Photographs by the author. You may reproduce them without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photogrpaher and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Bank of Montreal on Bastion Square (1897), on Government and View Streets, Victoria, B. C., designed by Francis Mawson Rattenbury (1867–1935). Four storeys. Neo-Gothic style. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
The bank building's location is still as prominent as when Mark Twain visited Government Street in Victoria when the four-storey Chateau-style building was under construction in 1895. Since the Bank of Montreal was the primary financial backer of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), for his design for the Bastion Square branch of the Bank of Montreal Rattenbury decided to work in the Quebec "Chateau Style," as seen in the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City. Although the design may have been novel for Victoria, the materials that Rattenbury utilized were purely local: grey granite from Haddington and Nelson Islands. The bank building's steeply pitched roof, castle-like facade, and stone cladding make it unique among the city's commercial edifices of the period. Behind the whimsical, pseudo-mediaeval facade with its crenellated cornices, gargoyles, and alternating bands of rusticated and ashlar masonry lies some very modern technology: steel and concrete — and Rattenbury completely eliminated wood as a structural element. The majestic edifice is now home to "The Irish Times Pub." Both photographic views show the eastern facade, the perspective that Twain would have had as he entered the Driard Hotel (built in the Romanesque style 1892) and the adjacent Dayton Music Hall (1871; later re-named the Grand Opera House in 1900, and the Victoria Theatre in 1902).
The Neo-Gothic Building's Character-Defining Elements:
- The prominent location and building entrance on the corner of Government Street and Bastion Square;
- The unimpeded view of the building from View Street;
- The castle-like asymmetrical form and massing;
- Chateau Style details such as the steeply sloped hipped slate roof, the crenellated cornices, the truncated turret, the gargoyles, and the alternating bands of rusticated and ashlar masonry;
- The lack of wood structural elements, and the prominence of local building materials such as granite and Haddington and Nelson Island stone;
- Interior spatial configurations relevant to Rattenbury's original design, such as the open floor plan on the ground floor. [Source: Canada's Historic Places]
Bibliography
Allingham, Philip V. "Mark Twain in Vancouver, British Columbia: August, 1895." Mark Twain Journal 28, 2 (Fall 1990): 2-14. [Issued in 1994].
Barrett, Anthony A., and Rhodri Windsor Liscombe. Francis Mawson Rattenbury and British Columbia: Architecture and Challenge in the Imperial Age. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1983.
Canada's Historic Places. "Bank of Montreal, 1200 Government Street." Web. 23 April 2023.
Elliot, David R. "Rattenbury, Francis Mawson." Canadian Encyclopedia.. Four volumes. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988. Vol. III: 1828-1829.
Humphreys, Danda. "The Bank of Montreal." Government Street: Victoria's Heritage Mile. Victoria: Heritage House, 2012: 25.
Liscombe, Rhodri Windsor. "Rattenbury, Francis Mawson." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Posted 20 May 2008. Web. 25 April 2023.
Created 20 April 2023