Saint Jacques Street
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint Jacques Street (or St. James Street) (officially rue Saint-Jacques) is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The street has had two official names: St. James in English (never spelled "Saint") for St. James's London and Saint-Jacques in French. Both names are sometimes used in English, though Saint-Jacques is now more common for current geographical reference and St. James is usually used for reference to its historic importance as a financial district.
[edit] 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), for which Bonaventure train station on the Grand Trunk Railway was named. This name has passed down to Place Bonaventure 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 insurance companies built their Canadian head offices. Prior to World War I, Canadian, provincial, and major municipal governments along with important industries such as the railroads, 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 1920's 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 new head office of the Royal Bank of Canada at 360 St. James Street was the tallest building in the British Empire. The St James St. area was also the head office location 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 of the companies, past and present, located on St. James Street are:
- 100 : New York Life Insurance Company
- 105-107 : Royal Trust
- 201-214 : Canadian Pacific Express
- 210-212 Yorkshire Insurance Co.
- 225 : National Trust Co.
- 231-235 : Montreal Star
- 240 : Guardian Trust Co. - 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 Co.
- 437 : Eastern Townships Bank then the Commercial Union Assurance Co. and the Bank of Nova Scotia
A steady erosion of its status as Canada's financial centre began with the FLQ terrorist activities in the 1960s and was greatly exacerbated by the October Crisis of 1970. These events, followed by the political uncertainty as a result of the election of the Separatist Parti Québécois provincial government in 1976, all served as a catalyst for financial institutions to locate elsewhere. 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 centers. As a result, the St. James Street financial district has all but disappeared.
During the 1990s, the Montreal Expos unveiled plans to build a new stadium in downtown Montreal, right off St. James 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.
[edit] Today
Today, St. James Street is 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. James Street runs through the residential neighbourhoods of Little Burgundy, Saint-Henri, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Lachine.
