[AlbertHWagstaff]

Does anyone else think it is odd that two substantial bank buildings were built on what isn't a substantial corner?

Well, there was the old auto factory (later the Planter nuts building) on the opposite side of the street, and the Weston bakery on the other corner. Add to that the Dupont streetcar looped around the Bank of Montreal (and then later on at the north-east corner) and I believe that Dupont St. narrowed to a residential-type street west of Christie so it was a busy commercial corner which also had a lot of potential bank customers cashing pay cheques.

 

[Earlscourt_Lad]

FOMOCO, n/w corner, Canada Bread, n/e corner, Vets Hospital, n/w - north of rail line. Hamilton Gear, Ossington Ave, n/e corner,

John T Hepurn, n/w Ossington corner, Frankel Steel, Shaw Street north of rail line, east side,

Also Rosco, Shaw & Dupont. Makers of Toronto's street signs for a little while.

Lots of business customers would be the short answer.

 

[Anna]

I hate to drag this 'out-of-context' issue on any further, but it's becoming curiouser and curiouser with each post.
RBC, TD, CIBC and BNS all have well-known words associated with each letter.
I repeat - What's the meaning of "O" in BMO?
I'm not referring to "stock symbols" at all. BMO is the identification on the outside of buildings!
Why is it so difficult to interpret?

Oh well, let's just get back on track!

Because they don't want to put a big BM sign on all their buildings

Lots of business customers would be the short answer.

Thanks everybody - all I could think of was Planters.

 

[Mustapha]

Also Rosco, Shaw & Dupont. Makers of Toronto's street signs for a little while.

Lots of business customers would be the short answer.

The old National Cash Register factory; quite large, a condo there now on more or less the same footprint. West side, immediately north of the railway subway.

 

[Mustapha]

Then and Now for March 20.


Then. 86 Yonge. c1920. 'Premises of Prince's Limited, Toronto.'

Now. September 2011. It's nice to have the old Fairweather (now a Moores menswear) store next door for reference.

 

[thecharioteer]

Here's a view that shows some the King and Yonge frontages of your recent explorations, Mustapha, but that Darling and Pearson building at 16 King West is particularly elusive (what's shown below is its predecessor):

 

[thecharioteer]

Then and Now for March 19.



Then. Dupont and Christie. Looking W across Christie along Dupont. April 30, 1925. An unspectacular enough 'Then' scene - I was fully expecting at least one or both of those bank buildings to have been lost down through the years, or, some sort of 60s glass pavilion replacement. Imagine my surprise...

Now. March 2012.

Here are both bank buildings posing for individual portraits by their proud portrait taker - me - below. I decided to do this instead of the usual same-old-recreated-perspective because: a) Both survived. b) The BOM has a delightful brass plaque of a scale and apparent originality which took my breath away.

Now, while many of you may be saying: stop gushing and let's see the pictures already... I will agree because it is very late as I post these.

The BMO Building was originally a Merchants Bank (full circle, eh?), built in 1915 and is listed:

http://app.toronto.ca/HeritagePreservation/details.do?folderRsn=2436006&propertyRsn=192761

Its architect was apparently aware of the work of the great 18th C French architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux:

Hôtel d'Hallwyll, 28 rue Michel-le-Comte et 15 rue de Montmorency, Paris. Elévation de la façade sur la rue Michel-le-Comte. 1766

 

[junctionist]

That bank is another one of the many excellent neighbourhood branches in the Beaux-Arts and Neoclassical styles in Toronto. I love its imposing and grand facade. Banks used to have a tradition of hiring top architectural talent for their branches, something that lasted until the 1960s. (Afterwards, the practice seemed to have become more sporadic.) I have praised the Bank of Montreal (Merchants Bank) at Dupont and Christie before on Urban Toronto, and I always enjoy seeing its stately details while waiting on my bike for the light to change at that intersection. It has a facade of smooth stone blocks with warm hues and a striking contrast of lightly and heavily recessed architectural elements in a flattened classical style. The arched entrance with large brass plaques and the stone cornice topped with copper are particularly eye catching. The whole facade is unusual but beautifully composed and executed. It's one of the more memorable local branches in the city. But I bet that like the overwhelming majority of such branches, its interior was gutted and received a generic modernization sometime between 1950-1980.

 

[wwwebster]

...that Darling and Pearson building at 16 King West is particularly elusive...

Some views of the interior, from the September 1921 issue of Construction:

 

[thecharioteer]

Then and Now for March 14, although it felt like June 14th today, temperature wise.


Then. Two views of 60 King Street West. The first, wwwebster tells me, is c1920. The one below that is a later pic I found at the online Toronto Archives.

..

The ruins of 60 King West are now at the Guild Inn:

 

[Kontiki]

I hate to drag this 'out-of-context' issue on any further, but it's becoming curiouser and curiouser with each post.
RBC, TD, CIBC and BNS all have well-known words associated with each letter.
I repeat - What's the meaning of "O" in BMO?
I'm not referring to "stock symbols" at all. BMO is the identification on the outside of buildings!
Why is it so difficult to interpret?

Oh well, let's just get back on track!

To further clarify, the "O" doesn't stand for anything in same sense that the "D" in "TD" does. It's really more aptly "BMo" as in Bank of Montreal. It's just been stylized in all caps form.

 

[Goldie]

Thanks for the clarification, Kontiki.
I entirely agree with your assessment of the situation.
But now I'm even more curious.
Is there any other example of an acronym in which a letter stands for 'nothing'?
I can't think of one. - 'Stock symbols' excepted, of course.
Is BMO in a class by itself?

 

[Goldie]

Another view of my favourite abandoned rail line;

 

[Earlscourt_Lad]

Thanks for the clarification, Kontiki.
I entirely agree with your assessment of the situation.
But now I'm even more curious.
Is there any other example of an acronym in which a letter stands for 'nothing'?
I can't think of one. - 'Stock symbols' excepted, of course.
Is BMO in a class by itself?

I wouldn't put a lot of stock in this, but if someone else here can verify, we may have a solution.

I seem to recall in the early days of internet banking, the Bank of Montreal introduced their online presence as the "Bank of Montreal Online". There seemed to be, for a while, two names floating about: Bank of Montreal, and Bank of Montreal Online. I think they consolidated with BMO, taking the initials from the aforementioned Bank of Montreal Online.

But that's a vague memory from 15+ years ago.

 

[Goldie]

I contacted the BMO head office for clarification.
Here's the official answer:
"I can advise that 'BMO' is the abbreviation of the name Bank of Montreal. BOM would be the abbreviation in English for Bank of Montreal; however in French the abbreviation is BDM for Banque de Montreal. Therefore, the BMO abbreviation is used as it is accepted in both languages. In addition, the Stock Exchanges have also assigned us the abbreviation of BMO."