![\"\"](\"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/Banque-des-Marchands-1913.jpg\")
<\/a>Merchants Bank building, ca. 1913. Taken from The North End, Montreal, 1913<\/em><\/a>. Archives de la Ville de Montr\u00e9al, CA M001 P028-Z.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n 5060 Saint-Laurent Boulevard<\/p>\n At the beginning of the 20th<\/sup> century, Saint-Louis town council worked to set up a prestigious municipal centre around Lahaie Park. Saint-Enfant J\u00e9sus church was enlarged with a new fa\u00e7ade in 1903; Saint-Joseph Boulevard, an upscale residential artery, was inaugurated in 1905; after the widening of Saint-Laurent Boulevard, modern buildings replaced wooden village houses; and also in 1905, a new chateau-style town hall opened on the northwest corner of Laurier Avenue. Opposite, on the south side of the intersection, the Merchants Bank participated in this scheme by erecting a remarkable structure for its Mile End branch.<\/em><\/p>\n Founded in 1864 by transportation magnate Sir Hugh Allan, the Merchants Bank was the second largest Canadian financial institution, after the Bank of Montreal, at the beginning of the 20th<\/sup> century. In 1900, the bank opened a branch in Saint-Louis, initially by leasing the former office of the Banque Ville-Marie, which had failed spectacularly the previous year. This was on the ground floor of a building belonging to merchant Arm\u00e9nie Chevalier, a former municipal councillor. In October 1903, Chevalier sold this property on the southwest corner of Saint-Laurent Boulevard and Laurier Avenue to the Merchants Bank for $12,000.<\/p>\n The bank was then undergoing rapid expansion and opening numerous branches in several Canadian cities. The Mile End branch was designed by the architectural firm of Hutchison & Wood. The same architects also designed a similar branch around the same time, at the corner of Sainte-Catherine St. East and Fullum St. The new Mile End branch building opened in 1905; its design is careful, its proportions are handsome, and its limestone details, including several sculpted elements, are impressive. Upstairs was the bank manager’s apartment, while the top floor held a reception hall used for concerts, public meetings and private events. It was originally surmounted by a magnificent vault, as seen in the 1913 photo, which was removed sometime mid-century.<\/p>\n When the Merchants Bank merged with the Bank of Montreal in 1922, the building\u2019s ground floor became a branch of the latter bank. In 2000, the property was purchased by architect Dobro Miljevic, who transformed the 2nd floor into offices for his firm and the 3rd floor into a residence for his family. The Bank of Montreal continued to occupy the ground floor as a lessee until 10 June 2021. The bank then moved its branch to the southwest corner of Laurier and Park Avenues, a space previously occupied by a branch of the City & District Savings Bank (renamed Banque Laurentienne in 1987).<\/p>\n Dobro Miljevic sold the building in 2022 to a real estate management firm. Since spring 2023, the ground floor of the building on Saint-Laurent Boulevard is used by a branch of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 qu\u00e9b\u00e9coise du cannabis; the second floor is offices and the third is a beauty salon.<\/p>\n L’\u00e9difice de la Banque des Marchands en 2024. Photo : Yves Desjardins<\/p><\/div>\n Updated and expanded 2024 : research and writing, Yves Desjardins \u2013 revision and translation, Justin Bur<\/p>\n Thanks to Maude Bouchard-Dupont for alerting us to the architectural firm that designed the building.<\/p>\n 5060 Saint-Laurent Boulevard At the beginning of the 20th century, Saint-Louis town council worked to set up a prestigious municipal centre around Lahaie Park. Saint-Enfant J\u00e9sus church was enlarged with a new fa\u00e7ade in 1903; Saint-Joseph Boulevard, an upscale residential artery, was inaugurated in 1905; after the widening of Saint-Laurent Boulevard, modern buildings replaced wooden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[41],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6547"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6547"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6704,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6547\/revisions\/6704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
\n<\/a>Taken from a poster produced in 2011 by Friends of Saint-Laurent Boulevard<\/a> in collaboration with Mile End Memories as part of the project The Main, Forever in Tune<\/a>
\nResearch: Susan D. Bronson et Annie T\u00e9treault (as part of course work supervised by Susan D. Bronson \u00e0 la Facult\u00e9 de l\u2019am\u00e9nagement de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, 2004-2006)
\nText: Susan D. Bronson<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"