the construction of the existing building. (Vieux-Montreal)

The Montreal Star was a newspaper founded in 1869. In 1885, owner Hugh Graham purchased the three-story Italianate pictured above to use as the newspaper’s headquarters. He also bought a building of similar height to the south in 1893, and both were demolished in 1899 for the construction of the existing building.

c. 1900 engraving of Montreal Star Building I. (Vieux-Montreal)

Montreal Star Building I was designed by Alexander Francis Dunlop in the Beaux-Arts style and completed in 1900, having a more typical tripartite expression. Montreal Star would occupy the building until 1979, building an annex next door in 1930 (read on) and renovating the buildings in 1961, which removed the oxeye windows above the doors. It was converted into a hotel between 2007 and 2009.

Montreal Star Building II

The Standard Life Building that the Montreal Star II Building replaced. Note the sculptures of Atlas above the entrance portal. (McCord Stewart Museum)

Montreal Star Building II is located on the site of the Standard Life Building, a Second Empire design completed in 1885 by Richard Waite that burned down in 1922. Montreal Star was already outgrowing their first building completed in 1900, and they purchased the adjacent site in 1923. Construction began in 1926, but only the basement and first floor were completed in 1928, when work stopped. The plans were modified and the building was completed in 1930. It was designed by Ross and Macdonald in the Art Deco style with Renaissance Revival elements.

Engraving of the building in the January 28, 1930 issue of the Montreal Star. (Vieux-Montreal)

The second building was designed to integrate into the first, though it was not fully occupied by Montreal Star and other offices were leased out. A third Montreal Star Building was built in 1961 across the alleyway, but the newspaper closed in 1979. The Montreal Gazette purchased the entire complex and owned it between 1980 and 2003, and it was also converted into a hotel like its neighbor.

Detail of the crown, which has abstracted classical ornamentation:

Double-arched Renaissance window:

National Trust Building

The demolished Colonial Life Assurance Building. (Wikimedia)

The National Trust Building replaced the Colonial Life Assurance Building, which was an 1857 design by James Key Springle. It was demolished in 1914 for the construction of the existing building, which was designed by Kenneth Guscotte Rea in a pretty industrial interpretation of the Beaux-Arts style. The National Trust occupied the building until 1966, but it was used by similar companies until recently. It has been under renovation since 2020, and as of 2025 the cornice and top floor were removed. I was stressed about the preservation of this building, but it seems to have been reopened as the SonoLux Hotel, and the removed portions were replaced by the time it opened in fall 2025.

Royal Bank Building

The Royal Bank Building’s original appearance. (McCord Stewart Museum)

Ostensibly built for the same Royal Bank that built the nearby tower, this one is a shell of its former self. I couldn’t find any history since Vieux-Montreal’s page for it is blank, beyond Wikipedia’s assertion that it was designed by Howard Colton Stone and completed in 1907. The massive statues above the entrance have been removed, and although some portions have been restored, others such as the columns are in poor repair.

I think this was some sort of residential project that stalled out, as from 1998 until 2014 the same incomplete concrete frame crowned the building where its former parapet was. The current cladding appeared on Google Maps in 2014 as part of a design by Lemay, and it appeared to be completed in 2015. I still don’t understand why two of the floors still lack windows, though.

I did enjoy taking photos of the crusty details, though. Why would you want to live in an apartment building tacked on top of a dirty old shell?! Is it even connected?

It looks like there’s some foliage growing here , too.

Dominion Express Building

1912 photo of the Dominion Express Building. (McCord Stewart Museum)

Aside from the original balustrades, this Beaux-Arts design is very intact. It is an example of classical ornamentation simply being applied to an otherwise modern early skyscraper. It was built for the Dominion Express Company, part of Canadian Pacific, by architects Edward and William Sutherland Maxwell in 1912. The large office building housed many tenants and the Montreal Club on the top floor. Dominion Express (later Canadian Pacific Express) occupied the building until 1948, and the Provincial Bank of Canada was the owner from the late 1950s until the 1980s.

More recent work includes the addition of two floors and renovation work in 1992 and restoration work later in the decade.