History of the building

The history of the building dates back to the early 1890s, when the Montreal Chamber of Commerce acquired the land where it now stands. An architectural competition was held for its construction, won by the American firm Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, and the first building was erected in 1892–1893.

However, on 23 January 1901, a devastating fire destroyed part of Old Montreal, including the Chamber of Commerce. Shortly afterwards, architect David R. Brown was commissioned to construct a new building, built between spring 1902 and 1903. The new structure maintained roughly the same proportions and foundations as its predecessor, but its design was updated to reflect contemporary tastes, clearly showing the influence of the Beaux-Arts style.

From 1903, the building housed the Chamber of Commerce and around a hundred tenants, mainly professionals and corporate offices. The Chamber remained in the building until 1967, retaining ownership until 1983. By 2005, the building continued to occupy a prominent place in the city, with numerous tenants.

Located on Saint-Sacrement Street, in the historic district of stock exchanges and major companies, the building occupies most of a U-shaped urban block, featuring an elegant cour d’honneur on its main façade. With six floors and a flat roof, its steel structure even surpasses later ten-storey skyscrapers. Built from non-combustible materials such as steel, brick, stone, concrete, and terracotta, the main façade is clad in cream-coloured Indiana limestone, while the rear, facing Le Moyne Street, is finished in beige brick.

Perfectly symmetrical, the building consists of a central block and two wings forming the cour d’honneur, which provides access to the imposing main portico. All façades follow a tripartite division: a rusticated base, an unadorned middle section, and an upper section with columns and pilasters linking two floors beneath a copper cornice. This classical language, complemented with details inspired by ancient Greece—such as the in-antis Ionic portico and the decorative frieze with Greek motifs—reflects the influence of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the North American classical revival of the early 20th century.