The Past and The Present

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

• William Alsip, who hailed from Chicago where the Alsip family ran a brick manufacturing operation, headed north to Canada in the late 1800s and launched his brick business in Manitoba as early as 1895. He died in Winnipeg in 1911. His sons W.P. (William Pitt), Arthur Augustus, and Elmer Lee, at the helm, ran the company which manufactured clay products such as brick and tile flue lining for chimneys. Another of its products was sewer pipe, which was used extensively to create the original network of sewers in Winnipeg.

• Alsip's brick was used in construction of Manitoba’s Legislature Building, the Law Courts, Union Bank of Canada on Main St., the original buildings at The Forks, Academy Bowling Lanes, and the former City Hall. Alsip brick can be found in many of the Exchange District buildings, such as the Mariaggi Hotel and Ashdown Warehouse.

• Some of Winnipeg’s most stately homes were also built with Alsip brick. Those residences include 124 Harrow, 12 Kingsway, 51 Waterloo, 102, 514, 1021, and 1095 Wellington Cres., and the original W.P.(William Pitt) Alsip house at 25 Harvard.

• 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 current president, and sons Jason and Brad Alsip, both company directors.

• Wayne Alsip began working in the family business in the early 1960s and has headed the company since 1986.

• In the first half of the 20th 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. Alsip’s operated a retail hardware and lumber store at various Portage Avenue locations until 1964.

• 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. 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.

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

• The company, whose name was changed to Alsip’s Industrial Products in 1995, also has a division distributing a full line of fireplaces and wood and pellet stoves and has diversified to include industrial insulation among its offerings.

• Today, the Alsip family and the company’s 19 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 large, storage building in 2004, depicts Alsip’s long and proud history of doing business in Manitoba. The mural faces Nairn Ave. and can be seen by motorists traveling east on the overpass.