Historical Winnipeg discussion

[balletomane]

I'd posted this in another thread, but maybe its better here,

I was reading through some of the City Planning Commission documents from Winnipeg's boom era (the commission that was predicting a city of several million today) and it was in many ways a very forward thinking document. Here are what I found to be some interesting excerpts,

"...many new highways must be planned by extending, straightening and in some cases widening existing streets and by building bridges or subways..."

"...the idea of boulevards around the City should be encouraged and advantage taken of the river banks in the neighborhood of the City to establish picturesque driveways..."

"The encouragement of rapid transportation to the suburbs, to relieve and prevent the formation of congested districts and encourage any tendency of the working class to move into out-lying districts."

"The formation of garden suburbs."

"...the City should make it clear that all railways will only be allowed to enter at certain points."

"The building of a main boulevard around the City connecting the outside park system."

"...a plan should endeavour to arrange for the location of a factory district or groups of factory districts."

"...this joint Committee recommends a trans-city highway along the following route, Pembina, Osborne, Colony, Balmoral, Isabel and Salter..."

"The scheme...calls for the widening of Vaughan Street by extending the West line 88 feet, thus creating a Mall or Plaza 134 feet wide, connecting the Provincial group of buildings dominated by the dome of the Capital Building, centered on the Mall to the south, with the City Hall to the North, also centered on the axis of the Mall facing the Capital. The Plaza furnishes an opportunity in the future for the location of buildings which will be required from time to time in the City's development, such as a Public Library, Museum, Art Gallery, Post Office, Auditorium and other buildings of a similar nature..."

"...the establishment of a City Hall Park, bounded by the Trans-City Highway on the west, and the City Hall centered on the axis of the Mall. The City Hall Park should include all the property in the triangular space between Kennedy, Balmoral and Ellice..."

"...against the erection of a new City Hall on the present site, believing that the site is altogether un-suitable for a building such as should represent the future status of Winnipeg..."

"...the present City Hall and Market Site be transformed into a Public Square, similar to St. James' Place, Montreal."

"...a subway under the C.P.R. tracks at Princess Street..."

"Legislation should be secured that would enable the City to place restrictions on the class of buildings to be erected on focal points, so that our opportunities of securing the erection of commanding structures at such points would not be lost in the future as they have been in the past."

"In the laying out of new streets, changes in direction or alignment should be made to break the dreary monotony of an endless vista."

"...buildings in the business districts should be made to conform to a common standard of height, and, in any case, it is recommended that the height of buildings be rigidly regulated by legislation to one and a half times the width of the streets on which they face..."

"...the City must without delay have courage to look into the future and must have in mind Winnipeg as one of the world's largest cities."

[esquire]

Originally Posted by balletomane

Agreed. That had to have been one of the greatest cathedrals in the country. Whenever I walk up to the ruins I always try to imagine the original cathedral in its place.

I'd say it was definitely among the more impressive churches in Western Canada, but Quebec is so loaded with great churches that something like the St. Boniface Basilica wouldn't have really stood out from the pack there. There is a churches thread in the Canada subforum that's worth a look... there are some relatively unknown (in English Canada, at least) churches in Quebec that are just spectacular.

[1ajs]

winnipeg olympic rink church and charles
http://icehockey.wikia.com/wiki/Olympic_Rink

[trueviking]

interesting map of river heights in 1929.

Grosvenor was called Haskins, Corydon was called Jackson and Fleet was called Lennon.

Grant ended at Cambridge.

[Roger Strong]

Originally Posted by trueviking

Grosvenor was called Haskins, Corydon was called Jackson and Fleet was called Lennon.

Note that those were originally different streets that didn't quite connect with Grosvenor, Corydon and Fleet, which do exist on the map.

From what I've seen on other old Winnipeg maps, I suspect map shows what was planned at the time, and the modern layout and naming was in place before the plans were made reality.

[wardlow]

Academy Road was named Godfrey Avenue originally. The name change happened when St. Mary's Academy moved to Crescentwood in the early 1900s, but Godfrey/Academy west of Cambridge wasn't renamed until the 1910s, which I think was around the time the Academy streetcar was built.

The first business on Academy Rd. was a two-storey (AGHHH NIMBY PANIC) building with a grocery store at the SE corner of Borebank and Academy, which opened around 1918 or so. The building's still there. The main commercial area on Academy (around where the Uptown Theatre building is now) started cropping in the early 1920s.

This map is really cool, but its street layout plays a trick on the mind by giving the impression all of River Heights was built up, when in fact there was hardly any development south of Corydon (Jackson) by 1929. I imagine many of the streets south of there would have existed on paper only.

[EndoftheBeginning]

Pulled a few photos of Broadway from the historical report to list the Manitoba Club (194 Broadway). Full document is in the agenda for the historical building committee meeting today.
http://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/dmis/View...onId=&InitUrl=

Of course, MC is against the designation.

Anyway, just like the look of that wide boulevard with the streetcars in the middle.









And one of Fort Garry Hotel under construction.

[esquire]

^ Not much that we can do about the streetcars, but the botching of Broadway and Main with a vacant lot on one side of Broadway and a parking lot on the other side is cringe-worthy.

[drew]

One of those empty lots was the result of a fire. Coinciding I believe at the same time Wawanesa was under construction...so it worked out nicely for their parking needs.

The other side is now a provincial park.

[peg]

Does anyone know when the rail line on grant avenue got removed?

[Roger Strong]

I've often though about creating a map of Winnipeg's former railways.

The one running down Goulet, the one running down Provencher to the river (removed when the first Provencher bridge opened), the line running south into the Exchange district, etc. etc. etc. There's a lot of them.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Roger Strong

I've often though about creating a map of Winnipeg's former railways.

The one running down Goulet, the one running down Provencher to the river (removed when the first Provencher bridge opened), the line running south into the Exchange district, etc. etc. etc. There's a lot of them.

A lot of city maps would have had that information displayed... I have a couple of Winnipeg maps from the 60s and 70s that show the various rail lines through the city.

An awful lot of industrial spurs through downtown and the Polo Park area were removed in the 80s and 90s... it used to be that some streets like St. James had a railway crossing every few hundred metres.

[peg]

Manitoba's forgotten rail lines are fascinating, so many just gone, I came across this map, it shows the ones in Winnipeg too

https://www.google.ca/maps/@53.54482..._Qbz0QHGmJ5GUw

[MG922]

Originally Posted by peg

Manitoba's forgotten rail lines are fascinating, so many just gone, I came across this map, it shows the ones in Winnipeg too

https://www.google.ca/maps/@53.54482..._Qbz0QHGmJ5GUw

Thanks for that link, that is really cool!! I knew there was lots of old rail lines in rural MB, but I've never seen such a comprehensive map. It's pretty impressive how accurate it is too, you can still see fields/roads/streets in google earth that are the way they are because of the old lines

[Roger Strong]

Originally Posted by peg

Manitoba's forgotten rail lines are fascinating, so many just gone, I came across this map, it shows the ones in Winnipeg too

https://www.google.ca/maps/@53.54482..._Qbz0QHGmJ5GUw

Thanks for this!

It's missing a lot within Winnipeg though.

[esquire]

That is an impressive map. When you deselect the active lines you can see all the lines that were lost... it's quite something. I guess we're down only a tiny handful of branch lines left in Manitoba.

[LilZebra]

Originally Posted by peg

Does anyone know when the rail line on grant avenue got removed?

Sometime in the mid-1950s, possibly 1955.

I had an article from the Freep or Trib of the time, saying that apartments and a mall were going to be constructed over the next few years.

No mention of the settlement southwards.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by LilZebra

Sometime in the mid-1950s, possibly 1955.

I had an article from the Freep or Trib of the time, saying that apartments and a mall were going to be constructed over the next few years.

No mention of the settlement southwards.

The rail line removal is probably what finally prompted the bulldozing of Rooster Town that eventually became Grant Park Mall.

[joshlemer]

Originally Posted by balletomane

Agreed. That had to have been one of the greatest cathedrals in the country. Whenever I walk up to the ruins I always try to imagine the original cathedral in its place.

I wonder if anyone will ever embark on a restoration of the church?

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by joshlemer

I wonder if anyone will ever embark on a restoration of the church?

they built a new one behind it