Saint Jacques Street (officially in , ), or St. James Street, is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running from Old Montreal westward to Lachine.
In 1818 the Bank of Montreal built its headquarters on St James, which began the development of the street as a major financial centre. Other financial companies that established head offices on St James included the Royal Bank of Canada, Banque canadienne nationale, Banque provinciale du Canada, Molsons Bank, Merchants Bank, Crédit foncier franco-canadien, Banque du peuple, City Bank of Montreal, Montreal City and District Savings Bank, Royal Trust Company, Crown Trust Company, and Nesbitt Thomson. Numerous British insurance companies had their Canadian head offices on St James. These included the Life Association of Scotland, Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance, Yorkshire Insurance, Standard Life, Colonial Life, Guardian Fire and Life, and London and Lancashire Insurance. Additionally, most financial companies based elsewhere established their Montreal offices on St James.
The street is commonly known by two names, St. James Street in English (after St. James's, London) and rue Saint-Jacques in French. Both names are used in English and French, although Saint-Jacques is the most common for geographical reference. St. James Street is usually used in reference to the street's historic importance as a financial district.
History
A main thoroughfare passing through Old Montreal, the street was first opened in 1672. The portion between McGill Street and place Saint Henri was originally called Bonaventure Street (rue Saint-Bonaventure). This name has passed down to Place Bonaventure, Bonaventure Expressway, and Bonaventure Metro station, despite the disappearance of their original referents.
In the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, St. James Street was the centre of Montreal's financial district and where several major English insurance, banking, and trust companies built their Canadian head offices. Prior to World War I, Canadian, provincial, and major municipal governments along with important industries such as the railways, public utility and canal companies obtained most of their capital financing in the United Kingdom or the United States. At the end of the War, St. James Street grew rapidly and although by the 1920s there were stock exchanges in Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver, St. James Street's stock brokerage houses and the Montreal Stock Exchange were the most important in all of Canada. At the time of its construction in 1928, the Royal Bank of Canada's new headquarters at 360 St. James Street was the tallest building in the British Empire. The St James St. area was also the head office of the Bank of Montreal, and the informal head office of the Bank of Nova Scotia. It was also home to the major brokerage houses such as Nesbitt, Thomson and Company, Pitfield, MacKay, Ross, Royal Securities Corporation and others.
Some companies, past and present, located on St. James Street are:
50 : Ottawa Hotel, Montreal 60 : Versailles Building 100 : New York Life Insurance Company 105–107 : Royal Trust 119 : Bank of Montreal – main Montreal branch 201–215 : Canadian Pacific Express 210–212 : Yorkshire Insurance Company 215 : McMaster Meighen, lawyers 225 : National Trust Company 231–235 : Montreal Star 240 : Guardian Trust Company – The Dominion Bank 244 : Royal Securities Corporation 249–251 : Jones-Heward Financial Services 262–266 : Montreal City and District Savings Bank 265 : Canadian Bank of Commerce 275 : Canada Life 278–288 : Molson Bank 355 : Merchants Bank of Canada 360 : Royal Bank of Canada 388–390 : Sovereign Bank of Canada then Union Bank and Commercial Union Assurance Co. 393 : Crown Trust Company 437 : Eastern Townships Bank then the Commercial Union Assurance Co. and the Bank of Nova Scotia
East of Place d'Armes square, the street was home to two French-Canadian financial institutions, the Banque Canadienne Nationale and the Banque du Peuple, long gone now.Old Montreal Web site
Decline A number chose to gradually move their official head offices to Toronto, Ontario, while others shifted all future expansion to Toronto or other major Canadian centres. As a result, the St. James Street financial district has all but disappeared.
Recent history
During the 1990s, the Montreal Expos baseball club unveiled plans to build a new stadium in downtown Montreal, right off St. Jacques Street, just south of the Bell Centre. When provincial funding for the new building fell through, the Expos did not continue with their plan and sold the property to developers. That stretch of Saint Jacques is now undergoing considerable gentrification.
Today, the stretch of St. Jacques Street between McGill Street and Saint Laurent Boulevard is still notable mostly for its grand Neo-Classical buildings on the part of the street running through the Old Montreal district. These include Bank of Montreal's domed Montreal Main Branch, the former headquarters of Royal Bank of Canada, the Canadian Bank of Commerce, the Molson Bank and the Canada Life Insurance Company. More modern buildings include the Montreal World Trade Centre and the Stock Exchange Tower.
Farther west, St. Jacques Street runs through the residential neighbourhoods of Little Burgundy, Saint-Henri, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Lachine, as well as the suburb of Montreal West, where it is instead known as Avon Road. Square-Victoria–OACI, Lionel-Groulx and Place-Saint-Henri Metro stations are located on St. Jacques, to the west, it gives access to Autoroute 20 in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, where it passes through a largely industrial and large-surface commercial district at the top of the Falaise Saint-Jacques. The McGill University Health Centre superhospital fronts Saint-Jacques in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
Buildings of St James Street The following table shows buildings on St James Street beginning at its origin at boulevard Saint-Laurent. Buildings highlighted in red are demolished. AddressCompany/BuildingYearArchitectImageHeading east from boulevard Saint-Laurent. (St James Street East disappeared in 1964 to make way for the new Palais de justice.)7 St James EastCrédit foncier franco-canadien1925 (demolished 1964)Ernest Cormier and Joseph Daoust10 St James EastTrust & Loan Company of Canada1909 (demolished 1964)Joseph Lapierre19 St James EastChambre de Commerce1907 (demolished 1964)Cox & AmosHeading west from boulevard Saint-Laurent7 St JamesLa Presse1899Hutchison & Wood10 St JamesThemis Building1927Perrault & Gadbois33–41 St JamesCaisse nationale d'économie1938Payette & Crevier45 St JamesAlexander Cross Building1869William Tutin Thomas55 St JamesBanque du peuple1893Perrault, Mesnard et Venne60 St JamesVersailles Building (Joseph Versailles)1913Ross and MacFarlane61 St James (701 place d'Armes)Life Association of Scotland1869Hopkins & Wily100 St James (511 place d'Armes)New York Life Insurance1887Babb, Cook & WillardPlace d'Armes intersects105 St JamesCity Bank of Montreal1844 (reconstructed in 1888)Cane, MacFarlane & Browne105 St JamesImperial Fire and Life Assurance Company (reconstruction of City Bank)1888 (demolished 1912)Charles William Clinton105 St JamesRoyal Trust Company1912McKim, Mead & White with Barott, Blackader & Webster119 St JamesBank of Montreal1845John Wells120 St JamesLiverpool & London Fire and Life Assurance1859 (demolished 1902)Hopkins, Lawford & Nelson120 St JamesLiverpool & London & Globe Insurance1902 (demolished 1965)Hutchison & Wood120 St James (500 place d'Armes)Banque Canadienne Nationale1965David, Barott & Boulva129 St JamesBank of Montreal1818 (demolished 1872)Architect unknownMerrill Denison, Canada's First Bank: A History of the Bank of Montreal, Volume 1, (McClelland and Stewart, 1966), 119.129 St JamesPost Office1872 (demolished 1958)Henri-Maurice Perrault129 St JamesBank of Montreal1958Barott, Marshall, Merett & Barott132 St JamesTransportation Building1910 (demolished 1965)Carrère & Hastings with Ross & MacFarlanerue Saint-François-Xavier intersects200 St JamesPost Office1853 (upper floors removed in 1911, demolished 1953)John Wells200 St JamesKaplan Building1953210 St JamesYorkshire Insurance1910Saxe & Archibald214 St JamesBank of British North America1843 (demolished 1912)George L. Dickinson214 St JamesBank of British North America1912 (demolished 1989)Barott, Blackader & Webster215 St JamesDominion Express Company1911Edward & William S. Maxwell221 St JamesRoyal Bank of Canada1907Howard Colton Stone225 St JamesColonial Life Assurance1857 (demolished 1914)James Key Springle225 St JamesNational Trust Company1914Kenneth Guscotte Rea235 St JamesStandard Life1883 (demolished 1922)Richard Alfred Waite235 St JamesMontreal Star1929Ross & Macdonald240 St JamesGuardian Fire and Life1902Henry Ives Cobb with Finley & Spence241 St JamesMontreal Star1899Alexander Francis Dunlop244 St JamesBarron Block1870 (burned down 1896)Michel Laurent244 St JamesLondon and Lancashire Life Assurance Company1898Edward & William S. Maxwell249 St JamesJones, Heward & Co.1904J.-B. Resther et Fils255 St JamesHanson Brothers1928Harold Lea Fetherstonhaugh261 St JamesCitizens' Insurance1874 (demolished 1902)Hutchison & Steele261 St JamesMetropolitan Bank1903Finley & Spence262 St JamesBanque d'épargne de la cité et du district de Montréal1870Michel Laurent265 St JamesMethodist Church1843 (demolished 1888)George L. Dickinson265 St JamesTemple Buildings1888 (demolished 1907)Alexander Francis Dunlop265 St JamesCanadian Bank of Commerce1907Darling and Pearson268 St JamesCanada Life1874 (demolished 1894)Hopkins & Wily272 St JamesS. Carsley Co. Ltd1894 (demolished 1923)Dunlop & Heriot272 St JamesInsurance Exchange1923David Jerome Spence275 St JamesCanada Life1894Richard Alfred Waite288 St JamesMolsons Bank1864George Brownerue Saint-Pierre intersects355 St JamesMerchants Bank1870Hopkins & Wily(corner of St James and Saint Pierre)Mechanics Hall1853 (demolished ca. 1925)Hopkins & Nelson(corner of St James and Dollard)Bank of Ottawa1903 (dismantled and rebuilt in 1928 at 4 rue Notre-Dame est)Howard Colton Stone360 St JamesRoyal Bank of Canada1926York & Sawyer with Sumner Godfrey Davenport361 St JamesA. & S. Nordheimer Co.1888John James Browne373 St JamesHutchison Building1840384 St JamesSavage, Lyman & Co.1866William Tutin Thomas388 St JamesSovereign Bank1904Howard Colton Stone393 St JamesCrown Trust Company1924Philip John Turner408 St JamesOttawa Hotel1845George Browne414 St JamesBank of Toronto1893 (demolished 1914)Taylor & Gordon414 St JamesBank of Toronto1914 (demolished 1960)Hogle & Davis437 St JamesEastern Townships Bank1907Cox & Amos500 St JamesToronto-Dominion Bank1960Ross, Fish, Duschenes & BarrettMcGill Street intersects612 St JamesImperial Bank of Canada1904 (reconstruction of Albert Building; demolished 1960)Taylor, Hogle & Davis612 St JamesImperial Bank of Canada1960Ross, Fish, Duschenes & Barrett614 St JamesMarcil Trust Company1919 (demolished 1937)Hogle & Davis614 St JamesGuardian Trust Company1938Lawson & Little634 St JamesDominion Guarantee Company1908Ross & MacFarlane
Bibliography
George B. Challies and Ross E. Hayes. St. James Street: A Study of the Development of St. James Street, 1642–1963. McGill University School of Architecture, 1963. Hugh Oddy. The Royal Trust Co. Building, 105 St. James Street West: McKim, Meade and White, 1912. McGill University School of Architecture, 1979. Adrian Shewchuk. The Temple Building: 1889–1907, St. James Street. McGill University School of Architecture, 1989.
References
External links
City of Montreal website for St. James St.