77 Main Street - Gibraltar House

© 2009, Christian Cassidy. Updated 2023.

In 2009 (C. Cassidy)

Project: Hudson's Bay Wholesale Division / Hudson's Bay House / Gibraltar House
Address: 77 - 79 Main Street
Architect: Woodman and Carey
Contractor: Carter Hall Aldinger
Opened: 1911

Headline from June 20, 1911, Winnipeg Tribune

The Hudson’s Bay Company received a $135,000 building permit for its new warehouse building in June 1911. It was constructed on land it already owned, part of the footprint of Upper Fort Garry, on the east side of Main Street.

The HBC invested heavily in modernizing or replacing its properties in 1911. In Winnipeg alone, it obtained a permit to construct this warehouse, a vehicle garage on the east side of Garry Street, and was wrapping up a large renovation and expansion to its old department store on Main Street and York Avenue that doubled the size of its clothing department, added a Grill Room restaurant, and included new electric elevators.

Also in May 1911, HBC commissioner Herbert E. Burbridge stopped in Winnipeg on a cross-country tour and made the first formal announcement that the company was in the process of drawing up plans for a new flagship department store to be located on Portage Avenue at Vaughan Street. Construction, though, would not begin until 1925.

In Oct. 1968, H. Kalen Fonds, U of M Digital Archives

The three-storey, reinforced concrete building was primarily a warehouse for the nearby department store and also housed its land department, fur department, and the offices of its Canadian executive committee. It took up four addresses between 79 and 93 Main Street and was also referred to as Hudson's Bay House.

The building was designed by Woodman and Carey. The former was also responsible for an expansion of Winnipeg's HBC department store in 1904, the design of its powerhouse in 1906, and went on to design HBC department stores for Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge and MacLeod, Alberta, and Yorkton, Saskatchewan.

Carter Hall Aldinger, a partnership created in 1907 by W. H. Carter, F. E. Halls and A. H. Aldinger, was one Winnipeg's most prominent construction companies in the early half of the 20th century with offices across Western Canada. They built the Calgary HBC department store Casey designed and Vancouver's old City Hall.

Winnipeg Building Index, U of M Digital Archives

The warehouse building was renovated from time to time. For instance, contractor H. E. Gibson and Co. got a $15,000 permit for alteration work in March 1940.

In 1968, architects Moody Moore of Winnipeg were hired to do an extensive renovation of the building that included the addition of a modern facade. The firm had worked previously for the HBC, designing a new department store for Edmonton in 1936 and an office and warehouse building in Montreal in 1948. Locally, it designed the HBC department store's parkade in 1955 and completed exterior renovations to its flagship department store in 1956.

The Hudson's Bay Company sold off its northern stores division in 1987. It, and the former warehouse building that housed its offices, were purchased by a new incarnation of the North West Company. The original company, established in 1779, was once a bitter rival of the HBC.

The building was renamed Gibraltar House for one of the North West Company's historic forts.

The North West Co. decided to keep its headquarters in the ageing building rather than relocate. In 2009 - 2010 it funded an extensive renovation by ft3 Architecture. The work brought the insulation value of the exterior walls from R2 to R20. Internally, an employee fitness facility and bike lock facility were added and the employee cafeteria was expanded.