Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE BANK PREMISES DEPARTMENT 487bank for the balance is written off, the practical result is tocarry the buildings at half their cost. Some years later itwas decided to follow a similar policy in respect of thosebuildings which for one reason or another are carried inBank Premises Account. In 1910 the general manager, Mr.Alexander Laird, addressing the shareholders at the annualmeeting, stated that the directors proposed, after certain largebuildings then in hand were completed, "that the bank'sinvestment in Premises Account shall be carried at a figure notexceeding fifty percent, of their value."The first properties purchased by the Dominion RealtyCompany, Limited, were those on which the following buildingsnow stand: Spadina and College, Toronto; Orangeville, Ont.;Sydney, N.S.; Edmonton, Alta.; Portage la Praire, Man.,and Kamloops, B.C. In 1904 there were added Ayr, Blenheim,Cayuga and Seaforth, all in Ontario; Innisfail, Alta.;Middleton, N.S.; and St. John, ,N.B., and the erection Jofbuildings was commenced at all the places mentioned exceptSydney. All of them were buildings of substantial masonry,with the exception of Innisfail, which was constructed ofBritish Columbia fir. The future of the newer places inthe West was as yet too uncertain to warrant the erection ofpermanent buildings, and in such a trial was made of theso-called portable buildings, manufactured by various millsand shipped in sections. The buildings shipped to SanFrancisco after the great earthquake and fire of 1906, with theidea that they might be useful there, were of this character. 1These were the prototype of the well-known pedimented andpilastered buildings occupied by so many of the branches inthe West, of which the type is that erected at Carman, Man., 2from designs by Messrs. Darling and Pearson, of Toronto.The first buildings erected by the Dominion RealtyCompany were completed in 1905, and in the following yearthe first issue of its bonds, running for fifteen years, was sold15ee plate 48, facing page 290.2See plate 65, facing page 470. The Canora building is of the Carman type.