Hudson’s Bay Company © Lucy Izon

Toronto, Ontario – If the north side of the Hudson’s Bay Co. store at Queen & Yonge St. looks oddly familiar to you it could be because it stood in for Madison Square Gardens in the recent Russell Crowe film, Cinderella Man. The Hudson’s Bay Co was
formed in 167. Back in the fur-trading era it owned a swath of land larger than Europe. This was a trading monopoly over and area known as Rupert’s Land, which covered 3.9 million square kilometres (1.5 million sq mi.)

The Hudson Bay Company is the oldest commercial corporation in North America, and one of the oldest in the world. It is currently owned by the New York-based firm NRDC Equity Partners This building, which dates back to 1895, was originally Simpsons Department Store. This building was acquired by Hudson’s Bay Co. in 1978. It is now the headquarters for, what many Canadians know today as HBC. You’ll find it just steps from Toronto’s Eaton Center and Toronto’s old and current City Halls.