The Bay Queen Street Store
Photo by Alan L Brown - March 24, 2004 · Photo by Alan L Brown - March 24, 2004
Text from the plaque
Department stores revolutionized shopping in the late nineteenth century by offering selection, low prices and money-back guarantees. In 1895, Robert Simpson commissioned architect Edmund Burke to design his new department store at the southwest corner of Yonge and Queen Streets. It was the first building in Canada with a load-bearing metal frame and a façade clearly patterned on this internal structure. By 1969, Simpson's department store had been enlarged six times and occupied two city blocks between Yonge, Queen, Bay and Richmond Streets. Canada's oldest corporation and largest department store retailer, Hudson's Bay Company, acquired the building in 1978. A Bay store since 1991, it remains one of Canada's great shopping landmarks.
Transcribed from the marker, not summarised.
Find the place
The City of Toronto
On the wall of the store on Queen Street West, south side, just west of Yonge Street
Also recorded for this place: Robert Simpson Company · Robert Simpson Co. Mail-Order Building and Additions · Robert Simpson Co. Warehouse · Simpsons Mail-Order Warehouse Dalhousie Street Extension