August 2025.
The rest of Rue Saint-Jacques in Montreal awaits us, along with some interesting buildings nearby. Let’s look back at where we came from, covered in parts 6 and 7:
Monument to Paul de Chomedey
This large statue and fountain in the middle of Place d’Armes dates to 1895 and depicts Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, who founded the city of Montreal.
Hotel Place d’Armes/Life Association of Scotland Building
c. 1878 photo of the building before its addition. (McCord Stewart Museum)
Originally four stories tall, this Second Empire building was built for the Life Association of Scotland, a Scottish insurance company. It was completed in 1870 by Hopkins & Wily. In 1891, the building was purchased by the National Bank of Quebec, opening its first Montreal branch inside. The bank commissioned architects Marchand and Haskell to add three more floors and expand the building westward down Cote de la Place d’Armes, which was completed in 1909. After various changes in ownership, it was converted to a hotel in the late 1990s, opening in 2000.
This building is very historically intact, and the additions are almost indistinguishable from the original:
The base has a more obvious division of stone, making it have greater visual weight than the shaft above. The three floors above feature semicircular and segmentally arched windows with detailed hood molds. Each bay is surrounded by Corinthian pilasters, and in the case of the fourth floor, the entire wall plane not interrupted by windows is covered in pilasters. The three-story addition above uses piers and taller pilasters (spanning two stories on the top two floors), and it is crowned by a cornice instead of a mansard roof, a more Beaux-Arts move.
A closer look at the main entrance, with its detailed portal:
I think the relief over the doors is meant to represent Scotland, but I could be wrong.
Second-floor arched window:
Cornice detail:
It fits the classical motif, but I honestly preferred the mansard roof.
Banque du Peuple Building
The original building in 1891. (Wikimedia)
The existing Banque du Peuple Building dates to 1894, but it incorporates a smaller, three-bay building that the bank originally occupied, which was built in 1872 by Henri-Maurice Perrault. It is integrated so seamlessly I couldn’t even tell it was built as a completely separate building.
Engraving of the existing building. Note the large tympanum above the central doors, since removed. (Vieux-Montreal)
In 1890, two neighboring buildings dating to 1869 were acquired by Banque du Peuple and demolished for the existing building’s construction. It was designed by Perrault, Mesnard, and Venne, and it may be the first Montreal building with a skylit atrium. The bank occupied the ground floor and basement, while the floors above were used as offices by law firms, the French Consulate, and the architects of the building.
Banque du Peuple somehow immediately went bankrupt in 1895, and the building was sold to businessman Gaspard De Serres in 1899. Its next main occupant was the Bank of Hochelaga until the 1920s. The facade and interior were altered in the 1940s and 1950s, and the first floor was divided in half. A major fire destroyed the atrium in 1979, but the facade was restored ten years later. The building was converted to a hotel and connected to its neighbor in 2005 as part of the Hotel Place d’Armes.
Somewhat angled view of the whole facade:
The colossal arched entrance is great. It and the two floors above match the footprint of the 1872 building, which was mirrored across the building’s centerline for a larger, symmetrical composition. The top three floors are different from the Second Empire style of the base, having more rectangular windows and a cornice instead of a mansard roof.
I really like this one. Lots of carved bands of ornament along the facade, as well as various column capitals, keystones, and small cornices:
I did a lot of details, too. Windows and spandrel of the second and third floor of the original building:
The carved animals appear to be a sheep in the middle, but on the left is what’s called a bucranium, the head of an ox used to represent sacrificial animals on Greek temples.
The top three floors:
I like the weathered green color of the copper cornice. Beyond these unusually shaped windows (numerous, thick mullions with deeply punched panes), the pilaster capitals have bizarre carvings:
A closer look at the detailed cornice:
One of the dragon-ish grotesques flanking either side of the entrance:
Alexander Cross Building
This 1869 building was designed by William Tutin Thomas and maintains the same fenestration as the Banque du Peuple Building. I wonder if a portion of it was demolished for the latter’s construction. Nonetheless, it has an intact storefront and a mansard roof more typical to the Second Empire style.
Detail of the arched windows:
La Presse Building
c. 1900 engraving of the building. (Vieux-Montreal)
This later Renaissance Revival building was designed for the newspaper La Presse by Hutchison and Wood. It was completed in 1900, and though La Presse only occupied the third and fourth floor with their presses in the basement at first, they eventually expanded to use the entire building by the 1920s.
La Presse built a Modernist annex to the west between 1955 and 1959, which was connected with a skybridge that was demolished between 2016 and 2017. Most of the operations were moved to the new building, but La Presse still owned and occupied the old one, and they conducted renovations in the 1970s and used it into the 2010s. However, between 2018 and 2020, their sign above the entry doors was removed. The La Presse Building appears to be used by MSC, a shipping company, today.
The facade has a Renaissance palazzo look to it with a rusticated base, three floors above, and a cornice:
I like the almost Richardsonian look with the polychromy and arches, too. The dark stone is New Hampshire red sandstone.
Entrance detail:
Love all the patterning and details.
One of the weathered Corinthian pilasters supporting the entrance arch:
More ornamental and geometric patterns on the base:
Arched windows above:
It’s interesting how the masonry between the arches’ spans is patterned and slightly recessed. Paterae align with the pilasters, which are in the Ionic order.
Off-center cornice detail:
Montreal Street Railway Building
1891 view of the former building on the site. (Vieux-Montreal)
The Montreal Street Railway Building is an uncommon Richardsonian Romanesque building on a street lined with classical revival-styled architecture. It was built on the site of the former R. N. Tombyll store, a shabby-looking Federal or Greek Revival building, which was demolished in 1893. It was designed by John William Hopkins and Edward C. Hopkins for the Montreal Street Railway Company, and its construction began in spring 1893.
The Montreal Street Railway Building was nearing completion in 1894, when, on November 9 of that year, the roof and floors collapsed. This disaster resulted in three deaths and several more injuries, and the remaining construction was supervised by American architect George B. Post instead. The building was finally completed by the end of 1895. It is an early example of skyscraper construction in Montreal, as it has a steel frame and masonry curtain walls.
1898 view of the building before its addition. (Vieux-Montreal)
The Montreal Street Railway Company originally occupied the first and second floor and leased the remainder of the building out. However, in 1911, it became part of the larger Montreal Tramways Company, and they then used the entire building for their offices. An addition of two stories was added to the roof in 1922, designed by Hutchison & Wood.
Montreal Tramways Company moved to a different building on Rue Saint-Antoine in 1929, and the Royal Trust Company used it as an annex and connected the two with a skybridge. Royal Trust sold the building in 1959, and after various companies rented the building, it was converted into condos in 2008.
Oblique view from Cote de la Place d’Armes:
This is a Richardsonian Romanesque building, given its rusticated masonry facade and various arches across the floors. The addition has a more Beaux-Arts character with its smoother stone and more defined pilasters, as well as the cornice above. However, it is still in harmony with the original design.
Entrance detail:
The vaulted entrance is supported by little bundled colonnettes with out-of-scale (in a picturesque manner), florid capitals. The keystone expands into a semicircular cluster of naturalistic ornamentation, which has a “little green man” at center and several more hidden among the leaves.
Shaft of the original building:
The rough stone arches, double-arched windows surmounted by a wider vault , and small colonnettes along the original top floor are even more Richardsonian features on this building.
Beyond the smoother stone of the addition, note how a lighter shade is used versus the floors below.
Detail of the arches on the base, which have smooth voussoirs and a band running across the top:
The windows are certainly replacements, but I like their green mullions and framing.
More arches and column capitals above:
Aldred Building
The demolished Second Empire buildings located on the site. (Vieux-Montreal)
An iconic Art Deco building on Place d’Armes, the Aldred Building’s strong vertical expression is much different than the more anachronistic design language of its neighbor, the New York Life Building. It was commissioned by Aldred and Co. Limited on a site formerly occupied by the Provincial Bank of Canada and two bookstores. The building was designed by Ernest Isbell Barott of firm Barott and Blackader beginning in 1927, and construction took place between 1929 and 1931. The original design was 12 stories tall in accordance with Montreal’s zoning code at the time, but Barott took advantage of a new bylaw that let buildings on public squares exceed the maximum height by 200 feet. The Aldred Building is 23 stories as built. When it opened, it had modern amenities such as fast elevators, a vacuum tube system for letters, and an incinerator.
The new skyscraper shortly after completion. (Vieux-Montreal)
Despite the Aldred Building being completed during the Great Depression, it was quickly leased out by 1935. Aldred and Co. occupied the 17th and 18th floors, while the ground floor and basement were used as commercial space. The company sold the building in 1941 and left it completely around 1945. It was then owned by Prudential beginning in 1941 and the Foresight Insurance Company in 1960. The building was sold to a property management company in the 1980s, and it remains an office building today.
I really wish I had done this one more justice, as it’s pretty unique in this area of urban fabric, and I still have not yet covered an Art Deco building in enough depth to warrant its own article as of publishing this post (March 2026). Art Deco was an innovative, modern style, much different from the backwards-looking New York Life Building next door.
The setbacks of this building are a reaction to Montreal’s zoning laws of the time, which had similar requirements to cities like New York.
Duluth Building
Duluth Building under construction in September 1912. (McCord Stewart Museum)
The Duluth Building is another typical Beaux-Arts early skyscraper. It was named in honor of Daniel Greysolon du Luth, an early settler who lived on the site in the 17th century. The existing building was designed by Hutchison, Wood, and Miller and opened in 1913.
I don’t think this one is terribly interesting, but it is much loftier than its neighbors.
Next, we’ll be leaving Rue Saint-Jacques behind and traveling a block east to Rue Notre-Dame, which has architecture of a similar character but at a smaller scale.
Sources:
https://www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiches/secteur.php?sec=q
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