Manitoba's WWI Fallen: James Wilson of Winnipeg

 To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, I am working on a series of blog posts and radio shows that will look at some of the thousands of Manitobans who died serving their country. For more, follow this link.

The duplex at 501-503 Sherbrook Street has burned down. The building was vacant and boarded up at the time. The 503 side has connections to a sad wartime story.

James Wilson was born in 1887 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and came to Winnipeg in 1909. In the 1911 census, the 27-year-old is a railway machinist and one of four lodgers living in the Atkinson family home at 255 Alfred Street.

1916 Census of Canada, Library and Archives Canada

By the time of the 1916 census, James is married to fellow Belfaster Margaret “Maggie” Wilson, who came to Canada in 1911. As their two Manitoba-born children, James and Cowan, were only aged two and one at the time, it's likely that the two met and married after coming to Winnipeg.

The Wilsons lived at unit 4 of the Lanark Apartments, 693 Maryland Street when James enlisted with the 183rd Overseas Battalion in March 1916. On his attestation papers, he indicated that he had no previous military or militia experience.

Wilson arrived in England in October 1916 and was transferred to the 107th (Timber Wolf) Pioneer Battalion (also see). The 107th was notable for having a large contingent of Indigenous soldiers in its ranks, including Manitoba distance runner Joe Keeper. It performed some engineering duties, so Wilson's machinist background would have been appreciated.

The 107th arrived in France in early March 1917, and Wilson was made a Corporal in early April.

In July, he was sent to No. 7 Canadian Field Hospital, then back to England, to recover from a fractured fibula. Once mended, he returned to the front.

November 1, 1917, Winnipeg Tribune

Wilson was reported as missing in action in mid-August 1917 at the start of the Battle for Hill 70 (also see) near Lens, France. His body was found in September, and he was declared Killed in Action on August 15, 1917 at the age of 32. He is buried at Maroc British Cemetery in France.

Back on the homefront, Margaret and her two young children moved from the Lanark Apartments soon after James left for the war. It was common for couples or families to downsize their living arrangements due to the financial pressures of the "man of the house" being off at war.

They spent a short time at a rooming house at 639 Flora Avenue, and then to a rented room at 671 Maryland Street. This was the family home of Kenneth R. Suttie, a clerk (later an auditor), at the CNR.

It was here that Margaret was informed about her husband's disappearance and death.

War Service Gratuity form, Wilson Military file. Library and Archives Canada.

The Sutties and Wilsons must have created a strong bond, because when they moved to a new house at 503 Sherbrook Street around 1919, Wilson and her children moved with them. It is where she received her final war gratuity of $100 (about $1,500 in 2026 dollars) for her husband's death.

It doesn't appear that Margaret had any family of her own here, but Robert G. Wilson, her brother-in-law, also moved into to the new Suttie house, presumably to help look after her and provide a father figure for the children. By this time, he was married to Hanna and they had their first child by 1920.

November 29, 1919, Winnipeg Tribune

In 1919, cases of "the latest and most mysterious disease known to medical science" began to appear in Winnipeg. It wasn't influenza, but encephalitis lethargica or "sleeping sickness". Little is known about the disease, even today, but it is believed to have affected at least a million people between 1917 through the early 1930s. The peak of the epidemic was from 1920 to 1924.

Signs of the disease included flu-like symptoms, fatigue, movement disorders, some paralysis, confusion, and mood changes. Some that caught it could be dead within days or a couple of weeks; those that survived were often left with some long-term symptoms.

I can't find overall numbers for this epidemic, but monthly disease reports for Winnipeg in November 1919 show 35 cases and 12 deaths. The total number of deaths that first year was 15. The disease came and went in waves. In February 1923, for instance, there were 66 cases and 12 deaths, but the following month there were only 15 cases and one death.

February 16, 1923, Winnipeg Free Press

Sadly, one of those February 1923 victims was Margaret Wilson. She died on February 14, 1923, at the age of 32 and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery two days later.

1926 Census of Canada. Library and Archives Canada.

Tracing the fate of James and Margaret's children is a little difficult due to their very common names (Cowan went by Doug). 

Robert G. Wilson, James' brother, continued to look after the children after Margaret's death. The 1926 census shows the blended Wilson family living together at 307 Bradford Street in St. James.

March 13, 1987, Winnipeg Free Press

Cowan Douglas "Doug" Wilson, who was around eight at the time of his mother's death, appears to have gone into the grocery business. The 1965 street directory uses his full name as the manager of a Shop Easy food store at 1140 Pembina Highway. He lived at 72 Stranmillis Avenue at the time.

Doug Wilson died in March 1987 at the age of 72. His brief obituary mentions no wife or children, just his brother James W. Wilson and his wife Margaret.

James W. Wilson appears to have gone into the bakery business. There is someone by that name and initial with a wife named Margaret who can be found at 131 Ferry Road from at least 1945 to 1965. He began as a salesman for Bryce Bakery, then a supervisor at Glen Bakery, and a route foreman for Weston Bakeries. 

According to Doug's obituary, James and Margaret retired to Vancouver, B.C..

The post-war Kiwanis Club Playgrounds

© 2026 Christian Cassidy.

June 2, 1944, Winnipeg Tribune

There was a spike in youth crime in Winnipeg during the Second World War. It was blamed mainly on the fact that thousands of fathers were absent and many mothers had to juggle raising children and working outside of the home for the first time. Children had a lot of unsupervised time on their hands, and not all of them used it well.

This pointed out deficiencies in the city's parks system. At the time, there was no city recreation department. The parks board did what it could to include playground equipment and sports fields in some of its parks, (there were 17 playgrounds with sumer programming operated by the city in 1944), but it was often left to churches and private athletic clubs to pick up the slack by organising what activities they could.

Towards the end of the war, the city put out the call to its various civic service clubs to help it speed up the number of full-service playgrounds it operated.

Winnipeg had many such clubs, some of which had been around for decades. With thousands of members and formidable fundraising abilities, they  paid for projects that governments could not or would not do in the days before the social safety net. The beneficiaries were hospitals, parks, orphanages, war charities, sports leagues, soup kitchens, and children's summer camps.

August 4, 1917, Winnipeg Free Press

The Kiwanis Club of Winnipeg, founded in 1917, stepped up to take on the challenge of turning vacant city land into bustling playgrounds. Fred White, the city's superintendent of public parks, said: "It is a splendid gesture on their part, especially when such places as these are needed so badly for the children of Winnipeg."  

The city provided the land, Kiwanis raised the funds that paid for the construction, then it donated the playground to the city. The city provided the staff to offer summer programming at the sites.

The major playgrounds were known as "Kiwanis Playgrounds". That name faded in the late 1950s as parks got renamed and community clubs took over operation of some of the sites. It returned in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the city began publishing its playground summer activity guide in the daily newspapers.

The main sites continue operating today, though their association with Kiwanis is long forgotten. 

May 31, 1945, Winnipeg Free Press

Kiwanis Playground No. 1 was created on a 150 x 190-foot lot on Burnell Street at St. Matthews Avenue.

Fundraising efforts got underway in late spring 1944, and work began later in the year on constructing a wading pool, merry-go-round, shelter, sandboxes, and swings at a cost of around $5,600.

The opening ceremony was held on May 31, 1945, with around 700 area school children in attendance. Ben Dean, the international president of Kiwanis, was at the ceremony and told the crowd, "Such a place as this solves many of our community problems and helps make more healthy and capable citizens of our children."

This land was eventually absorbed into Orioles Community Club, which opened in February 1951.

August 19, 1946, Winnipeg Tribune

Kinsmen Playground No. 2 opened on August 18, 1946, on Lizzie Street off Logan Avenue.

This was an existing park and playground that had opened on June 28, 1940. It was established by the Council of Women of Winnipeg thanks to the hard work of long-time school trustee Jessie MacLennan.

The playground was handed over to Kiwanis, which used its experience and deeper pockets to expand and redevelop the playground by adding a wading pool, pool building, and merry-go-round. The cost was around $5,000.

The park eventually became known as Lizzie Playground and was renamed Giizhigooweyaabikwe Park in 2018. It no longer has a wading pool.

September 13, 1947, Winnipeg Free Press

Kiwanis Playground No. 3 was located on vacant land on Sargent Avenue between Home and Simcoe streets and opened on September 14, 1947. 

Like the other Kinsmen playgrounds, it got playground equipment, a wading pool, pool building, at a cost of around $5,000. George Jackson, president of the Kiwanis Club of Winnipeg, and Mayor Garnet Coulter were on hand at the opening ceremony.

This park is now known as Home Playground and is currently undergoing major renovations.

June 9, 1948, Winnipeg Free Press

There was to have been a fourth Kiwanis Playground that would have been the largest.

In June 1948, Kinsmen put up $7,500 for a new playground at Tecumseh Street and Alexander Avenue that it hoped would be cost-matched by the parks board. The reason for the higher cost than the previous playgrounds was the addition of an enclosed recreation building so that activities could take place year-round.

The city considered the matter but turned it down as the land was being reserved for a possible expansion to the nearby city works yard and civic concrete plant at Tecumseh and Ross.

October 21, 1947, Winnipeg Tribune

Though No. 3 was the last of the large post-war playgrounds with wading pools for Winnipeg, Kiwanis donated funds for playground equipment for many sites in the city through the late 1940s and 1950s. 

There were some larger playgrounds with wading pools funded in cities surrounding Winnipeg during this time.

In 1947, the Kiwanis Club of St. James and the City of St. James partnered to create the Kinsmen Playground at 245 Marjorie Street based on the same plan as the Winnipeg playgrounds. A second St. James Kiwanis Playground opened in June 1950 at King Edward Street and Ness Avenue.

In spring 1946, the City of St. Boniface, Norwood Amateur Athletic Association, and Kinsmen teamed up to develop a playground and sports fields off of Fernwood and Walmer streets. This eventually became part of Norwood Community Centre.

Home Playground's Big Renovation

 

What is now known as "Home Street Playground" at Sargent Avenue and Home Street has served the community for 79 years. It is currently undergoing major renovations that include a new lawn, playground equipment, and wading pool. The only items to stick around are some older trees and what is likely the original pool building.

The completion date was to have been July 1, but due to the wet spring, it has been pushed back to July 21.

September 13, 1947, WInnipeg Free Press

Kiwanis partnered with the city in the mid-1940s to fund the construction of several playgrounds that it would then turn over to the city to maintain and offer summer programming in through its parks staff. 

This playground cost $5,000, including the wading pool, and was officially opened on September 14, 1947, by George Jackson, president of the Kiwanis Club of Winnipeg, and Mayor Garnet Coulter.

For more about the post-war Kinsmen Playgrounds.

The strange orientation of Ecole River Heights School

 

I had a chance to visit Ecole River Heights School for the first time earlier this week. It's a nice looking school, but I was struck by its odd orientation. The "front" of the school faces a field and the side of the River Heights Community Centre. The main access points to the building are a side door on Grosvenor Avenue and off the back lane where there is a staff parking lot. 

I thought I would look back to try to find the story behind how the school and community centre came to be oriented this way. 

Background

 

Ecole River Heights School was designed by William A. Martin.

Born in Scotland, he trained at the University of Edinburgh and came to Winnipeg in 1913. After serving in the war, he became the head of Architecture and Mechanical Drafting at Kelvin High School. In 1929, the school board appointed him as its Architect and Commissioner of Public Schools, a post he held until his retirement in 1958.

Early in his career, Martin oversaw a long period of schools bursting at the seams with new ones unable to be built due to the financial and building material restrictions of the Depression and Second World War. Some schools were renovated or expanded, but according to the WSD 150 history book, no new schools opened between 1932 and 1947.

The School

June 13, 1946, Winnipeg Tribune

At the end of the Second World War, the school board wanted to be ready to build at least six new schools as soon as the local labour market and construction material supply chain got back to normal.

For the four elementary schools it needed, Martin created a cookie cutter-design (above) that could be used for all of them. The initial design was a more elaborate two-storey structure, but when the school board priced out the construction cost, it found it was prohibitive.

Martin went back to the drawing board to create a more cost-effective design. The new elementary schools would be linear, single-storey, and constructed of red brick with limestone trim. The most notable design feature was a large limestone tower above the front entrance with the school's name inscribed on it.

Schools built to this design were: River Heights School (opened in 1948); Weston School (opened in 1948); Inkster School (opened in 1949); and Sargent Park School (opened in 1949). The River Heights variant would contain ten classrooms with a gymnasium/auditorium. Curiously, it is the only one to have two "entrance towers".

In spring 1947, the $365,000 construction tender for the River Heights school was awarded to the Peter Leitch Construction Co. and work was soon underway.

The Community Centre

A simple explanation for the odd orientation of the school is that it was built first and the community centre was dropped in front of it years later, thus eliminating an early access road or front parking area. This isn't the case, though.

The city decided to get into the recreation business after the Second World War. To this point in time, recreation activities were a patchwork of what various churches, groups like the YMCA, and private athletic clubs offered.

In May 1946, the city hired Charles Barbour of Montreal to be its recreation director. One of his first tasks was to create a city-wide network of publicly funded, community-run "community clubs" that would offer indoor and outdoor activities for all ages throughout the year.

For the River Heights club, the same block of land set aside for school board and city buildings was chosen as the site for the city-funded recreation centre.

The top drawing (above) is from February 1947 and shows the proposed club and school footprint with no provision for any road or parking area out front. The lower drawing shows a 1948 representation of the actual school outline (using the new linear design) and an expansion of the club's proposed footprint that further isolated the front of the school from direct access.

(Note: The maps show "Haskins Avenue", which was merged into Grosvenor Avenue in 1959. "Jackson Avenue" was merged into Corydon Avenue in 1950.)

Winnipeg School Division 150 History Book

The plans for the community club were released just months before the tender for the school's construction was issued. At that point, there was little the school division could do without spending a great deal of time and money on a redesign. (I could find no mention in either daily newspaper of the school board complaining about the footprint of the club.)

Work began on the community club site in May 1947, and it was operating in some form by the summer. In September 1947, the construction tender was issued for the expansion (seen in the 1948 newspaper image) and that was open by spring 1948.

River Heights School opened in two stages. Some classes were moved to the completed section in April 1948. The entire school was ready for occupancy by the time students returned in September.

Original school in red outline, expansions in yellow. (Base image: G. Penner at MHS)

As with most schools built immediately after the war, it wasn't long before a series of expansions began.

The two-storey expansion near Grosvenor with the side exit was built in 1954, and the staff parking lot was moved to the rear of it.

Other expansions came in 1952 and 1968, as noted above. The latter consisted of a  library and a theatre for what was by then a junior high school.

Two of Martin's "tower entrance" schools are orientated with the front of the school (with the towers and names facing a street - Weston School and Inkster School (opened in 1949).

Aside from River Heights School, the other anomaly is Sargent Park School as it also does not face a street, but rather a sports ground. There are two major differences, though.

Sargent Park Sports Park was one of the few city-run recreation sites in the city. Work began on it in 1913, and within a couple of years it boasted a clubhouse, track and field facilities, lawn bowling greens, baseball diamonds, and other sports fields. Hockey, skating, and speed skating were its winter sports offerings. A permanent outdoor pool was added in 1932.

By the time Sargent Park School was built in 1948, the school board knew what was on the land west of it and chose to face the school that way. One thing that Sargent Park School does have compared to River Heights School, is a small parking lot that leads up to its "front" door with the entrance tower. 

Whether this was the original intention for River Heights School, to include a parking lot out front, until the community club plan stamped that out, is unclear.

River Heights School followed the baby boom generation. It was an elementary school until 1954, then traded students with Robert H. Smith School to become a Junior High. 

In 1975, it was renamed Ecole River Heights School when it became one of the first schools in Western Canada to offer a French immersion program.

Today, the school has roughly 450 students in grades seven and eight.

A History of Happyland - Part IV: A Wartime Reprieve

 © 2026, Christian Cassidy

Entrance to Happyland (Martin Berman Postcard Collection)

On Saturday, I appeared in a CTV Winnipeg news story about the 120th anniversary of Happyland, which held its grand opening weekend May 24 - 26, 1906. Here is a deeper dive into the history of this "magnificent resort for fun and frolic" that struggled to survive financially for most of its existence. 

Part 1: The Glory Days (1906 to 1908)

Part II: New Ownership (1909) 

Part III: The Final Countdown (1910-1914)
Part IV: A Wartime Reprieve (1915-1920)

February 26, 1915, Winnipeg Free Press

The city included money in its 1915 budget to survey the Happyland site so that extensions to Garfield and Sherburn streets could be added to the city's street inventory. Construction of the full streets, sidewalks and boulevards would still take many years.

In February 1915, Fisher took out ads offering his own financing to home builders who wanted to purchase lots and vowed that construction would take place "war or no war". This was, no doubt, to get around the fact that bank financing for most construction projects had dried up at the start of the war. 

Residents in 1917

Some lots were built on, as noted by the Winnipeg Free Press in an article in late April: "Work has commenced on ten houses on Garfield Street south of Portage Avenue, in the Happyland property, by Rackow." Fisher attended the city's public works committee that month to ask that sewer and water be hooked up to that section of the road.
 
According to the Henderson Street Directory, these houses, five on each side of the street, were clustered somewhere between Portage and Westminster avenues. (At some point, the street was renumbered, as this is now the 200 block of Garfield.)

Some of the early residents included: Albert Racknow, the builder of the homes; Verner Fox, manager at Baker Valve Co.; Wilfred Campbell, secretary treasurer of the Canadian Freight Association; and J. Banbridge, assistant manager at Ford Motor Company.

Ski hill at Happyland, February 14, 1915 (Winterbos on Flickr)

As Happyland was awaiting its transformation into suburbia, the south end of the site had a revival.

The Winnipeg Ski Club, which was founded a couple of years earlier at Elm Park, was given permission to build a ski jump by the river in January 1915. The Winnipeg Tribune reported that 1,000 people came out on its opening day of Sunday, January 17th, to watch club members, including some past champions, do acrobatic jumps.

The initial hill was 50 feet tall, but structural issues near the top caused concerns about its safety. That section was rebuilt, and the hill was increased to 70 feet for the following weekend.

Also in February 1915, there was a gathering of up to 7,000 troops on the site for an inspection by senior military brass. It included a memorial service for those lost on the battlefield.

May 29, 1915, Winnipeg Tribune

On Victoria Day 1915, the Winnipeg Follies music and theatre group began a summer-long engagement at the park. The shows were held in an "open-air enclosure" described as a fenced-in area with a raised stage surrounded by chairs. It's unclear how many people it could hold.

The shows were held most nights, weather permitting, through to the end of August. Proceeds went to various wartime patriotic funds.

In winter 1916, the Winnipeg Ski Club rebuilt its temporary jump, and the Winnipeg Snowshoe Club joined them. Both clubs held events most weekends until mid-March.

The Winnipeg Follies, now named the Queries, performed a small number of shows at Happyland, but were kept busy elsewhere in the city.

In summer sports, the ball diamond was used for some games in both the Intermediate and Junior amateur baseball leagues, including their finals in August.

August 14, 1916, Winnipeg Free Press

From August 14 to 19, 1916, "The once -famous pleasure centre, Happyland, blazed forth again in all its former glory", when a travelling show called The World at Home took over the grounds. This was a travelling carnival, circus, and wild west show likely based out of Chicago. 

The most notable acts were a lion show, trick horse riding, a sword swallower, and a high dive act that had acrobatic divers jump from 100 feet into a five-foot deep tank. Many of the divers and rodeo "cowpersons" were women.

The Manitoba Patriotic Fund brought the show to town, and all proceeds went to wartime charities.

The Winnipeg Ski Club's hill returned in January 1917 and proved to be as popular as ever. 

On Saturday, February 10, a reported 10,000 people came throughout the day to see several ski jumping competitions that offered "thrills, spills, and chills that kept the good-natured crowd amply entertained". The height of the jump was increased to 100 feet for the occasion 

For good measure, around 200 members from various snowshoe clubs also attended the site that day and held a series of races. 

June 2, 1917, Winnipeg Tribune

The sports and entertainment offerings at Happyland in 1917 continued through the spring and summer.

The big summer event at Happyland was a combination of the Gollmar Bros. Circus and James Patterson's Wild Animal Shows, on June 7 and 8.  The two put on a parade from the Great Northern Railway yards at the present-day Forks, to the site.

Happyland came alive with various big top tents, activity booths, wagons, and concessions. The animals included five elephants, lions, tigers, and even a hippopotamus. 

The World at Home, with its circus and midway, returned for a week-long stay in August, with all proceeds to the Returned Soldiers' Aid and War Widows Association.

The ball diamond was kept busy as the main site of the Intermediate League. The field must have been in good shape that summer as the Intermediate League, Junior League and Midget League all held their finals at Happlyland in August.

May 17, 1917, Winnipeg Tribune

On the development front, the first sign of Sherburn Street South appeared when H. J. Metcalfe got approval to "cultivate a piece of Sherburn Street roadway" in May 1917.

Nothing more was mentioned in the newspapers about this work and it does not appear to have included any house building.

June 8, 1918, Winnipeg Tribune

There was no winter activity at Happyland in 1918, but its baseball diamond was a busy place throughout the spring and summer with both the Júnior and Intermediate amateur leagues using it as their main venue.

One travelling circus that applied to use Happyland in August had its application rejected by the city and it instead used a site north of the city. There was no explanation why, but Happyland was a busy enough place that summer without it.

February 17, 1919, Winnipeg Tribune

The winter games resumed in 1919 as the Winnipeg Ski Club and Winnipeg Snowshoe Club made use of the site most weekends from mid-January to late March.

In April, the Midget and Intermediate baseball leagues held practices at the Happyland diamond. Also, the St. Margaret's Tennis Club voted to use the site for lawn tennis and considered hiring a caretaker to keep the courts in top shape.

Despite this, there is no mention of any baseball or tennis being played at Happyland through the summer. This could be because surveyors were busy on the site.

January 24, 1920, WInnipeg Free Press

1920 was a year of great change for the Happyland site, and it began with the death of William Mann Fisher, the real estate man and owner of the Happyland site since the park's inception in 1906. 

Fisher was a long-time resident of 147 East Gate with his wife, Amelia, and their three children. Both of their sons, Edwin Fisher and Harold Fisher, were killed in action within weeks of each other in the First World War. (A bronze tablet honouring the brothers was unveiled at All Saints Church on Broadway in 1922).

The first mention of Fisher's death, age 62, in newspapers is the above Free Press article from January 24th, after his funeral had taken place. There is no mention of the details of his death in any news articles.

The estate, including the undeveloped Happyland site Fisher held onto for so long, along with other property, stocks, and bonds, were to be liquidated and the money split evenly between his wife and daughter.

May 15, 1920, Winnipeg Tribune

Black and Armstrong was chosen as the firm to sell the 208 or so lots along Garfield and Sherburn streets. Wanting a quick liquidation, they were priced low, and it used taglines such as "Greatest Bargain in Years" and "The Cheapest Residential Property South of Portage Avenue" in its ads.

The lots sold quickly thanks to the low price and post-war housing financing schemes established in 1918 by the federal and provincial governments to spur residential development after four years of almost no new construction.  

There were some building restrictions in place to ensure that the housing was of a high standard and fit in with the neighbourhood that had grown up around it.

For instance, houses had to be set at least 24 feet back from the street, and the minimum construction value had to be $4,500. Because the lot owner chose their own home builder, it was expected that "no two houses would be the same", which set it apart from some other streets that were being built quickly with "cookie-cutter" homes.

May 7, 1921, Winnipeg Free Press

A representative of Black and Armstrong updated the daily papers about the progress of Happyland lots. 

By July 1921, thirty houses were in various stages of construction on Garfield and Sherburn streets, all ranging in price from $5,500 to $7,000, with twenty more expected to start over the summer. It was also noted that many people bought lots but were holding off for another year or two in the hopes that the cost of building materials and labour would go down over time.

It appears that the sale of the lots was completed by the summer of 1921, as Black and Armstrong's ads disappear from the newspapers by the end of the summer.

June 23, 1921, Winnipeg Tribune

In one last hurrah to Happyland's past, its final exotic animal residents stayed there in June 1921.  

The Winnipeg Spring Jubilee brought Howe's Great London Circus and Van Amburg's Wild Animal Show to town from June 20 to 26, 1921. The show was held across Portage Avenue from Happyland. This was vacant land that had been used several times in Happyland's latter years as an alternative for such shows.

The shows arrived in Winnipeg by train on June 12. The enormous size of the production, which included over 600 staff, meant that some of its equipment had to be staged on lots elsewhere in the city.

There was no room at the show site to keep an enclosure for its four elephants between performances, so one was set up across the street on some of the Happyland lots. the paciderms were were walked across the street for showtime. 

A History of Happyland - Part III: The Final Countdown (1910-1914)

© 2026, Christian Cassidy

Entrance to Happyland (Martin Berman Postcard Collection)

On Saturday, I appeared in a CTV Winnipeg news story about the 120th anniversary of Happyland, which held its grand opening weekend May 24 - 26, 1906. Here is a deeper dive into the history of this "magnificent resort for fun and frolic" that struggled to survive financially for most of its existence. 

Part 1: The Glory Days (1906 to 1908)

Part II: New Ownership (1909) 

Part III: The Final Countdown (1910-1914)
Part IV: A Wartime Reprieve (1915-1920)

March 12, 1910, Winnipeg Tribune

Happyland's 1910 season got off to a poor start.

Rumours swirled that the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway was interested in purchasing the 30-acre site for its railway terminal and yards. It had already purchased some land north of Portage Avenue that adjoined it.

Adding fuel to the speculation was the March 1910 announcement that most of the park's buildings, rides, and even the thousands of planks that made up its wooden boardwalk were for sale. Venues like Winnipeg Beach and Elm Park bought many of them.

There wasn't a lot written about the demise of the amusement park side of Happyland. It's likely that the new ownership group that bought the business in 1909 pulled out, and it again reverted to landowner Fisher.

By this time, the buildings and rides were four years old and likely needed a lot of maintenance to keep them up and running. With little chance of a third group of owners coming forward, Fisher sold them for what he could before they became scrap.

The railway sale didn't materialise, and Happyland reopened in May 1910 as a sports and picnic ground. The site was poorly maintained, so the local soccer league and some other groups stopped using it part way through the season.

July 19, 1911, Winnipeg Tribune

The 1911 season was also a dismal one for Happyland. There were some cricket practices in the spring, but the cricketers, soccer league, and Maroons baseball team played their regular season games at River Park in St. Vital. 

Rumours continued to swirl about the possible sale of the land to the railway, or to the federal government as the home of a new armoury and military drill ground. (This was Minto Armoury, which was built just a few blocks away in 1914.) 

The only newspaper mention of an event at Happyland was the Sells-Floto Circus that rented the grounds to hold shows on July 26 and 27. 

Summer 1912 at Happyland grounds

In 1912, Happyland's sports grounds sputtered back into action by hosting some cricket matches and as one of the regular season diamonds in the city's commercial baseball league.

Two circuses used the grounds in June and August.

June 14, 1913, Winnipeg Tribune

In 1913, the city's commercial baseball league continued to use the Happyland ball diamond. The Oklahoma Ranch Wild West Show performed at the grounds in mid-June, and Sells-Floto was back for two days in late July. 

In the wee hours of July 30th, a huge thunderstorm spooked five of the Sells-Floto elephants. They ran around the grounds causing significant damage to the big top and manager's tent. Also heavily damaged was the dome, which the Tribune called the "last remaining vestige of the old Happyland Amusement Company's buildings." 

The handlers managed to calm the elephants before they got beyond the fence and into what was now a growing residential neighbourhood.

April 17, 1914, Winnipeg Free Press

The destruction of the dome was perhaps an omen for Happyland's next phase. 

In April 1914, Fisher announced that Happyland was no more. He didn't sell it to a railway or to become an armoury. Instead, he was going to subdivide it and sell it as suburban lots.

This was the most lucrative option for Fisher, who was a real estate broker by profession. Since the park opened in May 1906, a suburban neighbourhood had grown up all around the park, which made the Happyland land very desirable. He estimated that the 250 or so lots that he could create might 

be worth as much as $2 million.

Fisher couldn't cash in immediately, as the property had never been surveyed by the city to run streets, sewer, water, and power. He appeared at various committees of council throughout the year to ask if at least part of the land could be surveyed so that he could register some suburban lots and put them on the market. 

The city's budget was already allocated for 1914, and the survey work would have to wait until spring 1915.

November 5, 1914, Winnipeg Tribune

Fisher's payday was put on a much longer hold when Britain, and therefore Canada, joined the First World War in August 1914. The impact on the city's construction industry was instantaneous.

The value of building permits issued in Winnipeg in August 1914 plummeted to $343,000 compared to $1.77 million in August 1913. By October, only $100,000 worth of permits were issued compared to $1.32 million the previous October.

As it became apparent that the war could be lengthy and demand a lot from Canada, bank credit for home building and mortgages remained tight, and some construction materials were conserved for the war effort. Besides, the only type of housing there was demand for was apartment blocks, as thousands of young families would need to downsize when the "man of the house" went off to fight.

In a surprising twist, the war's impact on the housing plans for the Happyland site, made it bounce back as a space for entertainment and recreation.