Portage and Main. 11:35 a.m.

A little impromptu street hockey and big-screen television watching over the lunch hour !

Images from Doors Open - Day 2 !

I was light on the Doors Open today but I did make it to a couple of places. (Here's day 1)

First was Balmoral Hall School where Aikins House (Aikins donated it to create a girls school) and the original school gym were on display.

I lived half a block from the gates of the place for ten years and all I ever got were condescending looks from parents lined up down Westminster in their Lexi and BMWs as they waited to pick their kids up so it was finally nice to get to see beyond the padlocks.

The house has been completely restored. They also have an archives and archivist located in one of the rooms should you ever need to do research.

Other places included the Red Road Lodge (former Occidental Hotel). What a neat, eclectic place. All sorts of work areas from restoring antique light fixtures to woodworking to a bike rebuilding shop.

From there it was around the corner to visit The Edge (no, not U2's Edge).

A noon doors open site was the Maryland Building of the Misericordia Hospital which is being readied for demolition.

And to end with another cute animal shot. A bunny at Balmoral Hall !

Images from Doors Open 2011 - Day 1 !

A few sights from day one of Doors Open 2011 ! (Here's Day 2)

Yes, an impromptu brass band marching down Burnell Street ?! Brass band today, U2 tomorrow. Lots of open air music in the West End this weekend !

Sticking with the West End, the former Midland Knitwear / National Upholstery building at 618 Arlington was on show. It's being converted into artists studios ! The first floor is already done.

What a great space ! (I have a building history ready to roll - I will post it next week)

The Granite Curling Club was on display including their plans for the redevelopment of their second floor dining / club area.

I also noticed this - the huge sign from the old Grain Exchange Curling Club on Fort Street has been moved over to The Granite. The Grain X, of course, is to be demolished for the Upper Fort Garry project.

Just south of The Granite there is a little park (Mostyn Park) where you can find shards from Winnipeg's former Dominion Post Office that sat at Main near Garry until about 1960 (238 Portage replaced it).

Ralph Connor House was just open for Saturday but The Gates is a great place to wander around regardless of the occasion.

And because you should always include a cute animal pic, here's a trio of dogs from Banning Street !

Click here for Day 2 !

Smoking ban - I guess that includes Cigarette Week ?!

Effective immediately, smoking near sports fields where children are playing is against the law.

Even a couple of decades ago, it would have been hard to fathom just how far-ranging public smoking bans would become. I recall smoking at university, able to butt out on the ashtray located outside the classroom door. Just a few years earlier, the back four rows of classes were reserved for smokers !

When I was a teenager I volunteered at the HSC and smoking was allowed patient lounges and, in cases where patients were bedridden at "The Rehab" (Rehabilitation and Respiratory Hospital), INSIDE their hospital rooms !

July 13, 1944, Winnipeg Free Press

I came across an odd local event from the summer of 1944 called Cigarette Week !

It was part of the wartime effort to raise money for 'smokes for the boys' who were fighting or imprisoned overseas. Though 1944 was likely the biggest campaign seen in Winnipeg, cigarette drives for were not a new thing in the city.

Eaton's Ad 1944

The St. James Legion held tag days and other fundraisers as early as 1941. Eaton's Winnipeg store collected pennies at their tills, (a program which was soon rolled out across the country.) The Kinniciniks Chapter of the Order of Victory Boosters was created in 1941 to raise funds for cigarettes.

Winnipeg Tribune, July 1942 (source)

Internationally, the Overseas League Tobacco Fund, (part of the Royal Overseas League which still exists today), began as a World War I venture to send manufactured cigarettes and tobacco to troops serving in far flung reaches of the Commonwealth.

That first campaign ran from 1914 to 1918 and Canada was the leading contributor with an astonishing £54,000 in donations. That money, pooled with other countries, was enough to purchase 324,860,000 cigarettes and 4.75 million pouches of tobacco. (The Canadian Expeditionary Forces received 59,500,000 smokes and 1,026,000 packets of tobacco from that war chest.)

In World War II the Overseas League were back at it with Canada, again, a leading contributor. At the national level the fund sent 150 million cigarettes overseas by June 1944. The national chair, E. James Bennett, said in a press wire story that “Every Canadian who landed in France with the invading armies was given 100 cigarettes which were largely supplied by our fund.”

Card Enclosure (Source)

Sending cigarettes was seen as one's patriotic duty and a way to reach out to soldiers.

When you gave your donation you were asked to personalize a 'best wishes' card. The completed cards were inserted into the individual packages before being distributed. Grateful troops often wrote back from the front or their hospital beds.

You just wouldn't see a headline like this today !
Jan 11, 1943 Winnipeg Tribune

In 1944 the Kinniciniks, who surely had the largest ongoing local cigarette drive, and the Canadian Chapter of the Overseas League teamed up for Cigarette Week in Winnipeg on July 10 - 15, 1944.

Collection booths were set up in a number of prominent locations across the city, including the Bay Department Store, Peppers Grill at Portage and Main and Gray's Drug Store at Main and Higgins.

The chair of the event was volunteer extraordinaire Mrs. Agnes Drummond. Aside from heading up the Kinniciniks, she was a driving force for decades on the boards of numerous  charitable and church groups.

Cigarette Week 1944 raised nearly $5,000 which is a lot of smokes, considering that a quarter bought four packs ! That didn't end the cigarette drives for 1944, (as Mrs. Drummond reminded people "Every week is a cigarette week".) The two groups teamed up again at Christmas and other special occasions.

Mmm...Turf !
July 4, 1940, Winnipeg Tribune

The end of the world ? Again ?

Sometime later today the end of the world could be upon us, though for many Canadians it started May 8 when the Tories got their majority government ;)

It's not the end-end, things won't truly melt down until October 21st. Still, it would set off an awkward "lame-duck earth'' period lasting almost as long as an NHL playoff season.

May 4, 1907 (source)

It's not the first time the "End of the World" has been predicted. Looking back in local newspapers American predictions of the Apocalypse have had a lot of play. The earliest reference I could find was in the Daily Nor'Wester in 1895 predicting that the dominoes would begin falling January 1, 1895 with the final one on April 1, 1901. How's THAT for drawn out !

The Manitoba Free Press reported on April 1, 1896:

This is the day set for the end of the world, by the Adventists. Up to the hour of going to press, there are not any serious indications of the prophesied dissolution of Mother Earth. But we felt serious all day about it.

The Brandon Sun had front page stories about endings in 1907 (see above) and in 1910.

April 6, 1918, Winnipeg Free Press

Of course there were times when it may have seemed that the world was coming to an end. Wartime was brought doomsday-sayers out of the woodwork and into the newspapers, pulpits and theatre halls, as did The Depression.

On August 1, 1934 a somewhat exasperated "Tempora" from Neepawa noted in a letter to the Free Press editor:

Editor,—Is it not a fact that, extending over many years now, we see again and again prophecies that the end of the world, etc. will arrive shortly? Did Christ Himself not tell us that even He did not know; only the Father knew ?

The McColloughs, Jan 26, 1952, Winnipeg Free Press

Of course, most people and media make light of these claims but they can have serious consequences such as in Winnipeg in January 1952.

Gavin and Lillian McCullough moved to the 100 block of Carman Street, Elmwood around 1940. They were a typical, quiet family, liked by their neighbours. Gavin was an accountant, Lillian raised their teenage son and was involved in numerous activities at the local United Church. In 1945 the couple adopted a baby daughter named Martha Louise.

In the late 1940s the couple began dabbling in more extreme religions. Neighbours said they were still quiet but if the topic of religion came up "...she (Mrs. McCullough) could talk the hind leg off a donkey." Lillian became increasingly vocal about her beliefs, including one that the end of the world was coming very soon.

December 1951, Winnipeg Free Press

The McCullough's suddenly dropped out of the United Church and became devout followers of evangelist and faith healer A.C. Valdez Jr.. He was a preacher from the San Fransisco area, son of a well known urban missionary and preacher named Adolpho C. Valdez.

Valdez Jr. came to Winnipeg at least once before 1951, a guest of Calvary Temple. In 1951 - 52 he went 'big time' with a North America wide preaching and faith healing tour that packed in thousands of people a night from Los Angeles to Calgary. One of his stops was Winnipeg and his devout followers the McCulloughs would be there.

There wasn't local media coverage of his visit but a CP story from February 26, 1952 while in Toronto quotes him as preaching:

"God will shake the whole countryside soon. He is going, to make fire come down from heaven. Dead people are going to rise. You-will see things that will almost make your hair stand on end."

January 23, 1952 was the last time neighbours spoke to Mrs. McCullough. She was shopping along Kelvin Road (now Henderson Highway) and was noticeable for her her lack of eye glasses and a bad cold. When asked about either she replied that the end was coming and wouldn't need glasses and needn't bother staying in bed and treating a cold.

Two days later neighbours called the police when they saw the couple 'acting strangely' on their front lawn at noon dressed in their bed clothes. When police arrived they escorted the couple back inside in and made a horrific discovery.

Martha Louise McCollough, Jan 26, 1952, Winnipeg Free Press

Seven year-old Martha had been bludgeoned to death with a medicine bottle then strangled. The McCulloughs told police that she was murdered during an all-night prayer session while trying to 'beat the devil' out of her in preparation for the end of the world the next day. (Their 20 year old son, it appears, was not home).

Gavin McCullough was put on trial for murder and on May 21, 1952 a jury took only 16 minutes to return an "...acquittal due to insanity at the time of the act." (WFP May 22, 1952).

Lillian was initially declared too insane to stand trial and was sent to the Selkirk Asylum then to the psych ward at General Hospital. After almost five months recuperating she, too, had her day in court and was acquitted on the grounds of insanity. She was sent back to Selkirk for an indefinite period.

Valdez at Winnipeg Auditorium (source)

As for Valdez Jr., he was implicated in the case for fueling the impressionable and unstable McCulloughs. He strongly denied ever having directly communicated with the couple and said that he wasn't at fault if two of his followers "jumped off the deep end." Besides, the McCulloughs misconstrued his prophecy about the coming of Christ. It did not mean the 'end of the world' but, as scripture said, signaled the coming of 1,000 years of peace.

The media coverage dogged him as he was starting a two week long series of shows in Toronto. The stay ended up losing money due to smaller than expected crowds and donations. In December 1952 more bad press for Valdez when an Oklahoma teenager stopped taking her insulin after attending a really claiming that God would heal her. She died shortly after.

After that Valdez seems to disappear (even searching U.S. evangelical sites turns up nothing beyond 1953). This blogger, however, says that he was active until the early 1970s.

May 20, 1952, Winnipeg Free Press

What happened to the McCulloughs ? Gavin McCullough was released back into the community on October 20, 1955. I cannot find any further mention of him.

The last mention of Mrs McCullough was in a September 1961 Free Press story on another topic but mentioned in passing that she was still in Selkirk Hospital. I found, though, in May 1961 a 'Mrs. Gavin McCullough' of Colony Street was a Jumble winner ! Hmmm...

There is a sad aside to this story. In 1961 another shocking murder took place on Carmen Avenue - in the house right next door to the former McCullough house. A man murdered his wife with a knife then killed himself.

Let's hope that the world doesn't end and that even the followers of this U.S. preacher don't take him too seriously, either.

Now get back to your Victoria Day weekend barbeques - but eat fast, just in case !

A history of 646 Logan Avenue at Sherbrook

Top: ca. 1920s (source). Bottom: 2010

It's a handsome little building at the corner of Sherbrook and Logan that I've passed hundreds of times. I thought I would look into its past and found quite a story !

May 26, 1922, Manitoba Free Press

The neighborhood around Nena (then Sherbrooke, now Sherbrook) and Logan is similar to what you see today. Some warehouses and manufacturing to the north toward the railway tracks, mostly residential to the south.

At the intersection itself, in 1903 a commercial development appeared with Colcleugh & Co Drugstore (by the 1920s known as Roberts Drugs) and a corner store called Dominic's (owner Dominic Caliguri). In May 1910 the Union Bank of Canada called for tenders for a $10,000 brick and stone building at the south east corner.

In the 1920s the Union merged with the Royal Bank of Canada. Shortly after the building was rechristened, it was the scene of a daring and deadly daylight robbery.

Wilfred Bonnin, aka William Davis, was a career criminal born in Montreal staying at the McLaren Hotel. On the morning of Friday, May 28, 1926 he hailed the taxi cab of Fred Shatford and made his way to the Logan and Sherbrook branch of the Royal Bank. Once inside he went to the teller window and pulled a .32 calibre Smith and Wesson.

Accounts of the robbery vary by witness and newspaper but the common points is that in the time it took for the teller to hand over $1,500 or so from his wicket, Bonnin turned toward the collections cage and shot 19 year old William Garvie. It happened so fast that Garvie did not have a chance to react and the bullet killed him instantly.

Garvie, 19, was from Holland, Manitoba and had just graduated high school there before taking a job with the Royal Bank in the fall of 1925. The youngest of 6 children, he is buried at Holland's Brookdale Cemetery.

Bonnin fled into the waiting taxi and ordered Shatford to "Step on her, kid, if you don't want to die." Shatford, a 26 year old returned veteran, flatly refused. Bonnin jumped out the fired a stray shot at the vehicle. Next, Bonnin tried to commandeer the truck of John Campbell. Campbell testified that Bonnin pointed the gun at his head at close range and pulled the trigger twice but the gun did not fire. Bonnin fled on foot.

May 29, 1926, Winnipeg Free Press

Over the noon hour the ensuing manhunt caught up with Bonnin holed-up in a house at 681 Logan, (now demolished.) A gunfight took place and a couple of people, including the Chief Detective, was injured. It took six police bullets to bring Bonnin down.

The following day city council passed a motion praising the arresting officers and cabbie Shatford and that "The sympathy of all citizens goes forth to the parents of Maurice Garvie, who without any opportunity for defense, was shot dead." (WFP June 1, 1926).

Bonnin was rushed to St. Boniface Hospital and recovered well enough to stand trial.

He was just 24 years old but in and out of trouble with the law from the time he was 13. His last stint was in a U.S. prison where he became addicted to heroin. After is release he travelled around Canada for a while before settling in Winnipeg.

Heroin was in short supply in the city so he switched to morphine. He claimed that it was this new addiction that caused him to go for days in a blur and said that he couldn't even remember the events of the day in question. At the time of his arrest he told officers "The bank clerk was killed because he didn't put up his hands. It was a case of a life for a life and while I am sorry I killed him, he should have known I meant business and did what I told him."

On November 11, 1926 Bonnin was sentenced to hang at the Vaughan Street Jail. Arthur Ellis, Dominion Hangman, performed the task at 7:35 a.m. on January 25, 1927. Bonnin is interred in St. Mary's cemetery.

ca. 1970s (source)

In 1939 the bank closed and 646 Logan spent the next three decades as a restaurant / bakery.

1952 classified ad, Winnipeg Free Press

The first post-bank owner was Mr. W. Zanke who converted the old bank vault into a bakery oven.

Between 1946 - 51 it was Western Bakery and Lunch Bar. From 1952 to 1960 Johnny's Lunch Bar. In 1961 it became Joyce's Grill.

Joyce's was owned by the Toholke family who also lived upstairs. Leonard had worked for City Dray for 22 years, wife Helen raised the children; Joyce (b. 1949), for whom the place was named, and son Terry, (b. 1952).

Terry was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1968 just blocks from home. He was 16.

Joyce grew up working in the diner and graduated from Tec Voc in 1967. She married, moved to East Kildonan and began a 32-year career at the Health Sciences Centre.

Joyce, December 27, 2001, Winnipeg Free Press

Joyce's Grill closed in February 1971 after Leonard died while visiting his home town of Beausejour. He was 54. Helen moved out and the building was sold. (Helen died in June 1974 at the age of 50. Joyce also died at an early age, 52, on December 22, 2001.)

After Joyce's Grill, a Mr. Wong took it over. The upstairs was leased out as living quarters and the downstairs remained a restaurant. In 1993 when there was the short-lived Sher-Log Restaurant.

For a number of years Kali Shiva AIDS services has owned the building. They operate Sunshine House, a drop-in resource centre for people living with HIV and those at risk of contracting it. It also runs programming for HIV positive women.