Thank You for 110 Years of Memories!

• The company had its beginnings in Winnipeg in the late 1800s, but was officially incorporated November 20, 1905, as Alsip’s Brick, Tile and Lumber Company.

• William Alsip, who hailed from Chicago, came to Manitoba and launched the business as early as 1895 before returning to the United States. His sons W.P. (William Pit), Arthur, and Elmer Lee stayed in Canada to run the company which manufactured clay products such as brick, tile flue lining for chimneys of wood-burning stoves, boilers, fireplaces, and sewer pipe.

• Over the last century, the family-run, Winnipeg-based business has been handed down from father to son(s) through five generations. – William Alsip, Elmer Lee Alsip, Frank Alsip, Wayne Alsip, the company’s previous president, and sons Jason and Brad Alsip, both current company presidents.

• Wayne Alsip began working in the family business in the early 1960s.

• It has been said, Alsip’s brick was used in half the Exchange District buildings. The company’s brick can be found in Manitoba’s Legislature Building, the Law Courts, the Union Bank building on Main St., the original buildings at The Forks, and was also integral in the construction of the former City Hall. Many of Winnipeg’s most stately homes were built with Alsip’s brick.

• In the first half of the 20^th Century, Alsip’s operated five brick plants at four manufacturing sites – two plants at the company’s present location at 1 Cole Avenue at the foot of the Nairn overpass and plants in Portage la Prairie, Whitemouth and Sydney, Manitoba. The company ceased manufacturing brick in 1959 and has since sourced and supplied masonry products from across North America to its clients.

• From about 1913, Alsip’s also ran a full-service lumber operation – one of Manitoba’s largest — which continued through 1964 when the decision was made to focus on the company’s traditional strength — masonry products.

• The delivery of coal by horse and wagon had also been a large part of the company’s business in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s.

• Alsip’s first head office, established in 1906, was located in the Leckie Building at 202 McDermot in the Exchange District. In 1913, the company relocated to The Tribune Building . Alsip’s operated a retail lumber store on Portage Avenue until 1964. The head office was relocated to its present location at 1 Cole Avenue in 1965.

• Today, Alsip’s supplies masonry and stucco products for a wide variety of commercial and residential projects, including single and multi-family dwellings. Gas and wood fireplaces are also on its product list.

• Recent projects include supplying stone and brick for the new City Hall courtyard, the addition to St. Boniface Hospital, the Asper Research Centre, the Inn at the Forks, as well as numerous smaller commercial buildings.

• The company, whose name was changed to Alsip Industrial Products in 1995, has also diversified its line to include industrial insulation, hoses and fittings. It was recently changed to Alsip’s Building Products and Services to represent the wide variety of products and services offered.

• Today, the Alsip family and the company’s 35 employees continue to serve customers throughout Manitoba and Western Canada from its offices and large showroom at 1 Cole Avenue at the foot of the Nairn overpass in Winnipeg.

• A 12-foot by 160-foot mural, painted on the side of its building in 2004, depicts Alsip’s long and proud history of doing business in Manitoba.

For a century, the Alsips have helped build this city