1919 – Former Merchants Bank of Canada, Corydon Avenue, Winnipeg, Canada

At a crossroads in suburban Winnipeg with a former branch of the Union Bank opposite, this bank represents the expansion of cities with suburbs in the years after the First World War.
Reginald Edwardes McDonnell was a Calgary-based architect who for Merchants Bank devised a series of prototypes for new bank buildings in small and medium-sized towns, each configured to fit specific locations at street-corner or mid-block sites. These banks were erected in different provinces, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

This one-storey brick building on Corydon Avenue is a fine stand-alone work with classical overtones. The original cost was $17,500, finished in buff brick and Tyndall limestone, there are two datestones of 1919 under the cornice and parapet.

The Merchants Bank of Canada was absorbed by the Bank of Montreal in 1923, and this operated as a branch of that bank until closing in 1945 and has been used for a variety of commercial uses since. In the 1950s the main facade to Corydon was considerably altered to accommodate larger windows.

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