The Bay Building (originally the Henry Morgan Building; ) is a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

on Saint Catherine Street West in

downtown Montreal Downtown Montreal (French language, French: ''Centre-Ville de Montréal'') is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The district is situated on the southernmost slope of Mount Royal, and occupies the western portion of the ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. It was designed by John Pierce Hill for

Henry Morgan Sir Henry Morgan (; – 25 August 1688) was a Welsh privateer, plantation owner, and, later, the lieutenant governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he and those under his command raided settlements and shipping ports o ...

, and opened in 1891. It was the flagship store of the

Morgan's Henry Morgan & Company (colloquially Morgan's) was a Canadian department store chain founded by Henry Morgan in 1845. The first store was in Montreal, and expanded to include 11 stores in Ontario and Quebec before being bought by Hudson's Bay Com ...

department store chain, was acquired by the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

in 1960, and was converted to a regional The Bay flagship store in 1960. The store was rebranded to Hudson's Bay in 2013, and slated to include a

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain founded in 1867 by Andrew Saks. The first store opened in the F Street and 7th Street shopping districts, F Street shopping distric ...

store by 2018, however, these plans were indefinitely postponed. It is one of six locations tentatively spared from the creditor protection and liquidation filed by HBC in March 2025. However, on April 23, 2025 due to court rulings deeming it "low probability" to find a buyer to keep the remaining six stores afloat, HBC announced liquidation and permeant closure of all Hudson's Bay stores including the Montreal Hudson's Bay building and the remaining 12 HBC stores in the province of Quebec which started on Friday April 25, 2025 and closed on June 1, 2025. The store was accessible to the

Montreal Metro The Montreal Metro (, ) is a rubber-tired underground rapid transit system serving Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The metro, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), was inaugurated on October 14, 1966, during the tenure ...

via McGill station, for which two entrances are located on Union Avenue.

History

1891–1972: Morgan's

Built from 1889 to 1891 to a design by the American architect John Pierce Hill (1849–1920), the four-storey

Neo-Romanesque Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

building was constructed from imported Scottish

Old Red Sandstone Old Red Sandstone, abbreviated ORS, is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the eastern seaboard of North America. It ...

for

department store, which HBC acquired in 1960. The site had previously been occupied by terrace-type townhouses along Saint Catherine, Union and Alymer, built with stones from the ruins of the 1849 Parliament Building, including the former home of Dr.

William Hales Hingston Sir William Hales Hingston (29 June 1829 – 19 February 1907) was a Canadians, Canadian physician, politician, banker, and Senate of Canada, Senator. Biography Born in Hinchinbrooke, Quebec, Hinchinbrooke near Huntingdon, Quebec, he r ...

, mayor of Montreal from 1875 to 1877, at the southwest corner. The building was modified in 1923 (eight-storey Beaux-Arts style addition clad with red stone to match the original store) and 1964 (eight-storey modernist annex along

De Maisonneuve Boulevard De Maisonneuve Boulevard (officially in ) is a major westbound boulevard located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is named after the founder of Montreal, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve. It is a one-way street westbound. De Maisonneuve ...

). The later addition is mostly windowless, with windows only on ground level and in four arch features along De Maisonneuve and Union.

1972–2025: Hudson's Bay

While the Morgan's stores in Ontario were converted to the Hudson's Bay Company nameplate in 1960 and rebranded to The Bay in 1965, the Morgan's stores in Quebec retained their original name until 1972. HBC announced plans to renovate Hudson's Bay Montreal Downtown to accommodate a

facing

in 2016. The project was expected to be completed by fall 2018, but plans had been shelved by that February.

References

{{reflist Hudson's Bay Company Landmarks in Montreal Downtown Montreal Sandstone buildings in Canada Department store buildings in Canada Romanesque Revival architecture in Canada Beaux-Arts architecture in Canada

History

1891–1972: Morgan's

1972–2025: Hudson's Bay

See also

References