1521 Logan Avenue - Former Bank of Commerce / Old Bank Groceteria

© 2025 Christian Cassidy

Place: Former Bank of Commerce
Address: 1521 Logan Avenue at Blake Street (Map)
Constructed: 1906
Architects: Darling and Pearson (Toronto)

The Canadian Bank of Commerce opened its first bank branch in the Weston neighbourhood in November 1905. It was a  temporary location at the corner of Higgins Avenue and Blake Street meant to serve the hundreds of CPR employees who worked at the recently opened CPR Weston Shops. The neighbourhood was nicknamed "CPR Town".

Construction on a permanent branch at Logan Avenue and Blake Street began the following year. The building measured 30 feet by 50 feet and was two storeys in height with a full basement and a manager or caretaker's apartment upstairs.

This was one of several Bank of Commerce designs by architects Darling and Pearson of Toronto that were repeated in towns across Western Canada during its boom years.

When the Commerce wanted a new branch for a small town, it chose the pre-existing design that best suited the location and had B. C. Mills and Trading Company of British Columbia send a building kit to the site by rail.

The prefabricated structure could be assembled in just a few days with a small number of men, which was perfect for sparsely populated new prairie towns. (For more about the Commerce’s designs and partnership with BC Mills, see here. An alternate design can be seen in Rivers and other communities.)  

Normally, the Commerce built its larger urban branches from scratch using brick and stone based on Darling and Pearson designs. It was likely felt that this branch meant to serve a single neighbourhood of workers only required the small-town kit bank.

That same year, the bank also expanded its Main Street headquarters and added brick and stone branches on Nairn Avenue in Elmwood and on Osborne Street in Fort Rouge (now demolished).   

January 12, 1907, Winnipeg Free Press

The first manager of this branch was Andrew B. Irvine, who lived in a boarding house on Kennedy Street. He was likely a younger manager who would be transferred often to work his way up to a more permanent posting. Clifford Bales, one of the bank's clerks, lived in the suite above the bank. 

The bank was open just a few months when a bizarre incident happened inside.

Two bank employees, one in the cashier's cage and the other near the office, were found unconscious by a pair of customers at around 1:30 pm on Friday, July 11, 1907. Police were notified and a doctor was dispatched to the scene. He said that the employees had been drugged and he sent them to hospital.

There was lots of cash at the bank, as Friday afternoon was paycheque-cashing day, but little, if any of it, was missing. Some speculated that it may have been an robbery attempt that was suddenly aborted or even a prank of some sort.

Police wouldn't provide more details about the incident to the media. When the Free Press contacted the doctor involved, he said he was under strict orders not to talk about the poisoning, victims, or even what hospital they had been set to.

Despite what seemed like a good mystery, the bank was able to keep a lid on what happened as none of the daily papers appear to have followed up on the incident.

The bank continued with a revolving door of younger, short-term managers until the arrival of Crawford "Charlie" MacMillan around 1918.

American-born MacMillan had worked for the Bank of Commerce for some time when he married Anna Margarita "Marie" Ellis in Chicago in April 1918. The marriage coincided with his appointment as manager of the CPR Town branch of the bank and the couple moved into the apartment upstairs.

1926 Census of Canada

The MacMillans went on to have two children at the house: Shirley, ca. 1919, and Vincent, ca. 1921. The 1926 census entry above shows the family, along with Charlie's brother and his wife, living there in 1926.

Charlie was well known in the local sporting community.

In 1923, he started a long-term stint as the secretary-treasurer of the Manitoba Soccer Association. He was president of the Weston United Football Club in 1925 when it won the Connaught Cup to become national champions. He also helped organise and served on the executive of the Bankers' Hockey League starting in 1923.

Mentions of Charlie disappear from local newspapers 1929. He was likely transferred to another branch in another city.

June 2, 1941, Winnipeg Tribune

The long-term residents of the building in the 1930s were the Redmond family.

John Redmond was born in Halifax in 1885 and came to Winnipeg in 1912. After serving overseas in the First World War, he married Irish-born Mary "Molly" Brett, and they went on to have five children.

Redmond began working for the Bank of Commerce in 1920. His profession was a painter and decorator, so his role at the bank was in maintenance.  The family moved into 1521 Logan Avenue around 1932, and John became the branch caretaker and did similar work at other branches as well.

The Redmond boys were known for being the neighbourhood newspaper carriers. It was Terry until he graduated from high school, and in 1938, the route was passed onto his brother Jack.

John Redmond retired from the bank in 1957 and he and Molly moved on.

June 5, 1905, Winnipeg Tribune

The Canadian Bank of Commerce and Imperial Bank of Canada merged in 1961 to create the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. This brought with it the update or elimination of some branches.

The small-town bank building at 1521 Logan Avenue was now antiquated in the midst of a modern city neighbourhood. It closed in March 1963 when a new Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce branch opened a few blocks away at 1797 Logan Avenue at Keewatin.  

It did not take long for the building to go back into service as the Old Bank Groceteria in 1964

Frank Notaro, a butcher by trade, worked at Isador Minuk's Martin Grocertra at 439 Logan Avenue (now demolished). In 1960, he and wife Nora took over the business and moved into the suite above the shop. 

In 1964, the Notaros took over the empty bank building and created the Old Bank Groceteria. A major change to the exterior of the building came in 1967 when Notaro made an application to the city to allow him to fill in the verandah area to make it part of the store's interior.

The Notaros ran the store for many years, retiring by the early 1980s. Frank came out of retirement in 1987 to help his daughter Nina to open Sub Zero Ice Cream in Elmwood in 1987. She is now co-owner of Cake Studio.

Since that time, the store has had various names. It was Bonny Castle Food Mart in the late 1980s, and from at least 2021 to 2024, it was Westwood Convenience.

In July 2024, Logan Convenience Inc. was created and began renovations on the building soon after.  The exterior was painted yellow and the faces of the iconic "Old Bank Groceteria" signs that had remained on each side wall of the building were covered by new signs reading "Logan Convenience".

In the early morning of Tuesday, October 8, 2025, the building was set on fire. Residents in the building escaped unharmed. The owner said that the fire was set after an extortion attempt for protection money, one of several downtown businesses to suffer such a fate.

The building is now boarded with a "Danger - Asbestos" sign is posted on the front door.