The architect didn’t place caduceus symbols on the front of the Great National Land Building for health reasons.
The Great National Land Building, originally named the Frontier Building was built in 1914 for the Canadian Bank of Commerce.
Its stone and brick, curved facade and fluted columns, make it an imposing piece of architecture that fills a prominent spot at the corner of Commercial, Church and Chapel streets that has dominated the top of Commercial Street in downtown Nanaimo for more than 100 years.
The structure was renamed The Great National Land Building after it was bought in 1963 by former Nanaimo mayor Frank Ney who formed the Great National Land and Investment Corporation in 1964. Ney was also president of Nanaimo Realty.
“It also was at certain points called the Frontier Building, but there was certainly banks there as early as 1901,” said Christine Meutzner, Nanaimo Community Archives manager.
The Frontier Building replaced the Canadian Bank’s smaller two-storey brick building that was torn down in 1913 to make way for the Frontier Building. The design by architect Victor Horsburgh represented a new corporate image of dominance, strength and stability. The bank capitalized on those notions by advertising the security of its safety deposit boxes after the building sustained only superficial exterior damage from a fire that destroyed 10 structures around it in 1930. Its brick construction was credited with halting the spread of the blaze.
The building’s architectural features might be unusual, but they aren’t unique.
“It’s one of our better buildings, but it’s one of a series of plans,” Meutzner said. “There’s a couple of them across Canada exactly the same because they were corporate designs … It’s not unique, but it’s really good on that pointy lot and it kind of caps the street there.”
The building’s interior is as impressive as its exterior. The building’s interior woodwork has survived several renovations and its appearance overall remains historically accurate. The customer areas of the ground floor are Italian marble and the manager’s office had oak floors and a Roman brick fireplace.
It’s not clear if E.H. Bird, the bank’s manager from 1905 to 1925, lived in the building, but single male employees did live on the third floor throughout the 1930s and ’40s, according to Nanaimo Community Archives.
The city awarded it a heritage designation in 1975, which prevented it from being torn down, which was being considered when the building’s systems had become severely outdated and the company needed more space. Instead, the concrete and glass six-storey addition was constructed and the Great National Land Building was renovated in the process.
Peculiar features of the Great National Land Building’s facade are two caduceus symbols near the roof and above the front doors. In North America the symbol, or variations of it, became associated with the medical profession after the insignia was adopted by the U.S. Army Medical Corps. In Greek mythology, though, the caduceus was a staff carried by Hermes and Mercury who were messengers of the gods.
“Really its original thing is to do with business and finance and trade – a symbol of commerce,” Meutzner said. “So it makes sense that the bank used it as a symbol of commerce. That’s why it’s there.”
