# Saint Jacques Street

Saint Jacques Street (French: rue Saint-Jacques, pronounced), 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.

### 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.
| Address | Company/Building | Year | Architect |
| Heading east from boulevard Saint-Laurent. (St James Street East disappeared in 1964 to make way for the new Palais de justice.) |||||
| 7 St James East | Crédit foncier franco-canadien | 1925 (demolished 1964) | Ernest Cormier and Joseph Daoust |
| 10 St James East | Trust & Loan Company of Canada | 1909 (demolished 1964) | Joseph Lapierre |
| 19 St James East | Chambre de Commerce | 1907 (demolished 1964) | Cox & Amos |
| Heading west from boulevard Saint-Laurent |||||
| 7 St James | La Presse | 1899 | Hutchison & Wood |
| 10 St James | Themis Building | 1927 | Perrault & Gadbois |
| 33–41 St James | Caisse nationale d'économie | 1938 | Payette & Crevier |
| 45 St James | Alexander Cross Building | 1869 | William Tutin Thomas |
| 55 St James | Banque du peuple | 1893 | Perrault, Mesnard et Venne |
| 60 St James | Versailles Building (Joseph Versailles) | 1913 | Ross and MacFarlane |
| 61 St James (701 place d'Armes) | Life Association of Scotland | 1869 | Hopkins & Wily |
| 100 St James (511 place d'Armes) | New York Life Insurance | 1887 | Babb, Cook & Willard |
| Place d'Armes intersects |||||
| 105 St James | City Bank of Montreal | 1844 (reconstructed in 1888) | Cane, MacFarlane & Browne |
| 105 St James | Imperial Fire and Life Assurance Company (reconstruction of City Bank) | 1888 (demolished 1912) | Charles William Clinton |
| 105 St James | Royal Trust Company | 1912 | McKim, Mead & White with Barott, Blackader & Webster |
| 119 St James | Bank of Montreal | 1845 | John Wells |
| 120 St James | Liverpool & London Fire and Life Assurance | 1859 (demolished 1902) | Hopkins, Lawford & Nelson |
| 120 St James | Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance | 1902 (demolished 1965) | Hutchison & Wood |
| 120 St James (500 place d'Armes) | Banque Canadienne Nationale | 1965 | David, Barott & Boulva |
| 129 St James | Bank of Montreal | 1818 (demolished 1872) | Architect unknown |
| 129 St James | Post Office | 1872 (demolished 1958) | Henri-Maurice Perrault |
| 129 St James | Bank of Montreal | 1958 | Barott, Marshall, Merett & Barott |
| 132 St James | Transportation Building | 1910 (demolished 1965) | Carrère & Hastings with Ross & MacFarlane |
| rue Saint-François-Xavier intersects |||||
| 200 St James | Post Office | 1853 (upper floors removed in 1911, demolished 1953) | John Wells |
| 200 St James | Kaplan Building | 1953 | |
| 210 St James | Yorkshire Insurance | 1910 | Saxe & Archibald |
| 214 St James | Bank of British North America | 1843 (demolished 1912) | George L. Dickinson |
| 214 St James | Bank of British North America | 1912 (demolished 1989) | Barott, Blackader & Webster |
| 215 St James | Dominion Express Company | 1911 | Edward & William S. Maxwell |
| 221 St James | Royal Bank of Canada | 1907 | Howard Colton Stone |
| 225 St James | Colonial Life Assurance | 1857 (demolished 1914) | James Key Springle |
| 225 St James | National Trust Company | 1914 | Kenneth Guscotte Rea |
| 235 St James | Standard Life | 1883 (demolished 1922) | Richard Alfred Waite |
| 235 St James | Montreal Star | 1929 | Ross & Macdonald |
| 240 St James | Guardian Fire and Life | 1902 | Henry Ives Cobb with Finley & Spence |
| 241 St James | Montreal Star | 1899 | Alexander Francis Dunlop |
| 244 St James | Barron Block | 1870 (burned down 1896) | Michel Laurent |
| 244 St James | London and Lancashire Life Assurance Company | 1898 | Edward & William S. Maxwell |
| 249 St James | Jones, Heward & Co. | 1904 | J.-B. Resther et Fils |
| 255 St James | Hanson Brothers | 1928 | Harold Lea Fetherstonhaugh |
| 261 St James | Citizens' Insurance | 1874 (demolished 1902) | Hutchison & Steele |
| 261 St James | Metropolitan Bank | 1903 | Finley & Spence |
| 262 St James | Banque d'épargne de la cité et du district de Montréal | 1870 | Michel Laurent |
| 265 St James | Methodist Church | 1843 (demolished 1888) | George L. Dickinson |
| 265 St James | Temple Buildings | 1888 (demolished 1907) | Alexander Francis Dunlop |
| 265 St James | Canadian Bank of Commerce | 1907 | Darling and Pearson |
| 268 St James | Canada Life | 1874 (demolished 1894) | Hopkins & Wily |
| 272 St James | S. Carsley Co. Ltd | 1894 (demolished 1923) | Dunlop & Heriot |
| 272 St James | Insurance Exchange | 1923 | David Jerome Spence |
| 275 St James | Canada Life | 1894 | Richard Alfred Waite |
| 288 St James | Molsons Bank | 1864 | George Browne |
| rue Saint-Pierre intersects |||||
| 355 St James | Merchants Bank | 1870 | Hopkins & Wily |
| (corner of St James and Saint Pierre) | Mechanics Hall | 1853 (demolished ca. 1925) | Hopkins & Nelson |
| (corner of St James and Dollard) | Bank of Ottawa | 1903 (demolished ca. 1925) | Howard Colton Stone |
| 360 St James | Royal Bank of Canada | 1926 | York & Sawyer with Sumner Godfrey Davenport |
| 361 St James | A. & S. Nordheimer Co. | 1888 | John James Browne |
| 373 St James | Hutchison Building | 1840 | |
| 384 St James | Savage, Lyman & Co. | 1866 | William Tutin Thomas |
| 388 St James | Sovereign Bank | 1904 | Howard Colton Stone |
| 393 St James | Crown Trust Company | 1924 | Philip John Turner |
| 408 St James | Ottawa Hotel | 1845 | George Browne |
| 414 St James | Bank of Toronto | 1893 (demolished 1914) | Taylor & Gordon |
| 414 St James | Bank of Toronto | 1914 (demolished 1960) | Hogle & Davis |
| 437 St James | Eastern Townships Bank | 1907 | Cox & Amos |
| 500 St James | Toronto-Dominion Bank | 1960 | Ross, Fish, Duschenes & Barrett |
| McGill Street intersects |||||
| 612 St James | Imperial Bank of Canada | 1904 (reconstruction of Albert Building; demolished 1960) | Taylor, Hogle & Davis |
| 612 St James | Imperial Bank of Canada | 1960 | Ross, Fish, Duschenes & Barrett |
| 614 St James | Marcil Trust Company | 1919 (demolished 1937) | Hogle & Davis |
| 614 St James | Guardian Trust Company | 1938 | Lawson & Little |