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Albert Street Business Block - 44 1/2 Albert Street , erstwhile home of "Discreet Boutique" among other businesses - just visible on the right is the 2nd floor eve of a house dating from 1877 embedded within

On the west side of Albert Street near Notre Dame Avenue, sits an unassuming mixed-use structure that began as a residence in 1877. Built by local contractor J.J. Johnston for $2,000.00, the building was established as a rental property by John O. LeCappellain who operated a wholesale/retail hardware business on Main Street in 1877-78.

To take advantage of a speculative property boom in March 1882, LeCappellain moved the house several feet to the south to make way for the construction of a long, narrow, two-storey business block. The Manitoba and North West Loan Co. assumed title to the site in 1885 when LeCappellain ran into financial difficulties.

Shortly after the turn of the century, agent R.H. Moody converted the house into a commercial property to take advantage of yet another boom. The Exchange District was undergoing a rapid transition with most of the residential housing in the area being demolished and replaced by warehouses.

The building has managed to survive the physical renewal periods of the area and become a well-hidden testament to the early residential phase of the Exchange District. This was aided somewhat with the construction of a $7,000 one-storey, solid brick block with a flat roof in 1924. While awaiting future, higher-density redevelopment the block was rented out to revenue-generating outlets and the house returned to residential use.