If you look at photographs of the northern part of downtown taken around the middle of the 20th century, one building always stands out, towering above the district. With its giant rooftop water tower, the eight-storey Marshall-Wells Building at 10260 103rd Street was a longtime Edmonton landmark.

When it was completed in 1921, it became the tallest building in the city, one storey higher than the McLeod Building, which was completed in 1915 at 10136 100th Street.

The Marshall-Wells Building remained height champion until 1966, when the CN tower was completed. It survived another 13 years, and was knocked down to make way for the new Greyhound Bus Terminal.

Marshall-Wells was a wholesale hardware supply firm started in Duluth, Minnesota by Seth Marshall and A.G. Wells, in the late 1800s. They delivered goods to the far-flung points of the fledgling Canadian frontier by canoe, horse-drawn wagon and dogsled.

It was soon clear to Marshall and Wells that this was a country where hard-working men and women could make a name for themselves. In 1901, they opened their first Canadian office in Winnipeg. From there, they never looked back.

The firm established its first permanent base in this part of the world in 1906, when Alberta was just one year old, Edmonton as the city was just two years old. It purchased the old John Sommerville Hardware Company, and took over the wholesale and retail outlet at 10154 101st Street.

Marshall-Wells operated out of that building until July 1912, when it purchased Ross Brothers Hardware, then the largest hardware firm in the province. Operations moved into a Ross Brothers building at 10228 103rd Street, now known as the Boardwalk.

The variety and volume of merchandise the company offered for sale was staggering. Its 1913 catalog totalled 2,390 pages, and offered such necessities of the day as leather halters and sweat pads for horses, shaft chimes and sleigh bells for wagons, and steel stoves, fuelled by wood.

In 1917, right in the midst of the First World War, the company bought five lots of land west of 103rd Street and north of 103rd Avenue. Construction on the new building began in 1919. The water tower served more than a tourist function. City water pressure was so low that it could not provide water for the upper floors, and so the tower was built for fire safety reasons. It could be seen for miles around.

In the late 1920s, Marshall-Wells was the exclusive distributor for Gurney Boilers and Radiation, Zenith Tools, Marswells Furnaces, Burbank Ranges, Deforest-Crosley Radio Sets and Prestolite Car and Radio Batteries, among thousands of other goods of the day. With radio its in formative years, and the public clambering to buy a receiver to listen to this new technology, the company installed what was reported to be “a costly laboratory” for testing and repairs.

An article in the June 30, 1927 edition of the Edmonton Journal, reported that the company had grown to “immense proportions,” and its growth necessitated a new building. “The business has advanced remarkably since the time of its incorporation,” the paper gushed. “...In 1919 it was found necessary to build premises to handle the ever increasing business and the new building in which they are now situated, is the finest hardware structure in the Dominion of Canada.”

The story said that Marshall-Wells had become “the principal wholesale hardware distributors” in all of Canada. Holdings included a paint factory in Winnipeg and a stove factory in Penetanguishene, Ontario.

A story in the May 5, 1979 edition of the Edmonton Journal noted that “the growth of Marshall-Wells was merely a reflection of the growth of the Northwest. Edmonton was the major supply centre to the north and as the city, which came to be known as the Gateway to the North, grew, so grew Marshall Wells.”

By the 1950s, the Edmonton branch served an area stretching from British Columbia in the west, north to the Northwest Territories and Yukon and east to the Saskatchewan border. Construction of a new 200,000 square foot headquarters at 16231 116th Avenue began in 1978. The company shifted operations in February 1979, leaving the old building behind. It became property of Triple 5 Corporation, owners of West Edmonton Mall.

A last-minute fight to save the structure, led by SPARE, the Society for the Protection of Architectural Resources in Edmonton, went to the city’s Development Appeal Board in July 1979. The DAB ruled that the demolition permit was valid, and work taking the building apart piece by piece began in mid-August.

The concrete, steel and brick structure was “built like a bomb shelter,” according to demolition contractor Bill Wearmouth. A decision was made to use dynamite, but the demolition team declined to say exactly when the building would come down. Wearmouth was quoted in August 30, 1979 Edmonton Journal article as saying the secrecy was needed “because we don’t want 100,000 people trying to watch it.”

The top-secret operation levelled the building, ka-boom, on Sunday, September 9, 1979. “A perfect job,” according to Gary Anderson of Controlled Demolition, the Baltimore, Maryland team which handled the job.

The then vacant property was part of a three-way multi-million dollar land swap between Triple 5 Corporation, owners of the building, Eaton’s and Greyhound. The site was soon home to the new bus terminal, and the Marshall-Wells Warehouse became a part of Edmonton’s lost history.