Calgary's Hudson's Bay building was more than just a store. These photos reveal its rich social history

While the Hudson's Bay Company is closing all but six stores in the country, its sandstone building on Calgary's Stephen Avenue leaves a landmark of its legacy in Western Canada. 

Local historian Harry Sanders said that while the Bay's reputation is a "mixed bag" —  being the oldest corporation in North America and having a record of colonial exploitation —  its place in Canada and Calgary's history is undeniable.

The company first arrived in Calgary in 1876 — just a year after Fort Calgary was founded — with a trading post just east of the Elbow River, according to Josh Traptow, CEO of Heritage Calgary.

In 1884, they constructed a wooden building at the northwest corner of Centre Street and Eighth Avenue S.W., in the location of downtown Calgary's present day Hudson's Block.

About seven years later, that store was replaced by another Bay sandstone building in the Romanesque Revival architectural style.

The year 1891 marked the start of its operations as a department store in the city — the first of its kind in Calgary.

In 1911, construction began west of the block on the $1.5-million, six-storey, Chicago Commercial-style Hudson's Bay building Calgary knows today.

The monumental building, designed by the Toronto architectural firm of Burke, Horwood and White, opened on Aug. 18, 1913. Featuring Edwardian Classical elements and made of reinforced concrete and steel, the exterior is entirely faced with cream-glazed terracotta — a rarity in Calgary.

The store offered 40 departments, including a large grocery division, a regional shipping department and other on-site amenities including public telephones, a telegraph and cable office, and a men's smoking lounge, according to the city's Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources.

"There were escalators and elevators and ... this is just five years after the very first passenger elevator was installed in Calgary," Sanders said. "There was really nothing like it."

In May 1930, the store completed its significant expansion, adding the Eighth Avenue facade and the iconic colonnade made of granite columns, terracotta archways and a mosaic terrazzo floor. The expansion came with the price tag of $2.5 million.

In an article from March 1932, The Beaver magazine, now known as Canada's History, called the colonnade "an ancient Greek Athenaeum put to practical use."

Another addition was completed to the west of the building in 1958, expanding the store by 130,000 square feet at a cost of $3.5 million.

"When this building was built in 1913, it was the first building of its kind in the Hudson's Bay portfolio and they used it as kind of a test project for their other buildings," Traptow explained.