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While downtown's historic Hudson's Bay Company Department Store looks like it's occupied the block for over a century, only a small portion of the six-storey building actually has. A number of successive expansion campaigns grew the footprint of the original 1913 building, closely matching its ornate massing and cream-coloured terra cotta cladding. Besides its architectural glory, the conspicuous structure played a key role in the success of the downtown department store concept, which was adopted across the country following early wins in Calgary.
Opening one year prior to the onset of the First World War, the Hudson's Bay Company Department Store was easily the largest and most prominent retail establishment in the city. Its steel and reinforced concrete construction engendered a monumental scale, accented by an elaborate arcade of granite columns and rounded arches.
A 1909 report by prominent career retail Richard Burbidge detailed HBC's declining retail fortunes and recommended modernization of its western stores to attract customers. Moving away from its traditional role as fur trader, the Calgary store became the template for the Hudson's Bay Company's retail expansion plans in Western Canada. Using the groundbreaking design as a reference, Vancouver's store was completed in 1913, Victoria's in 1921, and Winnipeg's in 1926.
The store was the retail and social hub of the city, offering 40 departments and multiple amenities and services from 70 public telephones and post offices to beauty parlours and reading rooms. A 275-seat dining room decorated with Elizabethan-style furnishings occupied the sixth floor. The building even had a rooftop playground for children.
The 1913 building created 245 feet of frontage on 7th Avenue SW and only originally stretched 130 feet down 1st Street SW. A 1929 expansion plan extended the southern wall through to 8th Avenue SW, which now hosted the building across a colonnade of 100 feet. Another westerly extension in 1955 — again keeping the design language of the initial building — would bring the building to its current size.
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