John Gainer didn't know much about the butchering trade when he arrived in Strathcona on one of the first Calgary & Edmonton Railway trains in 1891. But he knew opportunity and, at the age of 36 and with $250, he started J. Gainer and Company, Butchers and Pork Packers.

Over the next 70 years, it was to grow to become one of western Canada's largest meatpacking companies and the phrase "More guts than Gainer's," was part of the Edmonton lexicon for three generations. John Gainer was born in Perth, Ontario in 1858 and spent time in North Dakota and Manitoba before he stepped off the train at the Strathcona station in 1891.

Within a few months, he had set up his butchering enterprise out of his house on 103rd Street, which in those days was called Railway Street. The store occupied the front while the family lived behind and pens in the yard held animals awaiting their demise. His wife Amy supplemented the family income by selling baked goods.

The "J. Gainer Meats" wagon soon became a familiar sight. Gainer would slaughter quality livestock on the spot and take it back to the shop to be dressed or, in the winter, slaughter it and leave it to freeze.

As thousands of newcomers poured into the settlement, Gainer found demand for his products quickly increasing. In 1902, he opened a new slaughterhouse about one mile south of the Canadian Pacific Railways station.

The location quickly proved too small and just a few months later he purchased land beside Mill Creek at 79th Avenue. He built pens, corrals, a slaughterhouse, packing plant and barns.

The same year, he opened his first store on Whyte Avenue - a one-storey wood frame structure.

Within months he decided to replace the wood structure with a more elaborate one, right on the same spot, and called it the Pioneer Meat Market.

The Gainer Block at what is now 10341 to 43 Whyte Avenue, was a two-storey red brick, rectangular building with a decorated front facade and 5,000 square feet of space inside. It opened in the fall of 1902.

Gainer's choice of materials may have been guided by the Town of Strathcona, which earlier that year passed its Bylaw 63.8. The bylaw mandated the use of non-flammable building materials in an effort to prevent the sort of disastrous fire that had destroyed so many prairie towns around the turn of the 20th century. The Strathcona bylaw prohibited the construction of wooden buildings on Whyte Avenue between 103rd and 104th Streets.

The brick frontage of Gainer's Block boasted large glass windows for easy display of merchandise while the second story had four evenly spaced windows, topped by four rhythmical brick arches. By using a semicircular brick pediment, the building seemed higher than it really is and a century later, its simplicity of design gives it a timeless quality which help it fit into today's Whyte Avenue streetscape, sandwiched between Hub Cigar and the Princess Theatre.

In 1909, Gainer left retail to concentrate on the wholesale and packing end of the business. Within a few months, he was employing more than 20 men at his plant next to Mill Creek and had several teams delivering to retail businesses on a full-time basis. All of Gainer's three sons - Clifford, Arthur and Chester - worked for the firm and helped it grow and prosper.

John Gainer remained president of the meat company until 1938 and the gainer Block was owned by the family until 1943. Two years later, the company owned a Vancouver plant and warehouse.

By 1972, the firm employed 500 employees and had sales topped $40 million. That year, the operation was sold to Agra Industries Ltd. Of Saskatoon. In 1977, it was purchased by Peter Pocklington, long time owner of the Edmonton Oilers.

The Gainer Block was purchased by the Devonian Foundation in 1976 and the next year donated to the Old Strathcona Foundation. The Foundation launched a $250,000 restoration of the facade in the summer of 1980 and completely re-worked the interior. The main floor was raised two feet, new electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems installed and original hardwood floors refinished where feasible.

While doing the work, crews found an old cheque in the walls, made out for $30 in consideration for six hogs. The restoration work was completed the following spring and the building was sold to Hanratty's Catering, which opened a tea and pastry shop on the main floor.

In recognition of its association with a well-known Strathcona and Edmonton business, the building was designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 1982, the highest level of protection available.

Information for this article compiled with the assistance of the staff at the City of Edmonton Archives and the Old Strathcona Foundation.