Home / Accueil

Bank of Montreal

2908 32nd Street, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada

Formally Recognized: 2000/02/21

Bank of Montreal; City of Vernon, 2010
Corner view, 2009
Historic view of Bank of Montreal; Greater Vernon Museum & Archives photo #3432, 1894
Corner view on original site, 1894
No Image

Other Name(s)

Bank of Montreal
Berry Block
Vernon News Building
Vernon Bank of Montreal

Links and documents

Construction Date(s)

1894/01/01

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2010/05/20

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

The Bank of Montreal is a two-storey brick commercial building. Built in 1894 on the southwest corner of Barnard Avenue and 32nd Street as Vernon’s first standalone Bank of Montreal, the building was moved in 1909 to its present location one lot to the south. Faced with brick from the Vernon brickworks, the building is a restrained example of Queen Anne Revival commercial architecture. The cutaway corner entrance comprises a brick archway and this motif is repeated in the upper and lower windows.

Heritage Value

Designed by the prominent architect Robert Mackay Fripp, the Bank of Montreal is valued as an early and important commercial building in Vernon and one of the earliest brick commercial buildings in the interior of British Columbia. This building, faced with local pressed brick, includes many fine architectural details, including the arched windows, decorative corbelling and a stringcourse above the second-storey windows, and a prominent cutaway entrance, which would have emphasized its original corner location. In 1909, contractor T.E. Crowell moved the building on log rollers to its present location, and the building was expanded. The decorative quoins around the entrance and windows are additions that are more recent. When the building was moved, it was divided into various businesses, the most notable of which was the Vernon News.

Robert Fripp was an English architect who worked in New Zealand, Vancouver and Los Angeles. He completed several important commissions in Vernon in the 1890s, including the Spinks/Ellison House and the Kalamalka Hotel. Fripp’s architecture is a rare reminder that Vernon was founded in the Victorian era. The Italianate architecture of this building was superseded within a decade by buildings in the Baroque, Georgian and Beaux Arts styles, featuring the temple bank motif. In 1910, a new Bank of Montreal was constructed on the site of the original building. It was a symmetrical structure on a cubic plan, with dressed stone trim.

The Bank of Montreal is significant as a symbol of the growing prosperity of Vernon in the 1890s, and its place as the financial centre of the Okanagan Valley. The Bank of Montreal was closely associated with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and its subsidiary land and transportation companies. The bank provided loans to the land development companies in the Okanagan Valley and to emerging commercial enterprises. The arrival of the Bank in November 1892 (temporarily renting space in the Schubert Block while the new structure was commissioned), along with the railway, marked the transition of the Okanagan from ranching to intensive agriculture, townsite settlement, and supporting infrastructure, such as irrigation systems, packing houses, and transportation. At the time of construction, the bank served all of the Okanagan, Similkameen and Grand Forks electoral districts, an area from the CPR main line to the U.S. border. Prominent architect Samuel McClure designed a large house for bank manager G. E. Henderson. Henderson, who initially lived in staff quarters above the new bank, moved to the Bank House in 1910, where he remained until his retirement in 1923. Henderson took an active part in the business and social organization of the city, including the hospital board, of which he was President for sixteen years. However, his main role was to encourage the growth of the region, as summarized in a 1932 history of the Bank of Montreal: 'Everywhere as conditions have become ripe, the bank has planted its branches for facilitating the agricultural development of the country, its manufacturing industries, and its general commerce.'

The Okanagan Land and Development Company laid out the Vernon town-site in 1890. It advertised Vernon as the railway capital of the Interior, stating in a brochure: 'There is a great chance to make money as Vernon, being the centre of the most extensive agricultural district in the province, will undoubtedly become a large and flourishing city.' The Bank of Montreal had, however, been initially attracted to the area by the mining activity in the south Okanagan and the development of Fairview. It was felt a bank near the railhead would be a logical location to serve mining interests. The construction of the bank and the Kalamalka Hotel cemented the position of 30th Avenue as the main street of Vernon.

Source: City of Vernon Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Bank of Montreal include its:
- prominent location facing 32nd Street
- scale and massing of the building, as expressed by its two-storey height, symmetrical form in the Italianate Commercial style, cutaway corner entrance, and arched entrance and windows
- decorative brickwork, including corbelling and a stringcourse in the upper storey
- expansive cornice and horizontal banding above the first and second storeys, emphasizing the horizontality of the massing
- compatible additions in 1909
- use of local Vernon pressed brick

Recognition

Jurisdiction

British Columbia

Recognition Authority

Local Governments (BC)

Recognition Statute

Local Government Act, s.954

Recognition Type

Community Heritage Register

Recognition Date

2000/02/21

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)

n/a

Theme - Category and Type

Developing Economies
Trade and Commerce
Peopling the Land
Settlement

Function - Category and Type

Current

Commerce / Commercial Services
Eating or Drinking Establishment

Historic

Commerce / Commercial Services
Bank or Stock Exchange
Commerce / Commercial Services
Office or Office Building

Architect / Designer

Robert Mackay Fripp

Builder

n/a

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation

City of Vernon Planning Department

Cross-Reference to Collection

Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier

EbQt-108

Status

Published

Related Places

n/a

SEARCH THE CANADIAN REGISTER

Advanced SearchAdvanced Search
Find Nearby PlacesFIND NEARBY PLACES PrintPRINT
Nearby Places