David Spencer Ltd. (commonly known as ''Spencer's'') operated a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appe ...

chain in the province of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Founded in the city of Victoria in 1873 by David W. Spencer, the first store, located on Government Street, consisted of a dry goods shop operating under the name "Spencer and Denny". The store prospered and expanded, and a second store was opened in 1890 in

Nanaimo Nanaimo ( ) is a city on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. As of the 2021 census, it had a population of 99,863, and it is known as "The Harbour City." The city was previously known as the "Hub City," which was ...

. The

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

store, which opened in 1907, was so successful that it soon expanded to occupy almost an entire city block. Other stores later opened in Chilliwack and New Westminster. For a number of years, Spencer's was a rival to the Woodward's department store, another British Columbia-based chain. In 1948, however, Spencer's was acquired by the much larger

Eaton's The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew ...

department store chain, which had stores across Canada. The nine Spencer's stores in the

Lower Mainland The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05million people as of the 2021 Cana ...

and

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

were converted into Eaton's stores. The second Spencer's store in downtown Victoria, at 1150 Douglas Street (which replaced the original Government Street store), operated as an Eaton's store until the late 1980s, when it was demolished to make way for the Victoria Eaton Centre shopping mall (now called the Bay Centre). Spencer's downtown Vancouver store, on Hastings Street, operated as an Eaton's store until 1973, when Eaton's opened its new Vancouver flagship store in the newly constructed Pacific Centre shopping mall. Unlike its Victoria cousin, however, the former Spencer's store was not demolished; it was later occupied by Simpsons-Sears, and today it serves as the downtown "Harbour Centre" campus of Simon Fraser University. The building itself is currently called the Harbour Centre. The last operating vestiges of the former Spencer's chain disappeared with the demise of the Eaton's chain in 1999.

External links

Current view of Spencer Building in Vancouver (in foreground of photo)
* ttp://www.celtic-connection.com/2006/features/feat2006_05_03_hist.html Welsh Immigrant Who Built a Department Store Chainat the Celtic Connection

References

{{Eaton's Defunct retail companies of Canada Department stores of Canada Eaton's Economic history of Canada History of Vancouver Buildings and structures in Vancouver Companies based in Victoria, British Columbia