[2][3] Broadway begins at Main Street (Route 52), opposite Union Station, near the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.

[3] Because of its position in the southern part of downtown, the area also functions as a demarcation between commercial development to the north and a residential enclave south to the Assiniboine River.

[2] The large block of land near Upper Fort Garry was originally granted to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) by the Government of Canada.

However, as the early 20th century saw the emergence of several other wealthy residential areas such as Armstrong's Point, Fort Rouge, Crescentwood, Wolseley, and River Heights, Broadway lost many of its elite residents.

Among others, the locally based but British-funded development firm Metropolitan Estate and Property Corporation (MEPC) was one of the earliest groups dedicated to making Broadway a viable business district, or the "Wall Street of the West".