Calgary: The Hudson's Bay downtown opened to extraordinary exhibition on August 18, 1913 - walking groups, steeds and more than 30 cops standing by to keep the peace. The Marx Brothers might indicate at the Empress Theatre later that night.

What's more the Bay's wide entryways might open to a surge of willing purchasers, welcomed by representatives in dark outfits, posturing gladly nearby showcases while a symphony played inside, primed to offer everything from youngsters' shoes to Persian carpets.

It was a time of never-before-seen retail request. Around then, everything was blasting," says Calgary history specialist Harry Sanders. "Newcomers were arriving. There were development ventures, streetcar developments, organizations opening.

Indeed, Calgary's populace had become tenfold between 1901 and 1911, from 4,000 to 43,000 in only 10 years.

The Bay's six-storey opening was the finish of its own quick development from little exchanging post to retail titan in just a couple of decades.

Modelled after London's Harrods extravagance assorted shop, the Bay was abruptly Calgary's biggest building with a steel and cement edge intended to underpin four more carpets for anticipated extension - development that every living soul, it appears, knew might just continue advancing.

The Bay downtown praises its 100th celebration in the not so distant future, with an arrangement of unique occasions, prizes and a goliath cake anticipated customers Thursday.

They can think once more on shopping treks to the storm cellar groceteria, eating in the excellent penthouse feasting room, or using hours searching through top notch style, furniture, and housewares as the evening sun spilled in through picture windows.

Decades after the 1913 opening of the notable downtown Bay, HBC recently held a firm put in a quickly developing prairie town.

However as the line extended through the region, carrying ranchers and farmers on edge to settle, so too did the town that soon came to be Calgary, the Gaelic word for "clear running water."

In the easier level groceteria, customers could buy basic needs to take home or - for customers without vehicles - make a sustenance request that might be conveyed to their doorstep later that same day.

Also the roof offered a novel kids' play yard, a break for moms while the children played.

While the city's populace floated at around 75,000 at the opening, the store was seen as an image of trust in Calgary's splendid budgetary future.

Right up 'til today, Calgary's store is the main Hudson's Bay in the nation with the notable colonnade.

Being a vast, national organization, it was fit to climate a percentage of the harder blows of neighborhood subsidences.

Yet a few progressions were unavoidable. Through the 1970s and 1980s, HBC deserted area bargains, hide exchanges, alcohol, fittings and donning merchandise. Furthermore by the 1990s, HBC particular themselves into extravagance bargains in just a couple of key territories, incorporating shoes, attire, embellishments, housewares and furniture.