Bank of Montreal

The Winnipeg Main Branch of the Bank of Montreal — at Portage Avenue and Main Street, reputedly the windiest corner in Canada — is one of the most compelling heritage buildings in the city.

Featuring a gold-leaf ceiling, Corinthian columns and vast amounts of marble, some Botticino imported from northern Italy, the Bank of Montreal resembles a Roman temple, a tribute to fine neoclassical architecture.

Designed by the firm of McKim, Mead and White, America’s leading neoclassicist architects, and completed in 1913, extensive renovations and restoration work in 1975 and 1976 — at a cost of $2.4 million — preserved the classical elegance of this palace of commerce. The gold-leaf ceiling alone has been valued at more than $1 million.

When the bank announced plans to build the monumental structure, the Manitoba Free Press predicted that the bank would be “one of the most imposing buildings in Canada,” and bear “a very striking resemblance to the Royal Exchange of London, Eng., and in reality it will occupy a place in Winnipeg equally as commanding as the world-renowned Exchange of the capital of the empire.”