Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

The Bank of Montreal was founded in 1817 and was the first chartered bank in Canada. It served as the central bank for the country until the founding of the Bank of Canada in 1935. Legislation in 1824 prevented the bank from serving the town of York but it got its break in 1840 when it took over The Bank of The People. This was a reformer bank started in 1835 to provide loans to farmers that the Bank of Upper Canada wouldn’t serve. The Family Compact didn’t like the direct competition of reformers and plotted to have the bank taken over by the Bank of Montreal. In 1885 they opened a branch at Yonge and Front Streets and this building is one of the few in this area that survived the great fire of 1904. The building was designated in 1976 for its heritage value as one of the finest examples of 19th century bank buildings in Canada. It is now home to The Hockey Hall of Fame.

Click here for Bank of Montreal (BMO) history as a branch, it is a most interesting article with extensive number of photos.

My main purpose visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame was to get these photos!!

Built within 10 years of the birth of hockey, the building that houses the Esso Great Hall is a quiet place in which to reflect on the richness of our past. Construction of the building began in 1885, during a period of great prosperity and optimism in Canada's future. Originally a bank, the building reflected the importance of banking in the formation of a country in much the same way that it now reflects the importance of hockey in the building of a culture.

This florid example of rococo architecture was designed by the Toronto firm of Darling and Curry, which also created the similarly august Toronto Club a few blocks away. Used by the Bank of Montreal as a head office until 1949, the building continued to serve as a branch until 1982, when it closed for the last time.

The building remained largely unused until its restoration by BCE Place (now Brookfield Place) for use as the Hockey Hall of Fame (except for the rumoured presence of Dorothy, the ghost of a former teller who took her own life after a failed love affair with the bank manager -see below).

Customers entered the Banking Room through the building's main doors on the southeast corner.

Entering the Esso Great Hall, you find yourself in a room that was once the largest bank branch in Canada. 

The banking room is three stories in height. The lower portion of the walls is covered in rich cherrywood. 

Richly modeled detail abounds in the Hall, framing the mezzanine on the west side. This was the former boardroom, behind which was the bank manager's private apartment. 

Measuring 70 by 70 feet, the room rises to a 45-foot-high stained glass dome. Rendered in the best traditions of classical symbolism, the dome is the largest of its kind in Toronto. Constructed by Joseph McCausland and Sons, it features 24 fanned panels that depict allegorical dragons guarding gold from eagles. Around the outside are a cornucopia of fruit and flowers. In the centre, eight circles bear emblems representing what were then the seven provinces and Canada. The task of restoring the stained glass to its original glory was given to Andrew McCausland, the great-great-grandson of builder Joseph McCausland, whose son Robert was responsible for the original design.

 Toronto - The suicide happened on March 11, 1953. Dorothea had come in much earlier than the other tellers and went straight to the upstairs bathroom where she stayed for a period of time. She eventually came down and went back up to the bathroom where she shot herself with the banks .38 calibre revolver. The 19-year-old was carried down in a Windsor-style chair and rushed to St. Michael’s Hospital. She died 22 hours after shooting herself in the head, which doctors considered a miracle.

For year’s nobody knew the true identity of the woman who killed herself and stories have been floating around for years on why she killed herself. People who have told the ghost story referred to the ghost as Dorothy. However, after some investigative digging by The Toronto Star the woman’s identity was finally revealed. Her name was Dorothea Mae Elliott.

According to source Dorothea was having an affair with either a married teller or branch manager. After confronting her lover and being rejected she shot herself in the upstairs bathroom. However, there have been a number of other rumours as to why she killed herself.

Click here to read more fascinating stories of Dorothy sightings. Now we want to know more about the BMO ADD department that operated out of that building in the 1980s!