Whereas the Hudson’s Bay Firm is closing all however six shops within the nation, its sandstone constructing on Calgary’s Stephen Avenue leaves a landmark of its legacy in Western Canada.
Native historian Harry Sanders stated that whereas the Bay’s repute is a “combined bag” — being the oldest company in North America and having a file of colonial exploitation — its place in Canada and Calgary’s historical past is plain.
The corporate first arrived in Calgary in 1876 — only a 12 months after Fort Calgary was based — with a buying and selling put up simply east of the Elbow River, in accordance with Josh Traptow, CEO of Heritage Calgary.
In 1884, they constructed a picket constructing on the northwest nook of Centre Avenue and Eighth Avenue S.W., within the location of downtown Calgary’s current day Hudson’s Block.
About seven years later, that retailer was changed by one other Bay sandstone constructing within the Romanesque Revival architectural model.
The 12 months 1891 marked the beginning of its operations as a division retailer within the metropolis — the primary of its sort in Calgary.
In 1911, development started west of the block on the $1.5-million, six-storey, Chicago Industrial-style Hudson’s Bay constructing Calgary is aware of right now.
The monumental constructing, designed by the Toronto architectural agency of Burke, Horwood and White, opened on Aug. 18, 1913. That includes Edwardian Classical components and manufactured from strengthened concrete and metal, the outside is solely confronted with cream-glazed terracotta — a rarity in Calgary.
The shop supplied 40 departments, together with a big grocery division, a regional transport division and different on-site facilities together with public telephones, a telegraph and cable workplace, and a males’s smoking lounge, in accordance with town’s Stock of Evaluated Historic Sources.
“There have been escalators and elevators and … that is simply 5 years after the very first passenger elevator was put in in Calgary,” Sanders stated. “There was actually nothing prefer it.”
The evolution of Calgary’s Hudson’s Bay retailer
In Might 1930, the shop accomplished its vital growth, including the Eighth Avenue facade and the enduring colonnade manufactured from granite columns, terracotta archways and a mosaic terrazzo ground. The growth got here with the value tag of $2.5 million.
In an article from March 1932, The Beaver journal, now often known as Canada’s Historical past, referred to as the colonnade “an historical Greek Athenaeum put to sensible use.”
One other addition was accomplished to the west of the constructing in 1958, increasing the shop by 130,000 sq. toes at a value of $3.5 million.
A nationwide prototype
“When this constructing was in-built 1913, it was the primary constructing of its sort within the Hudson’s Bay portfolio and so they used it as sort of a take a look at undertaking for his or her different buildings,” Traptow defined.
The Hudson’s Bay Firm has been promoting items in Calgary for town’s total historical past, however with the retailer now liquidating most of its retail shops, that period is ending. The CBC’s Helen Pike explores what HBC meant for the neighborhood, and asks what Calgary’s downtown will probably be like with out it.
The Firm would later mannequin new shops in Vancouver (1916), Victoria (1921), and Winnipeg (1926), within the picture of Calgary’s sandstone constructing.
“That was simply the signal of the occasions. … The 1910s, Twenties have been sort of a superb time in Calgary — the age of optimism, proper?” Traptow stated.
A ‘social’ hub, past a buying expertise
Sanders stated the shop initially had 600 workers, who participated within the “Beaver Membership” — a sort of worker affiliation which took half in excursions like picnics.
The sixth ground of the constructing was referred to as the Elizabethan room — fitted with Elizabethan-style furnishings and finishes that made it one of many metropolis’s most fascinating eating places.
The 275-seat positive eating area hosted politicians, golf equipment, fraternal societies and others, in accordance with Sanders.
“There is a wealthy form of social historical past to the Bay that is far past simply the business operate,” he stated.
Consumers may drop their kids off to the rooftop playground which had a governess who would watch the youngsters.
Outdoors, road photographers who operated out of a kiosk contained in the Bay captured Calgarians out for a stroll or buying on Stephen Avenue.
An enduring legacy
The Bay’s presence in downtown Calgary cemented it as a retail hub for folks to return and store, Traptow stated, sustaining its presence on Stephen Avenue ultimately, form or type, because the Nineties.
“I might say it is one of the crucial architecturally vital buildings within the metropolis of Calgary with the arcade … the Chicago model of structure,” he stated.
“There’s nothing else prefer it in Calgary — actually, in Western Canada.”
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