Description of Historic Place

The Bank of Montréal is a late-19th-century bank building, built in the Queen Anne Revival style. It is located at the corner of Notre-Dame and Seigneurs streets in the city of Montréal. The formal recognition consists of the building on its legal property at the time of designation.

Heritage Value

The Bank of Montréal was designated a national historic site in 1990 because the building is a particularly good example of the Queen Anne Revival Style, as expressed in commercial architecture.

Built for the bank of the same name, the Bank of Montréal building is a rare surviving example of the Queen Anne Revival style applied to a commercial building. Its use of Flemish motifs in imitation of a Flemish public building is typical of the style.

Sources: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minute, 1990

Character-Defining Elements

The key elements that relate to the heritage value of the Bank of Montreal are:

- its small scale
- its Queen Anne Revival style, evident in: its high roof with intersecting gables and dormers; the shaped and sculpted pediments in its gables and dormers; the variety of oval, sash and dormer windows; its textural surfaces and decorative sculpture; and its Flemish motifs
- its Flemish theme, evident in: the ground-floor, glazed arcade containing the public service area, imitative of the open arcade of a Flemish public market; and the Flemish gable ends on two facades
- its fenestration, consisting of: a glazed arcade on the ground floor; large windows on the second floor; and a medley of oval, sash and dormer windows in the two attic storeys
- the ornamentation of its shaped gables, including: crests, scrolls, and carved griffins
- its use of textured, red sandstone on its two street facades
- its location on a street corner, with two exposed street facades