Built in 1909 on a design by local architect John Danley Atchison, the seven-storey Maltese Cross Building at the intersection of King Street and McDermot Avenue was home for the Winnipeg wholesale office of the Gutta Percha and Rubber Company Limited of Toronto, called the Winnipeg Rubber Company. The firm made and sold all manner of rubber products, including belts, hoses, tubes, gaskets, valves, clothing, footwear, and mats. Its trademark, the Maltese Cross, was the basis for the building’s name and an adornment that appears on its exterior and interior.
Prior to the Second World War, the company stopped using the Maltese Cross as its corporate logo, due to similarity with the iron cross used as a German military symbol. Painted versions of the cross were removed from the building but those in stone and metal remained. The company stayed in the building until the 1950s when it relocated to Ellice Avenue. The building was then occupied by a succession of companies. It is a municipally-designated historic site.
Maltese Cross Building (May 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Maltese Cross Building (November 2021)
Source: George Penner
Entrance detail at Maltese Cross Building (July 2024)
Source: Greg PetzoldSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.89717, W97.14201
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: John Danley Atchison (1870-1959)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Municipally Designated Historic Sites
Maltese Cross Building (66 King Street), City of Winnipeg Historical Buildings Committee, November 2008.
We thank George Penner and Greg Petzold for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 7 September 2024
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