Sunday, September 1, 2019

The arrival of banking in Kitchissippi

The Bank of Nova Scotia Westboro Ottawa branch, 1933.
Photograph courtesy of the Scotiabank Archives.
(RG300010008A)

Same view - Google Streetview - July 2018

My September column in the Kitchissippi Times was to explore how and when banking first arrived along Wellington Street and Richmond Road in Hintonburg, Wellington Village and Westboro. There have always been a number of banks on our stretch of the main road, and I thought it would be interesting to research when the first banks arrived, how services were different back then, and write out just how many of our current buildings started life as banks. I was aided in my column production by the discovery of several great old photos, like this one above. The print and online editions of the Times did not include many of my extra photos, so I've included them here.

But to read the full article, please click on this link. Thanks!
https://kitchissippi.com/2019/09/03/digging-into-kitchissippis-vault-of-banking-history/

Westboro's first bank, the Bank of Ottawa, at the
north-west corner of Richmond and Churchill (now
the site of Gezellig). Photo from 1913.

Ottawa Journal ad advertising the opening of the
first Westboro bank. May 17, 1912.

The Bank of Montreal at Wellington and Huron. It's still
there, this is from when it only occupied half the ground
floor space, shared with Morris Hardware. From 1955. 

The TD Bank at Holland and Wellington as it looked back
in 1996 during the fire of the Joynt's Pharmacy building.

April 3 1937 newspaper announcement
of the opening of the Bank of Toronto
(in it's original building) at the corner
of Holland and Wellington.