Vignettes
/ The Exchange
District / Albert
Imperial Dry Goods Block
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Originally constructed as a retail outlet for R.J. Whitla
and Company, dry goods wholesalers, this three-storey structure
originally extended from a front door entrance on Main
Street to Albert Street.
Whitla’s was a large and prominent Winnipeg firm that
supplied clothing, fabrics and furs to the prairies at the
turn of the century. The warehouse district had rapidly
grown with many different business interests, and Whitla
himself had built three large warehouses when he opened the
Imperial Dry Goods Block in 1899.
