The Happy Cooker

More Information

Drawn in by a rapidly growing population and the overall wealth of Fort Rouge, the Bank of Montreal opened a new branch in the suburb in 1905. A respectable reputation was needed to attract new clientele and good bank design was a key component of the plan. As such, Samuel Frank Peters was hired to design the bank’s newest branch. Peters’s Winnipeg architectural practice had begun in 1892 after he’d spent twenty years working as an architect in Ontario.

The design for the Bank of Montreal is an excellent example of the Classical Revival Style. Drawing from Greek and Roman architecture, the style was a popular choice for bank branches across North America. Rusticated stone foundations support the bank’s load- bearing masonry walls made of Menominee brick and Tyndall limestone. The tall windows that line the bank have no arches; instead, the openings burst out in radiating stone voussoirs.

The facade is largely symmetrical. The central entrance is framed by pilasters that reach up to an entablature that encircles the entire building. The stone quoins on the facade’s corners mimic the pilasters near the doorway. Carved into the entablature, above the doorway and inset clock, are the words BANK OF MONTREAL.

In 1999, the building changed ownership and became the new home of Winnipeg’s long-time cookware store, the Happy Cooker, after the store’s first location was destroyed by arson earlier that year.