Toponymie | Canton de Potton | Place Names

This building was erected in 1921 by the Canadian Bank of Commerce, which merged with the Imperial Bank of Canada in 1961, when the name became the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. 

The first locally organized financial institution in southeastern Quebec was Sherbrooke's Eastern Townships Bank, chartered in 1855, and organized in 1859.^[1] The original building is now the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Sherbrooke.  A branch of the Eastern Townships Bank existed in Mansonville in 1904 and was located in the Town Block which burned in 1910: “Walter Lynch, a collector of customs, Port of Mansonville, 1879 to 1912, became the first local manager of the E.T. Bank in 1904 until 1912.”^[2] 

Before the opening of a bank in the Townships, rural banking services were entirely dependent on the City of Montreal and United States banks located on the “ frontiers », according to the CIBC history on its website.  The Eastern Townships Bank merged with the Canadian Bank of Commerce on March 1, 1912.^[3]

As was the case in many rural banks before the era of electronic security devices and silent alarms, our bank was robbed from time to time.  Potton's proximity to the border, distance from police protection and its myriad country roads made our bank a choice target.  If you have occasion to visit the CIBC, look at the beautifully carved wooden braces under the service desk, perhaps a vestige of the original decor.

This building has strong heritage value, according to its classification by Claude Bergeron, who was commissioned by the Municipal Council to evaluate the buildings within the urban perimeter of Mansonville.  The classification considers only the historical value with no particular weighting as to its authenticity.