Description of Historic Place

The Merchants Bank, a two-storey brick structure erected in 1913 and later expanded by a complementary one-storey north addition, occupies a corner site on Main Street in north Winnipeg. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint.

Heritage Value

The Merchants Bank, a dignified structure of exceptional design and detail, is an extraordinary Winnipeg example of a branch bank built just prior to World War I on the commercial edge of a growing middle-income residential district. In marked contrast to the era's more common Beaux-Arts and Neo-Classical banking halls, this facility is in the style of a stately Italian Renaissance Revival palazzo, which fits well with the generally low-density development around it. Large round-arched openings and fine finishes of red brick, Bedford stone and elegantly sculpted terra cotta highlight the composition of architect J.D. Atchison. The building's qualities, outside and within, along with its advantageous Main Street location, have given it high utility, enabling it to serve as office space after functioning as branch bank until 1979.

Source: City of Winnipeg Committee on Environment Minutes, June 3, 1985

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Merchants Bank site include:
- the visible corner location at northwest Main Street and Bannerman Avenue in north Winnipeg, in proximity to residential and other commercial development
- the structure's placement, with its front (east) and south facades built out to the public sidewalks

Key exterior elements that define the building's impressive Italian Renaissance Revival style and banking function include:
- the elongated, boxy two-storey form enclosed under a low-pitched hip roof clad in red-coloured sheathing
- the solid materials and construction, including a rubble-stone foundation faced with ashlar white Bedford stone and walls finished on three sides in red brick and at the rear by buff-coloured brick, with plant, shell and other accents executed in ivory-coloured terra cotta
- the symmetrical organization of the two principal facades achieved through the orderly arrangement of large round-arched openings enriched by terra cotta, single and paired flat-headed windows and banding
- the ample fenestration throughout, including the series of second-storey windows on the front, north and south sides, the tall rectangular main-floor openings at the front and south with flat-arched brick heads and bracketed terra cotta sills, and three rear windows vertically aligned
- the front entrance set in a compound terra cotta archway adorned by attached columns, plant mouldings, small gargoyles, a keystone, etc.
- the classically moulded terra cotta entablature underscored by closely spaced dentils
- other engaging details, such as the scrolled terra cotta belt course that doubles as a continuous second-storey windowsill, the terra cotta surrounds and keystones of the three arched south windows, the second-storey brick panels with terra cotta corner rosettes, etc.
- the terra cotta plaque above the front doorway inset with 'THE MERCHANTS BANK OF CANADA' in hammered metal letters

Key elements that define the building's interior heritage character include:
- the cove ceilings in the front vestibule area, underscored by wide wall pilasters and narrower corner pilasters, each with rectangular heads
- the fine woodwork, including wood frames around square- and round-arched openings, wooden doors with wood-framed rectangular transoms, etc.