The Castle of College Avenue (3): Rabbi Cantor and Beyond.

he Castle of College Avenue Series
Part 1: The Biollo Family
Part 2: The Biollos' Fall
Part 3: Rabbi Cantor and Beyond

May 18, 1943. Winnipeg Tribune

The next owners of note of 494 College were Rabbi David Cantor and his wife Ada who lived here from about 1920 until 1945.
the couple were married in May 1883 Niedzerich, Poland and came to Winnipeg in 1904. While living on College Avenue, the rabbi was  he was in charge of the Tefereth Israel Synagogue on Manitoba Avenue. The couple promoted their new homeland overseas and are credited with settling over 600 families of Polish Jews in Manitoba during that time. The Cantors also raised seven children at the home.

February 1923, Winnipeg Tribune

The Cantors rented out suites, especially from 1930 onward,  where up to five suits are listed in the Henderson Directory at any one time. 

When the Cantors moved out in 1945 they didn't go far. The couple lived next door at 500 College Avenue until the Rabbi's death !

In May 1953 the Cantors celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary and six months later Rabbi Cantor died. Ada died in 1955. A Free Press editorial at the time of the rabbi's death made mention of the biological and religious family that they fostered: "The circle spreads out across Canada, and as it extends it carries with it the growing influence, the ideals and the living faith of Rabbi David Cantor".

There were two long serving post-Cantor residents. One was city fireman James A. Quinn, with wife Ethel and daughter Maureen, who died in 1949 at the age of four.) They lived there from 1946 until 1961 when Mr. Quinn, by then a widower, died.

July 14, 1966, Winnipeg Free Press

I found a reference in a Free Press article that the Cantor family sold the house in 1957. The buyer was another long-serving tenant named Martin Dudzik. He was a Polish immigrant and self employed painter. Along with wife and son Stanley they lived there from 1946 until Dudzik's retirement in 1966. It was then sold off as a seven suite apartment.

July 1987, Winnipeg Free Press

In 1972 another for sale ad appears boasting a remodeled block with six suites. It was for sale again in 1987 and in 2015.

The Castle of College Avenue Series
Part 1: The Biollo Family
Part 2: The Biollos' Fall
Part 3: Rabbi Cantor and Beyond

Sources:

Most of the research for this series was done through newspaper clippings and Henderson Directories as there is very little reference made to the house in 'the usual' historic building places. I found three sources of information regarding the origins of The Castle, each of them different.

1. The city's historic buildings committee overview (now removed from the internet) refers to 494 as "David Cantor House" and lists John Arbuthnot as the original owner. It was, of course, the Biollos, though Arbuthnot likely got it in his court case against Olivio Biollo in 1909.

2. An online family history of the Biollos claims that the Biollo clan lived on Colony Street. This may be a typo or a mistaken reference as this home is definitely on College Avenue.

3. An April 18, 1970 Free Press story relays a Cantor family member's account of the history of the house. They said that it was built in 1912 by a man named Zoltan Wright who then sold it to Rabbi Cantor. The house, though, was built in 1906. I can find no newspaper reference in the Free Press or Tribune for a Zoltan Wright.