Landmark Building
BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA
125 - 8th Avenue SW, Calgary
Designed By: John Lyle
Built in 1930
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This exceptional building was designed by the famous Canadian architect, John Lyle. Based in Toronto, Lyle was also responsible for such famed structures as the Alexandra Theatre, and the interior of Union Station in Toronto, as well as the Kingston Memorial Arch.
Lyle sought to create architecture both uniquely Canadian and simultaneously part of contemporary international movements; he achieved both in his design for this building. This bank has traditional features of Beaux-Arts Classicism, seen in the design of the façade, especially the elegant second storey, with its windows separated by fluted pilasters. The plain parapet is perhaps more reminiscent of the typically Western boomtown front than the classical pediment of banking “temples.”
Canadian elements can be witnessed in the Art Décor carvings which decorate the façade. At the main entrance are prairie wildflowers; the two ground floor windows display Mounties, Natives, horses, buffalo, guns and arrows; and the capitals of the interior columns feature a Model “A” Ford, flywheels, governors, gears, and an eagle. The most stunning carvings are reserved for the panels atop the second floor windows. These contain a saddle sitting on a fence with the Rockies in the background, a wheat sheaf in front of a stylized setting sun, and a gushing oil rig. Even the metal window frames were not forgotten. Their edges are decorated with fleurs-de-lys, thistles, shamrocks, roses and leeks – symbols of Canada’s earliest European settlers.
The site of the Bank of Nova Scotia had been previously occupied by three two-storey buildings. One of them was little wider than a single door; another, Nolan’s Hall, was home to a number of offices. For about a year, one of them included the headquarters of a radical left-wing movement called the One Big Union, nicknamed the “Wobblies.” Founded in June 1919 after the Western Labour Conference held in Calgary in March of 1919, the movement professed support for the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and voted to secede from the American Federation of Labour and the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada. The movement peaked in 1920 with 50,000 members; by 1923, there were only 5000. Eventually the One Big Union was absorbed into the Canadian Labour Congress.
The Bank of Nova Scotia building was designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 1981.
The Landmark Buildings and Places Database draws on the series of walking and/or driving tour booklets produced by Alberta Culture (now Alberta Culture and Community Spirit). The Heritage Community Foundation gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ministry through permission to reprint these materials online. Extracted from Calgary: Stephen Avenue and Area Historical Walking Tour. Alberta Culture, n.d., with permission from Alberta Culture and Community Spirit. Visit the Alberta Culture and Community Spirit for more information.