Historical Winnipeg discussion

[Wolf13]

Originally Posted by wardlow

Yep. So pointless. You can see it sitting alongside the completed 201 Portage building here:

Source: University of Winnipeg Archives

THAT right there is a crime. Even if it lacks the modern plaza's interaction with the street

Jokes aside, it should have never been torn down.

[BubberMiley]

Someone posted this awesome 1939 colour film of the King and Queen's visit to Winnipeg. Amazing how many buildings in it are still there.

https://youtu.be/Gdp4oGBc5Og

[Biff]

Man, that St Boniface Cathedral was magnificent. Has to be one of this city's greatest losses.



Great footage in that film.

[esquire]

That footage is amazing... incredible that it's in colour. Usually the past seems so distant when it's in B&W, but colour somehow makes it feel less so. The city is very recognizable, but at the same time it looks so different. Even more amazing that the reels were preserved so well for that long a period of time.

[drew]

It seems like in that film, Eatons and The Bay were trying to out do each other in terms of over the top royal decorations on their buildings...

Seeing downtown, especially around Portage and Main back then is always a bit of a kick in the pants for me. We really managed to destroy that part of downtown.

I wonder if the original Richardson building had been built as planned, if that corner would have remained more or less intact. It seems like the current Richardson building was the first domino that fell, gradually leading us to the wasteland that we have today.

[esquire]

Great pic from the days when there used to be a beer vendor across the street from the Legislature:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/9513047@N05/38492285085/

This is so wack!

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by esquire

Great pic from the days when there used to be a beer vendor across the street from the Legislature:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/9513047@N05/38492285085/

This is so wack!

That was right next to the stadium and Labatt's (Shea's) brewery.

[EndoftheBeginning]

1948 - you can see the vendor in this photo.



It was there in 1959 too, before the second building was constructed by GWL.

[esquire]

^ You know, looking at that first aerial above where you can see Osborne Stadium, I find it amazing that Winnipeg had such a rinky-dink stadium right into the mid-1950s. Short field, tiny capacity, wedged right in between a street and a building... it definitely had points for not being in a car-centric location, but everything else about must have been beyond redemption.

[EndoftheBeginning]

Can you imagine if that site had been retained by the football club, expanded and the new stadium built in that location rather than GWL taking it? Of course, there would be no parking, but pre-game/post-game in the Village area would be nuts. Would likely have impacted the strip on east Broadway as well.

[wardlow]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ You know, looking at that first aerial above where you can see Osborne Stadium, I find it amazing that Winnipeg had such a rinky-dink stadium right into the mid-1950s. Short field, tiny capacity, wedged right in between a street and a building... it definitely had points for not being in a car-centric location, but everything else about must have been beyond redemption.

Well, we all know suitably modern stadium or arena doesn't exactly pay for itself, and I don't think governments were in the business of helping to build them up until more recent decades.

That plus I don't think the Blue Bombers (and football generally) were as big of a thing in Winnipeg at the time. When the stadium at Polo Park opened in the early 1950s, they called it "The House that Jack built," in reference to Jack Jacobs, who was an immensely exciting QB that led the team to two Grey Cups in the four seasons he started for Winnipeg. I think in general, this was a time that football became much more popular across North America, and the Canadian game was becoming more exciting to watch -- more professional, more talented.

My late grandfather began his years of buying season tickets at the Osborne Stadium. I wish I would have asked him what the facility was like there.

Here's a question: when was Osborne Stadium built, and where did the Winnipeg Rugby Club/Blue Bombers have a home before it was built?

[esquire]

^ They could have probably fit the stadium that ended up going up at Polo Park on that site, but it would have meant taking up that entire parcel that Great West Life sits on now, and probably the site of the Granite too.

I'd like to think that it would have ended up like Lansdowne Park/TD Place where you have a stadium nicely integrated with the neighbourhood, but in all reality it would have probably turned out like Taylor Field in Regina where you'd have a stadium surrounded by large empty spaces and somewhat cut off from the rest of the area. Having the new stadium go up at Polo Park and having GWL take up residence in its elegant buildings on Osborne N. was probably for the best... although too bad about GWL taking out the entire eastern edge of West Broadway.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by wardlow

Here's a question: when was Osborne Stadium built, and where did the Winnipeg Rugby Club/Blue Bombers have a home before it was built?

I would take it with a grain of salt given the source, but according to Wikipedia it was built in 1932, with the Bombers taking up residence there in 1935. I couldn't find any indication of where they played for their first 5 years, but I'm pretty sure some of the histories written about the WFC would have that information.

Here's how it looked back in the day:

[LilZebra]

Originally Posted by esquire

Great pic from the days when there used to be a beer vendor across the street from the Legislature:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/9513047@N05/38492285085/

This is so wack!

The Labatt's beer store was there well into the 1970s and was torn down only because of the 1979-era GWL building being constructed.

Part of my childhood passing by in our familiy car seeing the huge (for me) Labatt's sign

[Jeff]

looking at those aerials makes me so mad with what GWL did and them trying to jam a suburban-type HQ into a very urban location. makes me shake my head to see GWL's property division responsible for so many amazing urban developments in other cities and then see their WPG home base.

[esquire]

^ I do like the way GWL's campus frames the western edge of downtown around there, but yes, it's easy to imagine a company that big ($10B revenue, which would put it in the top 50 companies in Canada if it wasn't part of Power) occupying a significant office tower in downtown Winnipeg. I suppose it was a sign of the times... had it been built 10 years later, it's easy to imagine it going up by Polo Park where MTS and Manitoba Health had built architecturally impressive new head offices of their own.

I will say the original GWL building is something else... it has immaculately preserved 1950s style. Also, I think that if GWL ever needed more space and added a third building with either a parkade or underground parking, it would change the feeling around there immensely.

[drew]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ I do like the way GWL's campus frames the western edge of downtown around there, but yes, it's easy to imagine a company that big ($10B revenue, which would put it in the top 50 companies in Canada if it wasn't part of Power) occupying a significant office tower in downtown Winnipeg. I suppose it was a sign of the times... had it been built 10 years later, it's easy to imagine it going up by Polo Park where MTS and Manitoba Health had built architecturally impressive new head offices of their own.

I will say the original GWL building is something else... it has immaculately preserved 1950s style. Also, I think that if GWL ever needed more space and added a third building with either a parkade or underground parking, it would change the feeling around there immensely.

Yeah, the damage GWL did is done now, and can't get any worse. Any future additions will simply go on top of their existing giant surface lots. But, I can't see them requiring more space anytime soon.

But really, the buildings they do have are great from the street. The only shitty part is the small neighbourhood they bulldozed for parking.

[BigG]

Here's a link to a collection of old photos from Winnipeg. Pictures of buildings, churches, businesses, residences and streets. From the John Steel Collection.

http://www.warrenpress.net/WinnipegT...ollection.html

We've lost a lot of beautiful buildings.

[balletomane]

Originally Posted by Biff

Man, that St Boniface Cathedral was magnificent. Has to be one of this city's greatest losses.



Great footage in that film.

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.

[balletomane]

Originally Posted by BubberMiley

Someone posted this awesome 1939 colour film of the King and Queen's visit to Winnipeg. Amazing how many buildings in it are still there.

https://youtu.be/Gdp4oGBc5Og

It's amazing how familiar the city looks so many decades ago, minus the fact that downtown has lost some great pieces of architecture between now and then, I find the greatest difference between photos of old Winnipeg and today is the business and activity on the streets back then.