The company was founded at Winnipeg in 1902 by general contractors James McDiarmid and John Carr. In 1903, Edward Cass joined the company and it was incorporated with Cass as its President, and McDiarmid and Carr as Vice-Presidents. Robert Walter Paterson later joined the firm as Secretary-Treasurer.
The company was initially located in a two-story warehouse on Donald Street. Later, a six-story warehouse was built on Notre Dame Avenue East, as well as a storage warehouse on the Canadian Northern Railway tracks. The firm’s product line expanded to include sashes and doors. One of the largest planing mills in Western Canada was built on a parcel of land in Fort Rouge, and it expanded operations into Alberta with the construction of a five-story warehouse in Calgary.
In October 1907, a fire destroyed the company’s building on Notre Dame but it was quickly rebuilt. By 1913, it had, in addition to the Notre Dame warehouse, an eight-story warehouse on Portage Avenue East, lumberyards, sash and door warehouses at Swift Current and Saskatoon, and new warehouses under construction at Winnipeg and Edmonton. Their corporate slogan was “Everything for a Building”.
The Winnipeg Paint and Glass Company building after a destructive fire (1907)
Source: Rob McInnes, WP1584
The Story of Manitoba by F. H. Schofield, Winnipeg: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913.
We thank Rob McInnes for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 11 January 2023
