Among the large industrial warehouses that make up the bulk of the Exchange District, The Kelly House at 88 Adelaide seems out of place. Comparatively small, the red-bricked Queen Anne Revival Style home today is sandwiched between two massive warehouses and parking lots.

It was not always this way. Before the industrial boom of the mid-1880s, the Exchange District was largely residential and The Kelly House was one home of many. However, as the wholesale industry grew in Winnipeg so did the need for warehouse space. Slowly but surely the Exchange District shifted, and these early houses were replaced by the Richardsonian Romanesque warehouses we know today. By 1920, just five of the many homes on Adelaide remained and most were vacant. Today, only one house remains, and the reason why ties into the tale Manitoba’s most well-known corruption scandal. As you may have guessed, the owners of the Kelly House were none other than Winnipeg’s infamous Kelly family.

Kelly House at 88 Adelaide Street in November 2011.
Source: Herb Neufeld (CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Irish-Born Kelly brothers Thomas, Michael, and Martin established their contracting firm in 1881, aptly named the Kelly Brothers Contracting Firm. Together the brothers would construct many prominent Winnipeg structures including the St Andrews Locks, The Free Press Building on Carlton, and the Grain Exchange Building on Princess. Early in the days of the company, Michael Kelly and his wife Elizabeth constructed their family home at 88 Adelaide. The Kelly House was completed in 1882 for a total cost of $2,200. Michael lived in the house alongside his wife and a rotating cast of other relatives until 1894, at which point his family moved to a home on Notre Dame. Still, Michael retained ownership of his place on Adelaide and began renting it out to a variety of tenants – which included architect James H. Cadham, who lived in the Kelly House from 1897-1901.

As Winnipeg developed going into the 20th century, so did The Kelly Brothers contracting business. In 1903, their firm merged with several others to create the Manitoba Construction Company – though it would go out of business within two years. Thomas Kelly adapted, creating the firm of Kelly Brothers, Mitchel Limited in 1905 – and then founding Thomas Kelly & Sons in 1908. That same year, Thomas Kelly took ownership of Michael’s house on Adelaide. Two years later, in 1910, Michael Kelly retired.

It was shortly after this that the Legislature Construction Scandal began. In 1913, Thomas Kelly & Sons won the bid for the contract to construct the Manitoba Legislature. Kelly’s bid for the project was unusually low and though this may have raised some eyebrows, he was still hired on for the project. Over the next two years Kelly falsely inflated material and labour costs and ultimately overcharged the Manitoba Government $1 million. Kelly kept most of the money, but passed some of it along to Premiere Rodmond P. Roblin. When the scandal broke in 1915 following a federal investigation, Kelly fled the country and Premiere Roblin lost power. Kelly was caught near the end of 1915, and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He moved to America upon his release.

By the 1920s, proceedings were undertaken against Kelly to recoup some of the funds lost during the Legislature’s construction. Twenty one parcels of land were seized, including Thomas Kelly’s grand mansion on Carlton and the smaller Kelly House on 88 Adelaide. Through a twist of fate, the City of Winnipeg had actually seized the property on Adelaide a year earlier and the province allowed the City of Winnipeg to keep it.

The Kelly House, undated.
Source: Heritage Winnipeg files

Owners came and went for the next several decades, including hotel owner Ko Wah John in 1942, and Wasylyna Ostafichuk in 1947. In 1982, the Kelly House received heritage designation from the City of Winnipeg. By this point, Winnipeg Pants and Sportswear had taken ownership of the Kelly House.

Though renovations have been done on the interior the façade remains largely unchanged. The Kelly House was designed in the Queen Anne Revival Style – characterized by it’s red brick and an eclectic mix of other architectural elements. A “gingerbread trim” that frames the building includes a sunburst motif on the verge boards. All in all, the Kelly House looks a bit like something out of a fairy tale – and actually has a place in one. Author Rae Bridgman used the structure as inspiration for a home in her Middlegate series, where the long-standing Winnipeg house acts as a portal to a different world. Toby Cygman, writing for the University of Manitoba, said this in his review: “Though Hogwarts is a long way from Winnipeg, MiddleGate may be within reach. Next time you find yourself in the Exchange, take a closer look at the Kelly House and you may end up someplace completely unexpected.”

Rae Bridgman, on top of penning a series of children’s novels, is co-director of BridgemanCollaborative and a professor of city planning at the UofM’s Faculty of Architecture. Bridgman was also instrumental in the fight to save 88 Adelaide.

In the mid-1990s David Rich acquired the house, and the house was vacant for ten out of his fifteen years of ownership. Reportedly, the house was in dismal shape and Rich expressed concerns that the house would be too expensive to refurbish – though he also refused to sell the house. In 2009, Rich petitioned the City of Winnipeg to delist the Kelly House as a historic structure, and allow him to demolish the structure, allowing him to utilize the land as surface parking.

The Kelly House, undated.
Source: Heritage Winnipeg files

Heritage Winnipeg alongside other advocates, including Rae Bridgeman, pushed to save the building – both from delisting and from subsequent demolition. Thanks to their efforts, and financial support from the City of Winnipeg, the Kelly House was saved and renovated. In 2010 the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation moved in and in 2011, the renovation project celebrated at Heritage Winnipeg’s Annual Preservation Awards.

Today, the Kelly House is home to Permission Click and stands as a lone reminder of the what the Exchange District was, once upon a time. More than this, though, the Kelly House continues to serve as a reminder of role reinvented heritage properties play on historic streetscapes.