Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

1867 TO 1901 99inconvenience of the premises occupied by the head office andthe necessity of the bank to be in sympathy with the progressof the city and the province, and with the recent action ofother banking institutions in the city, the time seems to havearrived when the question of a new head office should beconsidered." As a result the property at the corner of Jordanand King Streets, Toronto, 1was leased from the Robert HayEstate for a period of twenty-one years, and the erection of thepresent head office building 2 was commenced shortly afterwardsunder the supervision of the late Richard A. Waite, 8 ofBuffalo. Mr. Waite was then a well known architect, and haddesigned the legislative buildings of Ontario in Queen's Park,Toronto. These measures had the hearty approval ofSenator McMaster, who took part in the negotiations forthe Hay property. The new building was occupied at thebeginning of 1890. Within a stone's throw of the site arenow located the head offices of many of the leading banksand other financial institutions of Ontario.At the beginning of the nineteenth century the wholefrontage on the south side of King Street between Yonge andBay Streets was owned by a local clockmaker, Jordan Postby name, a native of New England. His Christian name,and that of his wife, "Melinda," are preserved in the names ofthe streets which now bound on the east and south sidesthe property owned by the bank. The first building on thelln December, 1890, the bank acquired the freehold title to this property in considerationof an annuity payable over a series of years. The last of these paymentshas long since been made. The site has since been extended by the acquisition ofadjoining property (see page 256).2See plate 14, facing page 102.'Richard A. Waite was a native of England. By profession an architect, he practisedin Buffalo, N.Y. with his brother, William Waite. He was the architect for anumber of large buildings in Canada, among them being the legislative buildings ofthe province of Ontario in Queen's Park, Toronto, the head office of the Bank ofHamilton, Hamilton, and the buildings of the Canada Life Assurance Company inToronto and Montreal. He was also architect for the building of the Buffalo InsuranceCompany at Lafayette Square and Main Street, Buffalo. He died in Syracuse, N.Y.about 1908.