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Imperial Bank of Canada
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From 1881 through to 1961, the Imperial Bank of Canada
has stood on the same site on which this financial institution
established its first Winnipeg office.
Incorporated in Toronto in 1875, the Imperial was one of
several eastern-based financial institutions attracted to
the city during a speculative boom in the early 1880s. It
opened in rented premises in the three-storey Robertson Block
at Main and Bannatyne. The branch was temporarily displaced
by a fire in early 1882, but returned to the site after the
block was rebuilt. Within a decade, the bank had doubled
its space by expanding into an adjacent store. It purchased
the property in 1898.
