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The Exchange District

Vignettes / The Exchange District / Princess

Fairchild/Sterling Cloak Building

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One of the first warehouses to utilize steel construction, the Fairchild Building, located in the western boundary of the district, serves as a magnificent example of this new approach to warehouse design that occurred across North America after the turn-of-the century.

By 1877 the province’s wheat had begun to be shipped directly overseas to Europe. Winnipeg businessmen, Henry S. Wesbrook and Frank A. Fairchild, established a farm implement retail firm on the Market Square in the same year.  By 1881 they expanded their enterprise into a wholesale business representing such firms as the John Deere Plow Company, J.I. Case Company, and the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company.  By the late 1880s, F.A. Fairchild had become the sole owner of the business and established a showroom in the Grain Exchange Building on Princess Street.  Continued prosperity enabled the company to buy a vacant lot on Princess Street in 1904, and local architect Herbert B. Rugh was hired to design a fitting warehouse in 1906.

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2004

 


Year Built Heritage Status Date Material Floors/Square footage
1906-1907 Municipal, 1985, grade II

Sullivanesque terra-cotta details, corbelled brick cornice, steel and reinforced concrete construction with cast iron columns.

6 storeys/83,025 total floor space

Original Use Present Use Address Architect

Wholesale warehouse

Retail/Offices 110-120 Princess Street

John Atchison and Herbert Rugh

 


NA

 

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