Holt Renfrew, Montreal, Canada



Architect
Ross & Macdonald
Date Built
Completed 1937
Location
Corner of Sherbrooke and Mountain Streets.
Description
Holt Renfrew is a chain of high end department stores controlled by The Selfridges Group under the chairmanship of W. Galen Weston.  It has branches across Canada.  The company can trace its origins back to an Irish born merchant trading in furs in Quebec City in 1837.  It was in celebration of 100 years of trading that Holt Renfrew commissioned this building in Montreal designed by Ross and Macdonald and built in 1937.  A number of bas-relief carvings on the buildings facade celebrate the company’s links to the fur trade.









It is very much a building of its period designed in the Streamline Moderne style of Art Deco.  Over the years there have been changes.  In 1946 James Kennedy added a sympathetic extension on the west side of the building. 



A glass walled addition was added to the roof to give the building a seventh floor.











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