For part three of my West End Street Oddities series, I cross Portage Avenue into Wolseley and head down to the south end of Dominion Street at the Assiniboine River where you will find a barricade across the street. Beyond it are three houses at street level on the east side, (numbers 445, 443, and 441) and where the roadway should be is a sharp drop down to a greenspace that requires stairs to access.
At first, I thought this might be a remnant of some old civic infrastructure project. Perhaps the foundation of a pedestrian bridge across the river that never materialized or the site of a long-gone storm sewer surge tank that regulated water flow into the river.
It turns out that this is the work of Mother Nature.
The 1959 Slump
June 10, 1959, Winnipeg Free Press
The riverbank at the foot of Dominion Street was eroding through the 1950s. In 1959, a major slump badly damaged the end of the street and the two properties nearest the river.
The house at 443 Dominion, second from the end, had most of its front yard torn away exposing the underground sewer and water pipes that led to it. Things were worse at number 441 which lost almost its entire front and side yard and its connecting pipes were ruptured.
The city did some emergency repairs. The exposed and damaged sewer pipes were patched and a hose was run from the nearest fire hydrant to provide number 441 with water. A wooden trestle was run between the two properties to give number 441 access to the sidewalk that ran to Wolseley Avenue.
The condition of the street and the debate over the fate of the properties made the news in June 1959.
September 18, 1959, Winnipeg Free Press
Some city councillors argued that the city had a moral responsibility and for weeks the city's Public Works committee discussed a range of remediations from rebuilding the lost land to expropriating and tearing down the most impacted properties.
Things came to a head in September 1959 when an expropriation notice was prepared for 441 Dominion, though it didn't make it to a City Council meeting for final approval.
Another hearing about the properties was held by the committee on September 23, 1959 where the lawyer representing the property owner at number 441 threatened to sue the city if it didn't provide sewer and water to the property. That drew the ire of some committee members and he apologised for his comments.
Another delegation was Mrs. Ann Tucker of 443 Dominion who asked if she could be allowed new underground sewer and water pipes connected to her house via her neighbour's front yard at her own expense. The committee approved her request.
July 24, 1984, Winnipeg Free Press
The Dominion Street issue disappeared from newspaper coverage after that September meeting and the details of how the issues were resolved is not clear.
The two properties still stand, so they very likely got their new sewer and water connections through the front lawn of number 445. The street was closed off with a barricade between number 447 and 445 Dominion, and a stairway was built to lead down to the greenspace. The city also built a wooden retaining wall near the properties to prevent further bank slippage.
The story next appeared in the news in July 1984 after the city's Works and Operations department announced that it would fund a new engineering study of the area as some had claimed there was continued slippage and signs that the 1959 retaining wall was beginning to disintegrate.
The owner of number 441 appeared before the Works and Operations committee and told them that in the late 1960s, he had to install a new concrete foundation under his house as the stone foundation was being pulled apart. He thought the the city should compensate him for the work he had done.
There was no news coverage about the findings of the engineering report but the city's Board of Commissioners did prepare a report for City Council in November that stated there were no signs of new slippage on the land when historical aerial photographs were compared to modern ones. The report concluded that the city should stick to its long-standing policy and "assume no liability for bank stability problems on privately owned lands."
Two of the property owners again threatened possible legal action for damages in December 1959 and after that, the issue disappeared from newspapers.
The 1913 Street Extension
February 16, 1899, Brandon Sun
Why did such a major slump happen only at the end of Dominion Street and not at neighbouring streets? I went back in newspaper archives to the time the street was created to find an answer.
Dominion Street from Portage Avenue to the Assiniboine River ran adjacent to Happyland amusement park and was once home to the huge greenhouses and growing fields of Jubilee Nursery. The company was created in the late 1890s by Robert Alston who sold the company, but not the land, to Ueberrhein and Smith in 1904.
July 7, 1906, Winnipeg Tribune
In the summer of 1906, Alston began marketing fifty-foot lots in "Caragana Place" which comprised of a "Dominion Street" with a back lane on either side.
This was a land speculation scheme as a formal roadway would not have existed this early and city utilities such as sewer, water and electricity were not in place. Lots would have been sold to speculators and builders to hold onto until they were ready to develop. At that time, they could flip the lots or build houses on them.
Many of the homes on Dominion Street were built between 1909 (nearer Portage Avenue) and 1912 (nearer Wolseley Avenue).
(right click, view image in new tab for larger version)
The section of Dominion Street between Wolseley Avenue and the Assiniboine River was not in the original plans for Caragana Place nor was it on the original city survey. Instead, it was intended to have several houses facing Wolseley that backed onto the river, just like the rest of the neighbourhood to the west of it.
It wasn't until a company called the West End Realty and Building Co. bought the land and in 1913 convinced the city to let it extend Dominion Street to the river.
In the long classified ad above, the company noted that it had permits to build houses on 26 lots on Dominion Street that year and that "In removing the earth from the excavation of the foundation of these houses we are able to fill a large portion of the bank (at the end of Dominion Street), giving it an additional 30 feet which is being parked. This will be held securely and the river bank protected from future erosion by means of a retaining wall which is now being built."
It goes on to say that the park would be gifted to the city.
May 31, 1913, Winnipeg Free Press
A related Winnipeg Free Press story on May 31, 1913, noted that the land was already being cleared and graded to make way for the street extension and that piledriving had begun for the retaining wall at the river's edge.
The park at the end of the street was expected to have benches, lights, and a metal staircase down to the water's edge at the developer's expense and would be gifted to the city once the work was done. In exchange, the city agreed to cover the cost of running sewer and water to the extension.
The story concluded that once completed, "... Dominion Street (will be) one of the finest residential streets in the city and one of the few streets with direct access to the river, while it will be the only street on which provision has been made for the public in this manner."
The houses were constructed and the park was completed. It is likely this extension failed and helped bring about the slump of 1959.
The Greenspace
According to the stories, by the early 1970s there wasn’t much of a park or riverfront access at the foot of Dominion Street.
Izzy Asper, the provincial Liberal leader at the time, was elected as the MLA for Wolseley in 1971 and saw the need for a proper park at this location He donated what he thought to be around $8,000 of his salary to “make it a park” by having the land graded, grass added, and a staircase built to the river’s edge. For its part, the city agreed to add benches and mow the grass on the site.
In 1974, Asper brokered a $1 per year lease agreement between the city and the residential property owner on the east side of the city land to create a wider greenspace. When the lease deal ended in 1979, the new owner did not want to continue with the public access and in the spring of 1980, a fence was built along the property line that stopped 30 feet short of the river’s edge.
Asper left office in 1975 but was interviewed by the Winnipeg Tribune during the 1980 fence brouhaha. He said, "Frankly I am quite upset. That was my only tangible monument to my tenure as MLA for Wolseley."
Fast forward forty years and there is a case of déjà vu when the fencing off of the same private land adjacent to the city greenspace returned to the news.
According to this CBC report, a city spokesperson said that the city had reached another $1 per year lease agreement with the property owner from 1986 to 2009. When it expired, the property owner did not want to renew it and nine years later built the fence.
May 30, 1906, Winnipeg Tribune
Related
- The house at 441 Dominion Street is hard to see even at street level, but luckily it is currently for sale. See pictures inside and out in this Realtor's listing or in this video.- West End Street Oddities Part 1: How many lanes does Arlington Street have?
- West End Street Oddities Part 2: Why does Valour Road have no boulevard trees?
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