What to know
- Hudson’s Bay’s historic plaques were removed from the former downtown store near Yonge and Dundas after the retailer permanently closed in June 2025, sparking concern online about their fate after nearly 48 years on the building.
- Photos of the plaques’ removal circulated on Reddit, with users calling it a “sad day for the building” and suggesting the pieces of history belong in a museum or should have been preserved as relics.
- Toronto lawyer E. Patrick Shea helped secure a new home for the plaques, which were given to The Royal Canadian Legion; the Bay’s Roll of Honour plaque is now publicly accessible at the TD Terrace building at 161 Front St. W.
The historic plaques at the old Hudson’s Bay Company building downtown have been removed, but where are they now?
The beloved department store shut its doors in June 2025. Even though Canadian Tire saved some of Hudson’s Bay’s trademarks, the future of the historic plaques, located on the building near Yonge and Dundas streets, is in question after nearly 48 years.
Photos of the plaques being removed have recently surfaced online and people are wondering what’s going to happen with the pieces of history.
One Reddit user commented, “sad day for the building.”
Other users brought suggestions: “they belong in a museum! 🤠” and “Should have kept it up as a relic.”
Toronto-based lawyer E. Patrick Shea, partner at Gowling WLG, says he’s worried that the plaques won’t be kept or honoured like they should be.
“I’m hoping it’s not going anywhere, but if it gets sold to a developer, or if it gets asked to go through major refurbishment, they’re going to take down those plaques, and in that process, who knows whether they’re going to get put back up again?”
So, what happened to the plaques?
To save the plaques, Shea says he took matters into his own hands before Hudson’s Bay ever went bankrupt. He shared a letter to the company asking for the plaques to be preserved.
“Everyone actually was very supportive of finding a new home for these,” Shea told Now Toronto.
Shea says The Royal Canadian Legion was subsequently given the plaques, to which they decided to home them in a community-accessible site.
The Bay’s Roll of Honour plaque is now located at the TD Terrace building at 161 Front St W., in the museum-dedicated section, which is open to the public.
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Plaques’ history
Shea explains that each plaque identifies local young men who enlisted in the Canadian Forces while employed by the Hudson’s Bay during the First and Second World Wars.
To him, “[the plaques] are a piece not only of Canadian history, but I would say part of our culture.”
The Hudson’s Bay Company moved to Winnipeg after its 300th anniversary in 1970 and then to Toronto in 1978.
Before that, The Hudson’s Bay was rooted in the U.K., where the original plaques are displayed in a Church Bell Tower in London. Shea says he’s in the process of making those plaques visible to the public rather than hidden at the tower.
