Branch snapshot: Markham, Ontario
BMO has been driving progress in Markham, Ontario, since 1955. A little-known fact about the branch is that its first premises were part of a building originally constructed in 1881 as the Franklin House Hotel. What’s more, the premises were converted into a fully operational bank branch over the course of a single weekend.
It began with a phone call to Elmer Eadie, who had been selected as the Markham branch’s first manager. “I was asked one Friday afternoon at 2:30,” he later recalled, “to have a branch open for business in Markham on the following Monday morning.” Work began on Saturday morning without delay. While Eadie unpacked ledgers and office equipment, carpenters deftly erected wooden counters in what had once been the ladies’ beverage parlour of the hotel.
A photograph of the interior of the branch, taken approximately a month after its opening, with stationery neatly lining the counters and a bank calendar hanging prominently on the wall, highlights the transformation. The only remnant of the branch’s former function was the doorbell, which played the tune to “How Dry I Am,” a song made popular during the Prohibition era.