The Sun Life Building is a historic , 24-

storey A storey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or story (American English), is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the wor ...

office building An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform administrative work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific du ...

at 1155 Metcalfe Street on

Dorchester Square Dorchester Square, originally Dominion Square, is a large urban square in downtown Montreal. Together with Place du Canada, the area is just over or of manicured and protected urban parkland bordered by René Lévesque Boulevard to the south ...

in the city's

downtown core The Downtown Core is the historical and downtown centre of the city-state of Singapore and the main commercial area in Singapore excluding reclaimed lands with two integrated resorts such as the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most expensive buil ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec, Canada. The building was completed in 1931 after three stages of

construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

. It was built exclusively for the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. Although the then-new head office of the

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; ) is a Canadian multinational Financial institution, financial services company and the Big Five (banks), largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 20 million clients and has more than ...

at 360

Saint Jacques Street Saint Jacques Street (, ), or St. James Street, is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running from Old Montreal westward to Lachine. In 1818 the Bank of Montreal built its headquarters on St James, which began the development of the ...

in Montreal was taller by several floors, the Sun Life Building was at the time the largest building in square footage anywhere in the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

. The Sun Life Building went through three different stages of construction, the first one starting as early as 1913, but it was not until 1931 that its main 24-storey tower was erected, thus completing the project.

Construction

The stages of construction were as follows: * 1913–1918: 7-storey southern part of base; * 1923–1926: extension of base eastward and northward; and * 1929–1931: 16-storey set-back tower. Today, the "Sun Life" is Montreal's 17th tallest building and stands in the middle of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

centred on

, dwarfed by neighbouring

Place Ville Marie Place Ville Marie (, abbr. PVM) is a large office and shopping complex skyscraper in Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, comprising four office buildings and an underground shopping plaza. The main building, 1 Place Ville Marie (formerly Royal Ba ...

and the nearby CIBC Tower.

Previous structure

The first Sun Life Building, designed by Buffalo

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Richard A. Waite, was built in 1889 and expanded by Robert Findlay in 1890. The red

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

building was home to Sun Life until 1913, when the company moved to the first stage of the newer building.

Operation Fish

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, during

Operation Fish Operation Fish was the relocation of British money and gold ingots from the United Kingdom to Canada for safekeeping during the Second World War. It was the largest known movement of physical wealth in history. Background In September 1939, the ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

gold reserve A gold reserve is the gold held by a national central bank, intended mainly as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors, note holders (e.g. paper money), or trading peers, during the eras of the gold standard, and also as a store of v ...

s and negotiable foreign securities were secretly packed in crates labelled 'Fish' and shipped across the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

to Canada. The securities, arriving at Halifax on July 1, 1940, were locked in an underground vault three storeys beneath the Sun Life Building, guarded around the clock by the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

. The gold was shipped on to

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

. The extremely secretive United Kingdom Security Deposit, operating in the vault, arranged for the sale of Britain's negotiable securities on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

over the next few years to pay for Britain's war expenses. The 5,000 Sun Life employees never knew what was stored away beneath them. None of the cargo went missing and no information about the operation was ever leaked.Library and Archives of Canada - Hiding British Gold
/ref>

References

*Rémillard, François, ''Old Montreal: A Walking Tour'',

Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec The Ministry of Culture and Communications (, ) is responsible for promoting and protecting the culture in the Canadian province of Quebec. The current minister, since 2022, is Mathieu Lacombe. The ministry was formed in 2012 after the immigr ...

, 1992

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Darling and Pearson buildings History of Montreal Office buildings completed in 1931 Beaux-Arts architecture in Canada Skyscraper office buildings in Montreal Downtown Montreal Headquarters in Canada 1931 establishments in Quebec

Construction

Previous structure

Operation Fish

See also

References

External links