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October 24, 2019
The Watcher Among The Graves: St. John’s Cemetery
Passing by St. John’s Cemetery today, you would be hard pressed to find anything out of the ordinary. It is a small, well-treed cemetery, next to St. John’s Anglican Church (158 Anderson Avenue)– an assortment of headstones, large, small and everything in between cover the grounds. What you cannot tell from simply passing by, is…
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October 16, 2019
Fire Fuels Uncertainty: The Keewayden Building
Real estate was a hot commodity in Winnipeg at the turn of the 20th century. Companies new and old were coming through the city, looking to take advantage of a booming economy and quickly growing population. Larger, wealthier companies could get away with constructing their own office buildings while many others utilized the wealth of…
October 9, 2019
A Million Dollar Mystery: The Manitoba Legislative Building
When the Manitoba Legislative Building officially opened in July of 1920, the relief must have been palpable. A series of delays had pushed the construction back significantly; construction had begun in 1912, and now after eight years of being plagued by scandal and war, it was finally open. This would be Manitoba’s third legislative building….
October 2, 2019
Missing Heritage On Main: The McIntyre Block
The 1960s and 70s were not banner decades for heritage preservation in Winnipeg. Scores of historic buildings were torn down in the interest of civic redevelopment – replaced by modernist office towers and, more often than not, drab surface parking lots. Occasionally, some concessions were made (such as the creation of Old Market Square to…
September 18, 2019
LOST! Winnipeg’s Spectacular Streetcars
Winnipeg’s streetcars have vanished – sold, scrapped, crushed, burned and buried – erased from history with only the fading memories of an aging generation to cling to. Once the height of modernity which made Winnipeg a desirable place to live and drove its development, today the streetcars have disappeared without a trace, without a single…
September 10, 2019
Main Street’s Bankers’ Row – An Historically Significant Streetscape
At the close of the First World War an informed pedestrian walking south on Main Street from the gingerbread style city hall to Portage and Main would have marvelled at Winnipeg’s magnificent bank architecture representing most of Canada’s major financial institutions. Along the west side of Main Street our pedestrian would have passed the Union…
September 4, 2019
Flexibility for Sustainability: The St. Boniface Normal School
Tucked away at the corner of Masson Street and Aulneau Street, in the center of St. Boniface, is the St. Boniface Normal School building. An old teaching college repurposed and adapted to the fit the changing needs of the community, it still stands today as a landmark of the area’s history. Several years after the…
August 28, 2019
Majesty on Main Street – The McLaren Hotel
The McLaren Hotel opened to great acclaim in 1911, said to be one of the finest hotels in Canada. An unmistakable red brick building in the downtown, the hotel has long outlived many of its contemporaries, still standing over 100 years later at the intersection of Main Street and Rupert Street. It was the final…
August 20, 2019
The Masonic Temple: From Secrets to Success
The Masonic Temple in downtown Winnipeg is a little piece of the 19th century, still standing proudly at the corner of Donald Street and Ellice Avenue. It is a beautiful reminder of early Winnipeg life, when no expense was spared to construct buildings that would stand the test of time. Many Winnipeggers may remember it…
August 14, 2019
The Challenge of Change: The Reliable Service Station
Change is a challenging but inevitable fact of life. In a rapidly transforming world, adapting is the only means of remaining relevant. For heritage buildings, that means walking a fine line between conserving the past while constantly reinventing themselves to remain functional and vibrant. The building known to many Winnipeggers as the former Reliable Service…