Today it is best known as the brick building with the giant painted signs on its south wall. If you look closely you can still see them: Nabob Tea & Coffee, Crown Brand Corn Syrup, National Biscuit and Confection they proclaim.

The building was once home to the Edmonton Cigar Factory, a business operated by Shaw, who had been born in Long Prairie, Minnesota in 1876 and learned to make cigars when he was just a teenager. Shaw fought in the Spanish American war and, with his wife Jessie Ann, arrived in Edmonton in 1901. That May, he opened his little manufacturing venture, right above W.T.. Henrys clothing store in the Humberstone Block.

Five years later the factory was moved to the Masonic building on 102nd Street and, by 1908 the Edmonton Cigar Factory employed 35 workers and was churning out more than one million cigars a year, under the brand names La Palma, Major Reno and La Consequentia. It was known as the largest Canadian cigar manufacturer west of Toronto.

The business did so well in these days before the popularization of cigarettes that it quickly outgrew its old quarters. Harry Shaw purchased land on 105th Street just north of 102nd Avenue on July 24th,1905 and began making plans for a building of his own.

Edmonton was booming at the time and Harry and his wife Jessie Ann also forged ahead with the design of their dream home a magnificent mansion with a main floor of more than 1,850 square feet on fashionable Victoria Avenue. The residence, at what is today 11716 100th Avenue, was designed by renowned local architects Herbert Alton Magoon and George Heath MacDonald, who had just completed work on the Tegler Building in 1911.

With elaborate and expensive features like fine oak panelling, marble fireplaces, stained glass windows ornately designed plaster ceilings, handpainted wallpaper and floral patterns, cut glass door knobs and massive chandeliers, the house was a showpiece. It took most of 1913 and part of 1914 to construct and the cost ran to $35,000. The finished house featured elements of Queen Anne, Tudor and Greek Doric architecture, including a wrap around verandah supported by white columns.

An article in the April 6th, 1974 edition of the Edmonton Journal reported on the Shaw family's home, calling it still 'plush' after 60 years. "The library is perhaps the most interesting room in the residence. Panelled halfway up in white oak, and papered with decorator's linen, the walls sport handsome hand painted designs, the work of Russian artist imported by (a) New York decorator (who had been hired by Mr. Shaw)."

The decorator furnished the rooms with ornate pieces, including replicas of Adam furniture and thick pile rugs. Emblems painted in oil near the ceiling represented the major world powers of the time. Crests from the U.S.A., Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Russia and Great Britain graced the walls, with the Alberta emblem in a place of honor above the fireplace. The ceiling of the library was a geometric design in plaster reminiscent of many Renaissance palaces in Europe. There were nine rooms on the second-floor -- five bedrooms, a sleeping porch, a boudoir and bathroom. The third floor was originally designed to provide extra family living space and also included a maid's room and a very large billiard room with fireplace.

Magoon and MacDonald were also hired to design the new 105th Street office and manufacturing facility. Their blueprints called for fireproof reinforced concrete faced with brick, making it only the second structure in the warehouse district to be so constructed. The total cost of construction was $55,000.

Despite its utilitarian function, the building had some pleasing design features, including a three-bay facade and eye catching use of brick and stone. The factory was initially located on the main floor of the building and later moved to the top floor as the building was completed. The uppermost storey featured walls treated with water-proof cement, extensive use of metal-framed, venting skylights and octagonal mosaic floor tiles near the large, west facing arched windows.

The ground floor allowed for an active warehouse distribution layout which incorporated a rail spur shipping area at the east-end of the building. The innovative use of reinforced, cast-in-place concrete structural system for the building is an early commercial application in Edmonton. Because of the original warehouse uses, the clear ceiling heights are generous at all floors. Other interior spaces were arranged so that the floors could be rented in halves. On the south wall, grand painted signs were crafted, with the Nabob and Crown Syrup ads that are still mostly visible and a lower band advertising Smith, Davidson & Wright Limited Wholesale Stationers and Paper Dealers. The lower panel was later painted over with the display for National Biscuit and Confection.

During the first weeks of World War I, Shaw loaned one floor of the building to Lt. Col. William Griesbach of the 49th Battalion of Canadian Expeditionary Force. The space was used for squad drills during the mobilization of forces. Unfortunately, Shaw overextended himself by constructing his block and residence at the same time just as the market was shifting to cigarettes and the economy crashed. He was forced to close the factory in 1919 and the building was subsequently acquired by his creditors, McDougall and Secord, on July 21st.

The mansion was seized by the City of Edmonton for unpaid taxes in the early 1920s and was used for some time as a rooming house. In 1938 it was purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Ernest Poole, founder of Poole Construction (which became PCL) for $3,500 exactly what was owing in back taxes. The Pooles removed the verandah but kept most other features intact.

In 1943, the house was purchased by John V. Rule, a principal with Rule, Wynn and Rule, Edmonton architects. Twenty-three years later, in 1966, it was sold to Mr. & Mrs. Abe Coyne.

Harry Shaw died in Edmonton in 1959 at age 83. The grand mansion he constructed was razed in the late 1970s to make way for new development. Now just Shaws downtown structure survives, much as he built it - sturdy, stately and eye-catching. Its the only significant physical remnant of the rich and fascinating story of Edmontons Cigar Baron.

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