This building at Ouellette and Ellis has always caught my eye just due to the sheer size of it.
While there is very little Ouellette Ave. frontage, the building runs the whole length of the block, from Ouellette to Dufferin. There is some nice detailing around the entrance doors, along with some interesting brick work. The building also contains a few now vacant retail spaces.
There is some great detail in the stone work on this one, along with some leaded glass windows.
The Royal Apartments is so named, as the Royal bank occupied the ground floor (along with an A&P in the 1930s). That branch was in there until the mid 1990’s. I have looked, but have been unable to come up with a date of construction or architect for this building. I came across a reference to the “South Windsor” branch of the Royal Bank being established in 1927 at the south west corner of Pelissier and Hanna. The building is far to big to not have appeared in the Star’s annual “Year in review” pictures of the apartments built during the year, and it doesn’t appear in 1927, 1928 or 1929.
Given the art deco influence on the building, I would guess it was built around 1930. When taking into account the Royal Bank having been established in 1927 a few blocks away, it makes sense that they may have outgrown their location on Pelissier and were probably looking for a more visible location on Ouellette.
Hard to believe another year is almost in the books! See you back here Friday for the annual “year in review” post.
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Beauty. Anybody know what the apartments are like?
I do, most are in relatively good shape. Mostly one bedroom and studio apartments with a smattering of 2 bedrooms. The entrance is on Ellis.
You're way off. The RBC branch in this building closed in 2002.
Thanks Mike. As an RBC user it just seems that was I suppose! Must have been around the time they opened the new main branch downtown....
I lived in a 1 bedroom apartment for several years, they have some cool character, nice moulding etc, too bad most are covered in many years of repaint. Some have larger closets that used to have murphy beds, which were removed before I got there. It was a cool place to be for a while.
I also used to live in this apartment building, on the third floor. Much of the original wood work has been painted over but you can still see some original details in the closets. It was a cozy little place. Funny thing about the building is that there are actually three entrances. The one entrance on Ellis closest to Ouellette only takes you to the 2nd and 3rd floors. If you want to get to the first floor, you have to use the other Ellis entrance, or the back entrance. Side note, my aunt started her bank career at that RBC. I hear the vault is still there.