The Hudson’s Bay Co. Houses
One example of an H.B.C. home, located at 11053 108th Street
When the pre-war real-estate boom went bust, the Hudson’s Bay Company was left with nearly 600 acres of unsold land north of downtown. For years, the area comprising the modern-day Queen Mary Park, Central McDougall, and Prince Rupert neighbourhoods sat as a mostly undeveloped expanse of shrub and marsh. That began to change in 1920.
Donald Wetherell and Irene Kmet explain that “uneven economic conditions, inconsistent supply of capital, the seasonal nature of building, land speculation, and the organization, structure, and financing of small builders” led to an acute housing shortage in Edmonton post-Great War. To help alleviate the issue — and to help kickstart development on its empty tracts — the Hudson’s Bay Co. stepped up and offered to supply new homes to veterans.
The idea was novel, but not wholly unprecedented. Both the venerable T. Eaton Company and American Sears & Roebuck had been supplying homes for years through mail order. Simply select an architectural plan, fill a form, attach a cheque, and mail it away — in a matter of weeks, you could expect your new home sent in several hundred prefabricated pieces ready to build. The Bay’s approach was different, however. Using part of their land reserve, the Company envisioned a model community. They’d sell pre-built homes constructed to high-standards and a set of uniform plans.
The altruistic nature of the plan was admirable, but pragmatic business decisions fuelled the move. While the Bay stressed “The prices and terms asked by the Company for the new houses are particularly attractive and reasonable, as the Company is not seeking monetary profit in erecting these dwellings,” they expressly stated that their purpose for building was to “encourage settlement on the reserve” in which they held title.
The City proved enthusiastic nonetheless and formally ordered the extension of utilities into the reserve on August 10th, 1920. Construction on the Bay’s first eight homes began shortly thereafter. Each was located on roomy fifty-foot lots immediately south of Portage (Kingsway) Avenue between 107th and 108th Streets. The Beaver, the Bay’s employee magazine, described:
“They will be moderate in size and fully modern. They will not be elaborate or pretentious in respect of non-essential details, but will be built along practical lines, of good, sound material. Particular attention is being given to a satisfactory heating system.”
More followed over the coming years, raising the total number of homes in the small colony to eighteen. Magoon & MacDonald Architects designed each with an eye towards affordability, The Beaver claimed, writing that “these homes can be purchased practically at what they cost to build plus fair present market value for the lots in which they are situated.”
Unfortunately for the Bay, their plans to transform their land reserve fizzled away as an economic slump set in and the Great Depression later took hold. It wouldn’t be until the late-1940s when Queen Mary Park and Central McDougall finally filled. Of those original eighteen homes built by the Hudson’s Bay Co., only a handful remain in various states of preservation.
SOURCES:“Start Made On Construction Of Houses For H.B.,” Edmonton Bulletin, August 13, 1920.
“H.B.C. ext. of utilities,” Meeting No.34, Edmonton City Council Meeting Minutes, August 10, 1920, 500, City of Edmonton Archives,
“Edmonton Land Office News,” The Beaver (Hudson’s Bay Company: Winnipeg, Manitoba, October 1920), 23,
https://www.canadashistoryarchive.ca/canadas-history/the-beaver-october-1920/flipbook/22/.
“Hudson’s Bay Co. Builds Attractive Homes In Reserve,” Edmonton Journal, October 14, 1922.
“Colony of New Homes is Built; Hudson’s Bat Housing Scheme On Reserve Progresses Steadily,” Edmonton Bulletin, October 16, 1922.
B.A. Everitt, “Land Dept. News,” The Beaver (Hudson’s Bay Company: Winnipeg, Manitoba, November 1922), 79,
https://www.canadashistoryarchive.ca/canadas-history/the-beaver-november-1922/flipbook/78/
