Apologies for any formatting wonkiness of late . Blogspot has 'improved' their post-making system but it does not work well for the type of posts I like to do. I spend as much time cleaning up formatting issues than I do writing the posts ! I also have to go back to a small font.
Farewell to a strip of four 1890 era houses along Sherbook Street:
370-372 Sherbrook St.(1893) 1,974 sq. ft. (for 2004 photo, pdf)
378 Sherbrook St. (1895) 1,356 sq. ft. (for 2004 photo, pdf)
382 Sherbrook St (1895) 1,440 sq. ft. (for 2004 photo, pdf)
382 Sherbrook St (1895) 1,440 sq. ft. (for 2004 photo, pdf)
386 Sherbrook St (1895) 1,542 sq. ft.
circa 2007
In the late 90s and early 00s I spent a lot of time across the street at the Sherbrook Pool and I would often admire the homes and the neat wrought iron fence that surrounded a couple of them. By that point, though, they were rooming houses in disrepair. It was some point in the mid 00s that I noticed that they were boarded, and not the 'waiting to receive TLC' type of boarded up. In 2007 I took my first round of snaps thinking that they would be gone one day soon.
The rumour at the time, and despite a search through the newspaper archives and city website, I can't confirm it, was that Lion's Housing bought them along with former Firehall No. 5 for future expansion (likely of their parking area). Let me know if you can add anything !
The Firehall is a municipally heritage site so it cannot be torn down (yet).
The Firehall is a municipally heritage site so it cannot be torn down (yet).
Of the four homes, the one I like the best is 370 /372 with it's interesting brickwork and tree-lined yard. Built in 1893 and at nearly 2,000 sq ft, it is the oldest and largest of the four. The city's Historical Buildings Committee refers to it as August Mauer house for the contractor who lived there from 1910 - 1935.
Today it is a duplex but I am not sure if it was built that way. Ads offering rooms for rent at the address don't start until around 1906 and even in the 1940s it is referred to as a house not a duplex.
Morning Telegram Oct 3 1906
Today it is a duplex but I am not sure if it was built that way. Ads offering rooms for rent at the address don't start until around 1906 and even in the 1940s it is referred to as a house not a duplex.
May 31 1941, Winnipeg Tribune
Sept. 11 1964 Winnipeg Free Press
The house was sold at least twice after Mauer lived there. Within a couple of decades the house went from being a "fully modern 8 room brick house" to a revenue producing rooming house.
378 Sherbrook ca. 2004 (source)
July 25, 1895 Manitoba Free Press
The other houses were built in 1895, the same year that they graded, added lights and began waterworks on Mulligan Avenue. The name change to Sherbrooke Street was made in 1897 and Sherbrook, sans e, came about in the 19-teens.
Sherbrook looking north from Portage
Fire Hall No.5 at top, ca. unknown (source)
As for the neighbourhood around them, number 370 has always been the first residential house north of Portage on that side of Sherbrook. A city health and welfare office fronting onto Portage took up the space up to the fire hall.
Firehall No. 5 was built in 1904 and closed in 1919, according to the Winnipeg Fire Museum. IT spent time as a city hydro building. The last tenant, from 1963 to around 2005, was as an auto glass repair shop. It was sold by the city in 2007 (I can't find a record of to whom it was sold).
The Sherbrook Pool is the new kid on the block, built in 1930 !
5 comments:
The 'rumour' re the purchaser is correct. Although the end use was not a parking lot. The firehall was being assessed for structural stability and the whole thing is likely with an architect now in planning stages for future development.
Thanks for that !
Thanks for this post. I often walk my dog by those houses on the way to the Sherbrook Animal Hospital. I've always really liked them and it is so interesting to find out the history. Shame that they've fallen on hard times.
Too bad they're gone (even though they likely couldn't be repaired). 370/372 Sherbrook is well-known in my family, because my grandparents rented the house from about 1960 to early 1964 when they moved to Fort Garry.
Back then, my Mom tells me that the house was NOT a duplex but was very large and was at 370 Sherbrook. To make ends meet, my grandmother rented empty rooms and they would have had four or five boarders...plus a family of five...at any given time. And there was only ONE bathroom.
Over the years, driving past the house, it was a game to see who could see the house first. Over the last few years, the house was eventually boarded up and I hoped that someone enterprising would buy it and fix it up. Unfortunately, the last time I tried to be the first to say "I see it!"....there was nothing left to see!
Thanks, Dustin.
Lol - just one bathroom ! Nowadays you probably couldn't sell a home for a family of four without at least 2.5 bathrooms !
I am sure they would have been quite impressive in their day. Even boarded up you can tell a couple of them were not your run of the mill places !
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