A look today at the south east corner of Ouellette and Chatham today. Standing on the corner is the Merchant’s Bank of Canada building. To the left of the bank building is the Vital Ouellette house, still standing, but well hidden. It used to sit on the corner but was moved to the east in I believe 1903. The Merchant’s Bank merged with and into the Bank of Montreal in 1921. A handsome building, it was demolished in the early 1960’s and replaced with the Bank of Montreal building currently occupying the same site.
Sad that these banks had wonderful architecture adn the same banks in the last 30 + years destroyed them as they shuffled around to various corners demoing each building they replaced.
I think we should have a copy of this picture at Simons Prime Hamburger. We are o the same block as this old beauty 🙂
I remember this place coming down, although I was just a kid. Maybe it’s my imagination, but I seem to recall people being quite unhappy about it being demolished and replaced with what is there now.
On a side note, one interesting feature of this corner was a public washroom under the street along the Chatham St. side directly across from the bank.
I think those washrooms might still be there under the street, like the catacombs of Rome.
IIRC they still are …or were… and contractors found them while doing street or sewer repair some years ago. There was a story in the Star about it, and some photos too. I wish I could remember more specifically what year this was, but it was recent enough that it should be in their digital archives.