248 Princess Street - R. Smith Co. Block

© 2025, Christian Cassidy

Google Street View, 2024

Place: R. Smith Co. block
Address: 248 Princess Street (Map)
Constructed: 1904 - 05
Designer: John Heslip
Contractor: Samuel McComb

The Winnipeg Granite and Marble Company purchased a coal and wood yard owned by M. Bawlf and Company at 248 Princess Street in 1904. It then applied for a $13,000 building permit for this stone and brick, two-storey block with full basement designed by John Heslip and constructed by Samuel McComb. 

April 3, 1906, Winnipeg Free Press

Heslip likely came from Ontario and first appeared in Winnipeg street directories in 1903 as John Heslop and Co., a brick and stone contractor. By 1907, he was a foreman at May-Sharpe Construction Co. and in 1911 appears to have returned to working for himself.

Heslip's name is only mentioned in a few building permit-related newspaper articles, always as a contractor. Once was in 1911 for a warehouse on May Street (now Waterfront Drive), likely now demolished, and the following year for a warehouse on Macdonald Street, also demolished. One of his buildings that still stands is the 1912 Sparling Methodist Church on Elgin Street West.

It is likely that Hislip's elderly father, John Hislop Sr., came to live with him. When the father died in 1916 at the age of 87, both Hislops disappeared from the Winnipeg street directory. Hislop Jr. may have relocated to Shoal Lake, Manitoba. 

May 20, 1907, Winnipeg Free Press

Samuel McComb was Irish-born and came to the West in 1872, living in both Calgary and Winnipeg. He was a stonemason by trade and a prominent Orangeman. 

Until August 1900, McComb worked in partnership with George A. Mitchell as Mitchell & McComb before starting is own firm. He was also the stone and brick contractor for the Boyce Carriage Works building on Ross Street. 

McComb died at Stonewall in 1907 at the age of 64.

July 15,  1905, Morning Telegraph

The Winnipeg Granite and Marble Company was established in December 1903 by brothers Alex L. and John A. MacIntyre who had been in the stone monument business since the mid-1890s. Their new company was based in Winnipeg with branches in Morden and Portage. Another branch opened on Scarth Street in Regina in spring 1904.

The company's new building at 248 Princess Street opened in 1905 and contained its offices, showroom, and a work area out back.

Winnipeg Granite rented extra showroom space in the building to the Moffat Stove Company and in the summer of 1907, Moffat took over the entire building. Winnipeg Granite then relocated its offices to 37 Rorie Street and later to the McIntyre Block on Notre Dame Avenue. The company disappeared around 1909.

Moffat Stove was joined in the building by the Simpson Produce Co. and by 1911 the latter appears to have taken over the whole building. It was then home to Neal Bros. wholesale grocers until around 1919.

The building found stability in 1920 with the arrival of the Smith family. Initially, R. Smith Wholesale Produce opened on the main floor and was followed in 1921 by the R. Smith Company.

Richard Smith came West with the construction of the CPR in 1879. Stationed in Emerson, he was in charge of providing food and personnel, such as cooks and cleaners, to boarding cars and boarding camps for the railway. (It appears that boarding cars were the "coach" class cars with few amenities used for transporting immigrants, troops, etc.. The camps were railway workers' camps and sidings where stations had not yet been built.)

The Smith family then moved to Fort William (now Thunder Bay) to run the CPR hotel there and around 1886 Smith began contracting the boarding car services to the CPR under the name R. Smith and Co. based in Winnipeg. He soon secured the contract to service boarding cars from Thunder Bay to the B.C. coast.

Richard Smith died in 1906 and one of his six sons, Nelson Noel, took over the business and ran it until his death in 1941. The Smith family continued to operate R. Smith and Co. from this address until shortly after the death of Agnes Smith in 1959.

After sitting mostly vacant for a couple of years the building became home to the Esdale Stationery and Printing Company in 1963.

Esdale Stationery and Printing was established in 1935 by Matthew Esdale in the basement of the Great West Permanent Building at 356 Main Street, (now demolished). Esdale was a master printer by trade who was born in Ottawa and relocated to Edmonton in 1913. In 1927, he came to Winnipeg where he was a long-time department manager for Willson Stationers.

Matthew Esdale ran the company until his retirement in 1962.

The company was then purchased by printer Harry S. Turner who relocated it to 248 Princess Street. It shared the space with John G. Turner's General Office Machines Ltd.. The two men were likely brothers.

Harry S. Turner was Esdale's president until his death in July 1974 at the age of 59.

The company was then purchased by Ron Hughesman, a long-time employee of Esdale dating back to the mid-1950s. He was later joined by sons Dale and Darren. The third generation of the Hughesman family now run the company. 

July 23, 1974, Winnipeg Free Press

J. G. Turner Ltd. / General Office Machines continued on in the building. As office technology expanded, they sold and serviced everything from computerized cash registers to various brands of photocopiers.

The company went into receivership in 1990 and 248 Princess was put up for sale at a mortgage auction in February 1991. 

The building became home to Generic Computer Systems Ltd. until 1993 and then for what was described in classified ads as a "busy embroidery company" until at least 2001.

As J. G. Turner's General Office Machines, 1975 (U of M Building Index) 

In 2006, three local film producers, (Jeff McKay, Merit Jensen-Carr and Ruth DeGraves), purchased the building as Princess West Enterprise Ltd. for a reported $250,000. It is now home to several film production companies, including Merit Motion Pictures.

The mural on the north wall of the building was painted in 2013 by CRISP, an Australian street artist based in Bogota, Columbia.