On July 4, 2025, the City of Winnipeg’s Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development voted in support of increasing the budget for the conservation of the 1905 Carnegie Library at 380 William Avenue by $3.5 million. The city originally planned to spend $12.7 million conserving the library, but market conditions have driven the cost up to approximately $22.8 million. On July 17, 2025, city council approved of the committee’s recommendation and awarded the “City Archives Building Redevelopment” contract to Bockstael Construction. While it is unfortunate that delaying the conservation of the library for over a decade has caused the cost to raise very significantly, it is wonderful that the project is finally moving forward. Our community’s heritage is worth it!

The Carnegie Library opened as Winnipeg’s first public library in 1905, designed by Samuel Hooper in the Classical Revival style. Storing some of the city’s archives starting in 1977, by 1995 the building was no longer a library, adaptively reused as the City of Winnipeg Archives. It housed a wealth of our community’s irreplaceable historical materials going back to 1873, and valued at approximately $4.1 million. In 1984 the building was added to the City of Winnipeg’s List of Historical Resources, acknowledging its significance and protecting it from demolition or alteration of it character defining elements.

The City of Winnipeg started renovations at the Carnegie Library in 2013 to create a state-of-the-art facility to store the archival materials. Unfortunately, a major rainstorm occurred during the renovations, damaging the building and forcing the archives to be relocated. The resulting temporary hiatus of the renovation project has now lasted over a decade, with the empty building decaying and the archives languishing in an inadequate warehouse facility at 50 Myrtle Street. Hidden in the Pacific Industrial Park, the fragile material in the archives are without proper temperature or humidity control and have seen a steady decline in visitors.

Historians and archivists, frustrated with the carelessness shown towards Winnipeg’s valuable collection, have advocated along with Heritage Winnipeg for the Carnegie Library conservation project to resume and the archives returned to their home. Finally, in 2023, Mayor Scott Gillingham announced $12.7 million in the city’s capital budget for the project as part of the City of Winnipeg’s 150 anniversary celebrations. Since then, the rising cost of labour and materials, along with other market forces, have caused the price of the project to increase very substantially. The city is now exploring outside sources of funding for the project, including both private and public partnerships.

Featured image: The Carnegie Library at 380 William Avenue on September 8, 2023. Source: Heritage Winnipeg.

PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY:
January 17, 2025 – Update: Winnipeg Archives Project at 380 William Street
July 18, 2024 – Winnipeg Archives to Return to Carnegie Library
November 12, 2021 – City of Winnipeg Archives One Step Closer to Returning Home