Eaton's Building (Thunder Bay)

The Eaton's Building is a former Eaton's department store on Court Street in the north core of Thunder Bay (formerly Port Arthur), next to the Ruttan Block.

History

Eaton's opened its first Lakehead store, a groceteria, on North Cumberland Street in 1927. By 1936 it had moved to the corner of Court Street and Red River Road. On 12 October 1938 Eaton's opened a department store in a building it built across the intersection, next to the Ruttan Block, and the groceteria moved into it.

As part of the north-core urban renewal plans of the 1970s, the T. Eaton Company spent $3 million doubling the store to 150,000 sq ft, covering an entire downtown block. Mayor Saul Laskin welcomed the project. A walkway across Park Avenue linked the store to the Keskus Harbour Mall and its parking structure.

The Thunder Bay store closed on 10 October 1997, and the T. Eaton Company went bankrupt in 1999. The Keskus Harbour Mall was sold to the Ontario Casino Corporation in August 1999 and demolished for a casino. The Eaton's building was sold to another developer in 2000. Its first tenant under the new owner was Definitely Superior Art Gallery, in the basement. Later tenants have included call centres, a dance studio, a theatre, a band, a roller derby and art studios. In 2021 architect John Stephenson of Form Architecture proposed a plan for a new use of the building.