St Jacques Monday, Dec 3 2007
Image Gallery canadian bank of commerce, montreal, picture, st jacques, st james 5:59 am
St Jacques is one of the oldest streets in Montreal. Sky scrapers began popping up on St Jacques, St James to the English-speaking Montrealers of the time, at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Many banks and financial institutions would open their head offices on this street making it the financial centre of Canada at the time.
The building with the large columns on the left was the main Montreal branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, now CIBC. Built between 1907 and 1909, its architecture is very representative of the times, it tried to give the message of solidity. Most of the businessmen getting to work when this picture was taken traveled by street car. In the recent picture you can see that the main method of transportation to and from this sector of the city is now by car.
Source: The McCord Museum
