Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan, merchant, founder of Canada's oldest department store (b at Saline, Scot 1819; d at Montréal 12 Dec 1893). After apprenticing in a Scottish wholesale house, Morgan came to Canada 1845 and opened a dry-goods store with David Starke Smith on St Joseph Street (now Notre Dame) in Montréal. When Smith retired in 1852 Morgan was joined by his brother James and the firm became Henry Morgan & Co. By 1874 the store employed 150 clerks with each department responsible for its own management, buying and overhead expenses. The business moved several times until in 1891 it found its final location in a large new building at the top of Beaver Hall Hill on St Catherine Street - a move regarded by the Montréal mercantile community as a commercial catastrophe and an unwelcome invasion of a select residential neighbourhood. Convinced that Montréal would expand northward from the waterfront, Morgan was vindicated when his competitors followed him to what would become Montréal's main shopping area. In the 1950s, branches of Morgan & Co were opened in many large centres in Ontario and Québec, and a Morgan continued to head the company until it merged with the HBC in 1960.