Key Number:	HS 6651
Site Name:	Imperial Bank of Commerce
Other Names:	Alberta Historical Resources Foundation Headquarters
Site Type:	0402 - Mercantile/Commercial: Bank

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			23	1	5

Address:	102 - 8 Avenue SE
Number:	2
Street:	1 SE
Avenue:	8 SE
Other:
Town:	Calgary
Near Town:

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

Style:	Renaissance Revival
Plan Shape:	Rectangular Short Facade
Storeys:	Storeys: 3
Foundation:	Basement/Foundation Wall Material: Stone
Superstructure:	Brick
Superstructure Cover:
Roof Structure:	Flat
Roof Cover:
Exterior Codes:	Massing of Units: Double Semi-Detached, Non-Related Wings: None Wall Design and Detail: Entablature Wall Design and Detail: Plain Parapet Wall Design and Detail: Carving Plain Eaves Roof Trim - Verges: Not Applicable Roof Trim Material - Verges: None Dormer Type: None Chimney Location - Side to Side: Other Chimney Location - Front to Rear: Other Chimney Stack Material: Unknown Chimney Stack Massing: Single Window - Structural Opening Shape: Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Plain Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Material: Stone Window - Sill Type: Plain Lug Sill Window - Sill Material: Stone Window - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Flat Transom, Single Light Window - Number of Sashes: One Window - Opening Mechanism: Hinged Window - Special Types: None Main Entrance - Location: Off-Centre (Facade) Main Entrance - Structural Opening Shape: Flat Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Plain Flat Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening Material: Stone Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Plain Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Flat Transom, Multiple Lights Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Main Entrance - Number of Panels Per Leaf: 1 Main Entrance - Leaves - Special Feature: Glass Main Stairs - Location and Design: None Main Stairs - Direction: None Main Porch - Type: None Main Porch - Special Features: None Main Porch - Material: None Main Porch - Height: None
Exterior:	Sandstone foundation. Decorative facade (railing style) over second floor windows; second floor has sandstone molded trim entablature around second level. Boxed cornice, top windows on front are set back. Imperial Bank of Canada sign has nearly been erased.
Interior:	N/A
Environment:	Lot size: 30' x 130' Located on one of Calgary's oldest business block on the mall, as part of a group of buildings dating from pre-1910. Faces south on 8th Avenue (renamed Stevens Avenue Mall) Property Features: None Corner lot; downtown commercial area. Located on corner the Parisian Block next door, although renovated, dates from the same era; forms an integral part of Calgary's historic core area. As it is situated on a corner, it is easily visible from two sides thus displaying the sandstone design to great advantage.
Condition:	Good (1979)
Alterations:	One door blocked in on west side. Major renovations in 1909. Minor renovations in 1911, 1912, 1920, 1945, 1960's. Apparent Alterations and/or Additions: None Site: Original Some new mechanical systems have been installed. The building's physical changes are even more startling than the change from bank to historical agency. Both the exterior and interior of the building have been quite radically altered. The old bank vault is virtually the only reminder of the interior's past grandeur. It has a time-lock.

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Constructed Construction Started	1886/01/01 1915/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
I.G. Baker Co. Hudson's Bay Company Imperial Bank of Canada Mercantile/Commercial: Bank Governmental: Office or Adminsitration Building Alta Heritage Foundation Bank (offices)	1886/01/01 1891/01/01 1892/01/01 1892/01/01 1968/03/10 1974/07/01 1979/06/10
Owner:	Owner Date:
Alberta Public Works, Government of Alberta I.G. Baker Co. Hudson's Bay Company Imperial Bank of Canada Province of Alberta	1886/01/01 1891/01/01 1892/01/01 1967/03/31

Architect:	01 APR 1892 - Darling, Curry, Spratt & Pearson, Toronto
Builder:	N/A
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	Building sold to Architectural firm to become their offices, after extensive remolding inside. A building permit was issue August 25, 1911 to the Imperil Bank for $9000 of alterations (name of contractor unreadable - Downard Fanx Co?) * * * There is some uncertainty as to the date of original construction of the building. - An I.G. Baker store occupied the site in 1888. - The Imperial Bank Building may either be the renovated store or a new structure. - In 1891- 1892 the building was occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company's third store. - In 1892, the Imperial Bank spent $32,000 on the building - Major and minor renovations took place 6 times after this. City of Calgary Assessment Records date this structure at 1888, but others believe it to be 1892. * * * THE IMPERIAL BANK Calgary Stephen Avenue and Area Historical Walking Tour In the fall of 1874 Colonel James Macleod travelled to Fort Benton, Montana in order to obtain supplies for the North-West Mounted Police. Charles E. Conrad, one of the owners of American supply outfit, accompanied Macleod back, and so began a long and friendly association between I.G. Baker and Co. and the NWMP. In 1875, when the company was contracted to build Fort Calgary, they located themselves near the Fort. Their first building on this site (c.1883-84), made of wood, sustained extensive damage in the Calgary-wide fire of November 1886. A stone replacement was erected shortly thereafter. In 1891, the Hudson' Bay Co. bought out I.G. Baker and Co., and by 1892 this building was sold to the Imperial Bank of Canada. Some modifications were made to adapt the building to its new banking function, but the exterior was left more or less unchanged until 1909. In that year, the Imperial Bank of Canada (now the CIBC) spent over $30,000 in renovations. Records indicate that business was not interrupted, so the full extent of the changes is not clear. The most obvious changes include Classical Revival elements such as a balustrade above the dentillated cornice, and a columned pediment atop the main entrance (subsequently removed during a 1945 renovation). The stone coursing, although different from the original, is finished in similar rough sandstone. For some years the law office of Arthur Sifton, James Short and Charles Stuart was located above the bank. Arthur Sifton was the older brother of Clifford Sifton, who was City solicitor, Alberta Premier (1910-1917), and later Secretary of State. James Short was a well-known Crown prosecutor, and Charles Stuart went on to serve as an MLA, Judge of the Supreme Court, and Chancellor of the University of Alberta. In 1977 the Imperial Bank was designated a Provincial Historic Resource. * * * Patron - I.G. Baker. Built by I.G. Baker Company in the site of the original T.G. Baker Store. The Imperial Bank may either have renovated the I.G. Baker Store or I.G. Baker built the Imperial Bank, designated Historic Site January 1977. Major emphasis being placed on the exterior facade. * * * This building is one of a limited number of buildings associated with the early commerce of Calgary, and one of Calgary's earliest remaining sandstone structures. First occupied by the Imperial Bank of Canada, ca. 1910. The Imperial Bank was the first bank to open a branch in Calgary after Colonel James Walker had been sent east by the town council to interest the bank institutions in locating in Calgary. The Imperial arrived in October, 1886, some six weeks before the Bank of Montreal. Both banks were located in the Lineham Block, next door to the current bank. It first had a staff of three under manager Samuel Barber, who was the manager from 1886 to 1894 (Barber built the Barber block in the city, and was later killed in a shipwreck on the coast in 1902). When the Imperial opened a branch in Edmonton in 1892, this was the first bank to be established north of Calgary. A great deal of controversy is attached to the date of construction of the Imperial Bank building. For example, Trudy Soby in 'A Walk Through Old Calgary' has a photograph of the I.G. Baker store on this site, a stone building constructed in the 1880s. She states that the Imperial bank later built a new sandstone building. The I.G. Baker Company, famous traders throughout western Canada and the western United States in the 1870s and 1880s, had arrived in Calgary in 1875, where they built the N.W.M.P. fort and a trading post near the current site of Rundle Lodge. The I.G. Baker store on this site was the first stone building to be erected in Calgary around 1884, according to the pamphlet 'Prosperous Calgary' in 1908. The company was bought out by the Hudson's Bay Company in January 1891, which then moved into the building while constructing a new stone building directly across the street; which was opened September 29, 1891. By April 16, 1892, the Imperial Bank had purchased the lot and building from the Hudson's Bay Company. The problem of dating the building now arises. It is possible that the Imperial bank tore down and rebuilt the Baker store, either in 1892 when they first assumed possession or around 1910. The bank records show the cost of construction in 1892 to be $32,000 but this may just have been for renovations. The Canadian Inventory of Historic Buildings have a copy of the 1892 plans which only show plans for fitting up a room as a bank. Thus the room could have been in the original I.G. Baker Store. But if the Bank rebuilt the Baker store, then it must really have done so after 1903 as photographs of the Central Building to the north show the Baker store still there. The problem then arises as to when the Bank rebuilt the store between 1909 and 1911. It seems possible that a massive reconstruction job took place since the Bank does not seem to have interrupted its business, and since the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has no plans of any rebuilding taking place. In 1908 'Prosperous Calgary' said that 'the bank still occupies the Baker store building', and the Albertan, on February 28, 1911 said that 'the Imperial Bank last summer improved its premises to the extent of over $30,000' (at the same time as the Dominion Bank was erecting a new building for $100,000). This bank is not only historically important with regard to its ties with the I.G. Baker company and the first bank in Calgary, but also because the Chambers above the bank held the law offices of Arthur Sifton and James Short. Sifton was born in Ontario in 1859, but was educated in Manitoba. He practised as a lawyer at Brandon and Prince Albert before coming to Calgary where he became the first city solicitor, and one of the first lawyers here. He was elected a member of the old North West Territories assembly and in 1891 became Commissioner of Public Works in the Haultain ministry. He became a QC in 1891, the chief justice of the North West Territories in January 1903 and the chief justice of Alberta in 1905. In May 1910 he resigned as chief justice to become premier of Alberta as well as the minister of public works and provincial treasurer. In 1919 he became the minister of customs and inland revenue under Sir Robert Borden, minister of public Works in 1919 and secretary of state in 1919. The Sifton, Short and Stuart law firm in the Imperial Bank chambers also included James Short, another famous Calgary pioneer, and the Crown prosecutor for a number of years.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Municipal A List Provincial Historic Resource	1977/03/15

Register:	01-181

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places:	4665-0452