The early development of the Fisher Park area of Riverview

 © 2025, Christian Cassidy

Thanks to my day job, I've had the chance to attend some events hosted by the Friends of Fisher Park.  At one of these events I was asked to give a 15-minute talk about the history of the park. I found way more information than I could use and instead of closing the windows and losing it all, I thought I would put it in a blog post!

Here's a look back at the early development of the Riverview neighbourhood with particular attention to the Fisher Park area.

October 28, 1903, Winnipeg Tribune

The Riverview Realty Company was formed in May 1903 after it had purchased several properties totalling 236 acres north of River Park between Osborne Street and the Red River for around $75,000. Its office was in the Bank of Hamilton building.

The company's founding president was Thorval Slagsvol. Originally from Norway, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1871 and made his fortune in the lumber business. He lived in Eau Claire, Wisconsin but had several real estate interests in Western Canada and was a major investor in the Winnipeg Fire Insurance Company.

The company's vice-president was Herbert H. Beck and its secretary-treasurer and office manager was Charles M. Simpson. Other board members were businessmen such as W. R. Dingwall, Isaac Pitblado, and Martin McKittrick. Soon, influential architect Victor Harwood would become associated with the subdivision and in 1906 built himself a house on Florence Avenue (Baltimore Road.)

December 19, 1903, Winnipeg Tribune

Riverview Realty rushed to survey its property into 950 lots and in September 1903 it put it on the market as a proposed residential subdivision called Riverview. 

The company was relying on the 50-foot lots, proximity to the river, and convenient streetcar access to sell the lots quickly, make its profit, and allow the partners to move on to their next investment opportunity. 

Its target market therefore was not individual wanna-be homeowners as it would take years or even decades to turn a plan of this size into real streets with serviced lots. Instead, it needed the buy-in from smaller real estate firms, land speculators, and home builders willing to buy blocks of lots and either flip them or sit on them until it was closer to construction time.

One of many companies reselling its block of Riverview lots
August 20, 1904, Winnipeg Tribune

A sign that lot sales likely went well in the early months is that the city began planning sewer works on some of the streets the following spring. Sewers signalled an important first step for a new subdivision as proper streets, sidewalks, and boulevards could not be built until they were in place.

At the April 1904 public works committee meeting, $45,000 was set aside to run a sewer on Florence Avenue (Baltimore Road) from Fisher Street to the Red River. (This sewer would be a trunk sewer responsible for draining the whole of Riverview east to Daly Street.) In April 1905, sewers were budgeted for Oakwood, Bartlett, Balfour, Ashland and Maple from Osborne to Fisher streets.

In September 1905, $14,685 was spent to build a 24-foot wide asphalt pavement on Florence Avenue (Baltimore Road) from Osborne to Fisher streets. Other roads and sidewalks followed over the next couple of years.

Slowly but surely, the infrastructure was falling into place for the new subdivision though it would still take a couple of decades for this part of the neighbourhood to fill up with homes. It is unclear why, but the heydey for home building, at least in the area that I was researching, seems to be the 1920s.

Here are a few points of interest that help tell the story of the neighbourhood's early development:

Pembina Park / Fisher Park:

Parks board inspection of park, August 1938
City of Winnipeg Archives

In 1903, Riverview Realty Co. donated 2.96 acres at Florence Avenue and Fisher Street and another 2.16 acres elsewhere in the community, (likely what is now the Arnold Street Tot Lot), to be converted into parks.

The fact that the company did not develop the land itself could mean that it was swampy, which made it unsuitable for home building and too expensive for Riverview to make into a park. Some of the city's other residential parks, like Central Park and Notre Dame Park, (now Jacob Penner Park), started off as land developers rejected. 

August 24, 1928 Winnipeg Tribune

The park has gone by various names over the years.

At the December 1909 parks board meeting, before work began to convert the land into a  park, the Winnipeg Tribune reported that "Park View will henceforth be known as 'Pembina Park', this name having been submitted by T. Wilson." That is the name the park was known by for many decades.

It was an unusual choice for a name as the parks board had a pretty strict policy of naming smaller parks for the street they were on, (Cornish Park, Notre Dame Park, Logan Park, etc.) and bigger parks for the district they were in, (St. John's Park, St. James Park,  Assiniboine Park, Kildonan Park, etc.)  At the time, the south end of Osborne Street was called Pembina Street, so it was close by but still an anomaly.

In a September 1946 Winnipeg Tribune column called "It used to run between farms – now we call it Baltimore Road” by Lillian Gibbons, she spoke to an area resident at the park who told her that it is was known as Fisher Park or Florence Park, but a schoolgirl came up to them to let them know that its official name was Pembina Park!

In 1992, an inquiry to the city by the Winnipeg Free Free Press' "Answers" columnist about a land-related question in Riverview it was noted that the park went by either Pembina Park or Fisher Park.

The city's 2019 Report on Parks and Open Space Assets lists this address as Fisher Park. When the name changed, or if it was ever officially renamed, is not clear.

April 24, 1905, WInnipeg Tribune

Work began on converting the land into a park space in June 1912 when the land was graded, seeded, and the outline for a unique circular sunken garden was dug. The garden feature was completed the following year.

Why a sunken circular garden? 

At a 1923 public parks board tour of the park for media and VIPs, a Winnipeg Tribune reporter noted: "The sunken garden at Pembina Park was perhaps the beauty spot of the whole trip and amazement was expressed when it was explained that the garden had been formed to save the filling in of an old sewer."  (The sewer was likely a drainage feature for surrounding land as there would not have been a sanitary sewer here before this development.)

The park was also fenced during this time with 1,550 linear feet of wrought iron fencing and gates. This was fairly common for residential parks at the time as Central Park, St. James Park (now Vimy Ridge), and Notre Dame Park (now Jacob Penner) all started out as fenced.

Fisher Street:

Fisher Park, September 7, 1946

Fisher Street is one of the original street names created by Riverview Realty. Usually, these names had some meaning to the principals of the company, such as a family member or place name from back in the old country. It could also be to thank someone who sold land to them.

I could find no direct connection between a Fisher and Riverview Realty. Of the dozens of Fishers in pre-Riverview era street directories, one person of interest is William M. Fisher, general manager of Canada Permanent and Western Canada Mortgage Company (renamed Canada Permanent Mortgage Company in 1903).

Fisher would have hung in the same circles as the Riverview principals and as head of a mortgage company may have owned or brokered a land deal related to the subdivision.

Hathaway's 1911 Guide and Map of Winnipeg (source)

Fisher Street is unusual in that it is divided down the middle by Fisher Park but that wasn't always the case. On the original Riverview Realty map and the 1911 Hathaway's Map of Winnipeg, Fisher Street was on the west side of the park and Park Place on the east.

At its February 1913 meeting, the city's public works committee proposed 71 street name changes. (This was something common back in the day when the city and its surrounding municipalities were growing quickly and the same or similar-sounding names were being used.) Two of the entries on that list were: "The portion of Fisher Street between Oakland and Ashland Avenues to be Park Place" and  "The portion of Fisher Avenue between Ashland and Clare Avenue to be Suttie Street."

The Park Place name change proposal was likely a typo and meant to read in reverse, from Park Place to Fisher Street, as Park Place appears in newspaper lists of civic improvements and street directories up to 1913. Until this point, there was one house on the block and the city likely wanted to get out ahead of potential confusion with Park Lane, Park Street, Park Boulevard, Park Dale, and Park Road within its boundaries and those of its surrounding municipalities. The name was changed to Fisher Street.

The Suttie Street name change did not happen. This would have been for James Malcolm Suttie, a well-known and respected war veteran who built a house on this part of Fisher Street in 1911.  He would soon go on to serve as a Lieutenant-Colonel during the First World War.

Source: City of Winnipeg Assessment Database

Normally in a new subdivision, parkside lots would be some of the earliest to be sold and built upon but that is not the case here.

Though each side of Fisher Street overlooking the park has at least one 1910 property, the majority of the east side houses were built in the late 1920s and on the west in the late 1930s or 1940s. This was decades after the park was built in 1912 - 13.

One explanation could be that the original residents may have owned or rented neighbouring lots for gardens, stables etc. and sold them off over a long period. (The two 1930s houses suggest someone needed cash soon after the Depression began.) It could also be that the speculator who bought the vacant lots had deep enough pockets to hold out and cash in when they had reached a maximum value in what was a relatively mature neighbourhood. 

Florence Avenue / Baltimore Road:

September 7, 1946, Winnipeg Tribune

Florence Avenue was the original street name supplied by the Riverview Realty Company and its origins are easier to find as both H. H. Beck and Charles M. Simpson were married to women named Florence! (Simpson married in 1903, so it might have been a wedding gift from his colleagues.)

Florence Avenue is at the heart of this section of Riverview as it was one of the first to get sewer and an asphalt road. This was likely thanks to the trunk sewer line as city crews would have needed access to its eastern end by the river.

The development of Florence Avenue
(Source: Henderson Street Directories)

Despite the early improvement to the street, it has a similar wide timeline in terms of home construction. A random selection of lots on the block nearest Osborne, which would likely be one of the first to develop due to its proximity to the streetcar line and other services, construction years range from 1907 to 1945.

Horwood Residence, 317 Florence Avenue
May 26, 1906, Winnipeg Tribune

At the April 1926 public improvements committee of city council, a petition was presented from some area residents requesting that the name of the street be changed as the post office and delivery men often confused it for Flora Avenue.

It was the city surveyor's office that recommended "Baltimore Road". It is unclear if this was suggested by residents or if it existed on a list that the surveyor kept for new names. Either way, the reason behind the name was not explained.

The Tribune reported that "Alderman Blumberg thought that 'road' was too pretentious and that it should at least be 'Baltimore Ave' to conform with other streets."  Despite his concern, the name change passed unanimously at the committee's May 25, 1926 meeting.

The Death of Peter Hutzel and others at the Manitoba Gypsum Company

© 2025, Christian Cassidy

June 5, 1925, Winnipeg Tribune

I write a monthly column in the Winnipeg Free Press Community Review and for story ideas I like to look back to the same date in newspapers from 100, 75, and 50 years ago to find anniversaries of significance that might be of interest.

On June 5, 1925 and for a couple of days afterward there were stories in both newspapers about a gentleman who had been killed in a horrific workplace accident at the Manitoba Gypsum Co. plant at Sargent Avenue at St. James Street. In the stories, his first name and the spelling of his last name change several times. He was thought to be “about 35”, and left a wife and three children with no mentions of their names or ages.

It wasn’t column material but I kept the screenshots of the clippings of his death and thought I would go back and piece together his brief time in Winnipeg with more factual information.

This won’t be a complete history as due to the last name issue I could find only one census record for the family, no vital statistics information, and a smattering of street directory listings. I will use the spelling of his last name from the 1921 census entry as my spelling of his name.

Before I get to the life and death of Peter Hutzel, I will provide a history of the company and wade through several prior deaths and serious injuries at the plant that were noted in brief news stories often with incorrect or inconsistent biographical information.

November 8, 1923, Winnipeg Tribune

The Manitoba Gypsum Company started operations in 1904 after it built a mine and small factory near Gypsumville, Manitoba. When the plant burned down in 1906, it was relocated to Sargent Street at St. James Avenue in Winnipeg and was expanded several times over the decades.

The company is credited with being the first in Canada to produce and sell wall plasterboard commercially. They also produced other items like plaster of Paris, wood fibre plaster, and stucco. (See their 1910 product catalogue here.)

Winnipeg was a major player in the national plaster industry by the First World War and Manitoba Gypsum employed 150 men at its plant and several more at its mine. By 1927, it manufactured seven to eight million feet of plasterboard per year.

August 8, 1910, Winnipeg Free Press

Kenneth McIvor (1910):  At around 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 6, 1919, Kenneth McIvor was oiling the bearings of a machine when the smock he was wearing got caught in its shaft and he was pulled in. By the time workers shut the machine down he was "badly mangled". One of his arms was severed from his body and both legs were broken. He was rushed to General Hospital but died five hours later. 

McIvor had only been working for Manitoba Gypsum for a couple of months. He lived in the family home at 1150 Strathcona Street with his widowed mother and sister. 

The initial news report of his death stated that he was 20 years of age but his mother contracted the Free Press to say that he was, in fact, a boy of just 15.

The coroner opted not to hold an inquest into the death, which seems unusual as coroner's inquests were much more common back then.

At a coroner's inquest, a citizen jury was selected and witnesses, such as eyewitnesses, police officers, medical professionals, factory managers etc., were called to testify. The jury would take these accounts and submitted material, such as photographs, autopsy reports, etc., deliberate, and make a verdict of death by accident, misadventure, or foul play and make recommendations they feel could have prevented it.

A jury could not do an investigations find blame, but an inquest was a chance to assemble all of the facts together in one place and put them on the record. In many cases, the inquest got more press coverage than the actual death and the resulting stories were usually much more accurate. 

George Davidson (1914): On December 12, 1914, foreman George Davidson was spared from a similar death. He was walking near the shaft that connected the crusher with its engine when his coat got caught in the machinery and was "whirled around once or twice". A quick thinking-employee shifted the machine into neutral.

Davidson was conscious but suffered a broken leg and arm. Doctors at the hospital could not find signs of internal injuries.

David Gellatly (1918): In March 1918, David Gellatly was adjusting a belt on a pulley using a steel bar when the belt grabbed the bar and it "whirled about striking him in the stomach.” He was rushed to General Hospital but died four days later from internal injuries. 

Gellatly came to Canada in 1909 with his Scottish wife Janet and their five sons and soon settled at 1448 Elgin Street. At the time of the accident, he was 48 and two of his sons were serving in the armed forces in England. He was listed in the street directory as an engineer at the plant. 

The coroner's inquest ruled the death as "accidental".

John McColl: In  May 1920 it was reported that a 17-year-old named "J. McGaw" sustained serious injuries after falling through the roof of the plant. The Tribune noted: "Plaster gave way and he fell through the roof.... He sustained serious injuries to the back and possibly internal injuries."  Beyond the initial four-sentence Winnipeg Tribune news brief, there were no follow-up stories about his injuries. 

The youth was, in fact, John McColl who lived at home with his widowed mother Elizabeth, five brothers, and one sister. If I found the right family in the 1916 census, he wsaa likely 16 at the time of the accident.

George Rich: On July 12, 1921 around the lunch hour, Rich was "caught in a machinery belt" and "flung against the beams of the building". He was rushed to hospital suffering from a head injury, a broken leg, and severe abrasions.

Neither daily paper reported directly about his death but did print brief stories about the outcome of the coroner's inquest a couple of days later. It was noted that there were no eyewitnesses to the accident so determining exactly what happened was impossible. His death was ruled an accident but the jury recommended that there be "closer supervision of men employed among machinery in the Manitoba Gypsum plant."

Little is known about Rich, (or Ricks as the Free Press called him), except that he lived at 1400 St. James Street which was Manitoba Gypsum company housing next to its gypsum mill further north of the plant.

An interesting side story is that a man named Harry Cline stole $23 from Rich just five days before he was killed. Rich reported it to the police and told them "I can ill afford the loss", which was around $400 in today's money. Cline was eventually caught, pleaded guilty to this and another theft, and was sentenced to six months in jail.

June 5, 1925, Winnipeg Tribune

Peter Hutzel (1925): At 7:30 a.m. on Friday, June 5, 1925, Hutzel went into a pit to oil a stuck bearing in a machine without first turning off the power. His smock got caught by a shaft that spun at a speed of 75 RPM. By the time employees shut down the machine, he had been wound tightly around the shaft and eyewitnesses believed he was already dead. The coroner determined that his death was from asphyxia due to strangulation.

At the coroner's inquest, photos of the scene taken by the chief inspector of the Bureau of Labour were shown. It was noted that Hutzel was the third fatal accident at the plant in recent years. The jury ruled the death as accidental.

The Hutzel inquest received more extensive press coverage than any of the previous deaths at the plant. The Tribune even published a photo of him. Could this be a sign of a growing intolerance for such senseless accidents?

1921 Census of Canada, Library and Archives Canada

Peter and Tonnie (sp?) Hutzel came to Canada from their native Poland in 1913. They had at least two children after arriving: Mary, born ca. 1916, and Annie, born ca. 1917. Newspaper stories from the time of Peter's death in 1925 said he had three children but I can’t confirm that with vital statistics or census records.

The first street directory mention of the Hutzel family in Winnipeg comes in 1920 residing at 1079 Alfred Avenue. Peter's occupation is listed as a labourer with no place of work indicated. In 1922, he is employed with the Manitoba Gypsum Company and was 44 years of age at the time of his death.

Mrs. Hutzel stayed at the Alfred Avenue house until 1927 and then her name disappears from Winnipeg's street directories. She also cannot be found in the 1930 census.

In the short term, she may have left the city to live with other family, (there were a large number of Hutzels in Dauphin and Athabasca, Alberta who may have been relatives of Peter.) By the time of the next census, she could have remarried to gain financial stability for herself and her children.

Nor-West Farmer, April 20, 1920

I could find not other reports of deaths at its plant after Hutzel's.

As for the company, Manitoba Gypsum Co. and a subsidiary it owned in B.C. were bought out in March 1928 for $3 million by Canada Gypsum and Alabastine Ltd.. William Armstrong, the company's founder and president, got a seat on the national company's board.

In 1959, what was then known as Gypsum, Lime, Alabastine Canada, sold out to Domtar Construction Materials Ltd. which also had a tar-based building materials plant in St. Boniface.

Domtar sold all of its Canadian gypsum-related business interests to Georgia Pacific Canada Ltd. in 1996.

Georgia-Pacific announced the closure of the Winnipeg gypsum plant, along with two others in the U.S., in 2001. The land at 1385-1405 Sargent was sold to Loblaw Companies and in March 1904 it was announced that the site would become home to a 150,000 square foot Real Canadian Superstore with a 38,000 mezzanine level fitness centre.

The store opened on November 12, 2004.

Related:

Gypsum in Canada Department of Mines, Ottawa, 1913 (start at page 77)

Gypsum in Manitoba Government of Manitoba, ca 1983
Gypsum in Manitoba Government of Manitoba, ca. 1983
"Empire" Gypsum Products Catalogue Manitoba Gypsum Company, 1910

West End Street Oddities Part 3: Why is the end of Dominion Street barricaded?

© 2025, Christian Cassidy

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

Legally, the city said it had no responsibility for the properties. Riverbank erosion is a natural occurrence and riverside landowners were on their own when it came to resolving the damage that resulted from it.

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).

June 13, 1913, Winnipeg Free Press
(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

It is unclear what became of the park and river access created by West End Realty and Building Company in 1913 but it is likely that it disappeared over time. This was discovered in a series of news stories about the fencing off of private land adjoining the park in 1980.

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."

August 22, 2019, CBC Winnipeg

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?

Behind the Photo: Winnipeg's giant sinkhole of 1925

© 2025, Christian Cassidy

Often I will see an old photo or ad and dig into its back story. Sometimes I find a great story, sometimes not. Either way, I learn a few things about the city's history. Here's my latest attempt:

Winnipeg Free Press Evening Bulletin, April 3, 1925

This image appeared on the front page of the evening edition of the Winnipeg Free Press on April 3, 1925, claiming to show where a "milk wagon was engulfed by cave-in". Was this a century-old version of clickbait to get people to buy the paper and read the story? It wasn't!

The brief accompanying story noted that at around 6:30 on the morning of Friday, April 3, 1925, Albert Brewer was driving his two-horse Crescent Creamery rig down McGregor Avenue when it was swallowed up by a sink-hole at the intersection of Matheson Avenue. 

This photo, credited only to "our Free Press cameraman", shows Brewer standing next to the hole hours later with just the tip of his wagon visible.

Winnipeg Tribune, April 3, 1925

I checked the Winnipeg Tribune from the same day to see if I could compare the story to the Free Press version and there was a similar photo on its front page credited to "Foote and James" showing the sunken wagon. The story was also its main headline that day.

The Tribune story contained more detail and was likely more accurate than the Free Press version as its reporter spoke to Brewer, a dairy representative, and a city hall official. 

Brewer told the Tribune that he was travelling through the intersection of Mattheson and McGregor when "The wagon went down ker-plunk and pulled the horse after it... I thought I was on my way to China." He grabbed the bridle as he scrambled free and called for help. Several people came to assist him extricate it. 

A Crescent Creamery representative told the reporter that about $60 in cream and milk was destroyed and the total damage from the accident was about $100.

A city hall official blamed the sink-hole, estimated at around 12 feet deep, on a leaky storm sewer pipe. The city was in the midst of the spring melt and the storm sewer brought a lot of water into the intersection that eroded the ground around the fault.

Left: Crescent Creamery wagon from 1938 advertisement.
Right: Undated image of its wagon produced by the Lawrie Carriage Company
(from Archives of Manitoba via Virtual Heritage Winnipeg).

The sinking of the wagon must have been terrifying for both horse and driver. As can be seen in the images above, these were substantial vehicles. 

You might think that 1925 was late to have horse-drawn wagons on the streets of the city and you would be correct. Through the 1910s, motorized vehicles exploded in popularity and certainly after the First World War were the dominant form of commercial transport.

Older companies, though, had huge investments in their four-legged workers. Moving companies, department stores, breweries, and dairies had urban stables, rural stables with pastures, and a large roster of drivers, trainers and handlers on staff. For many, the transition from horse to fully motorized transport took years. 

Even after the transition, some companies still kept a small number of teams around even if just for PR or show purposes. A good example of this is Shea's Brewery which was famous for it award-winning Clydesdales. It wasn't until the 1930s when Shea, who was in failing health, sold them on to Anheuser-Busch to become the Budweiser Clydesdales. Eatons retired its last horses in 1951.

April 26, 1926, Winnipeg Tribune

Dairies were one of he last industries to get rid of the horse.

Crescent Creamery was established in 1906 on Lombard Avenue. It bought out Carson's Hygienic Dairy and in 1914 and moved its operations to Carson's Sherburn Street plant. By 1925, it had a large fleet of both motorized vehicles and horse-drawn wagons with the latte doing much of its residential milk deliveries.

Crescent used horses until at least 1949. In a 1953 Free Press story about the retirement of "Old Mack", a Fort Rouge-based dairy delivery horse, it was noted that there were still over 100 dairy horses working on city streets but their numbers were dwindling.

Where was the accident in relation to today's streetscape?

The 2009 Street View photo above shows the only commercial corner at the intersection of McGregor Street and Matheson Avenue. the others are residential. It is likely that this is the modern-day view with a similar looking house in the background indicated by the arrow.

For more "Behind the Photo" posts.

Celebrating Manitoba's Black History

Over the years, I have written a number of blog posts and columns highlighting prominent people and places in the history of Manitoba's Black community. Here they are all in one place!

At the Black History Manitoba website you can find out more about upcoming events and projects.

Percy Haynes is one of my favourite personalities from Winnipeg's past. He was a star athlete, celebrated musician, the first Black to serve in the Royal Canadian Navy, and an all-around community leader. He is best remembered for Haynes' Chicken Shack, the long-time Lulu Street restaurant / night spot that played host to the likes of Harry Belafonte and Oscar Peterson.

- Percy Haynes West End Dumplings (an expanded version in the Free Press)
- 257 Lulu Street Winnipeg Places
- Farewell to 257 Lulu Street West End Dumplings

Billy Beal was a renaissance man who settled in the Swan River region in 1906. He was the long-time secretary of the local school division, an amateur astronomer, the doctor's helper, and ran the region's first library using his own vast collection of books.

- Swan River's Billy Beal (an expanded version in the Free Press)
- Every inch a Gentleman Winnipeg Free Press
- On the trail of Billy Beal West End Dumplings

George Beckford seemed reluctant to become a railway porter, one of the few jobs dominated by Blacks in early Winnipeg. In the end, he spent 34 years with the CNR and became a respected local labour leader.

- Labour Leader George Beckford
- Longtime porter became labour leader, pillar of black community Winnipeg Free Press

Reverend Dr. Joseph T. Hill was a southern American preacher who spent many summers as a popular guest preacher at predominantly White churches in Winnipeg in the 1920 and 1940s. He is credited with founding Pilgrim Baptist, Winnipeg's first Black church.

- Rev. J. T. Hill, his Winnipeg summers, and the founding of Pilgrim Baptist Church

Winnipeg's Aaron Black Jr. is often overlooked when celebrating early Black hockey pioneers largely becasue he spent his career in the WHA, not the NHL. He is considered the second Black professional hockey player and the first to score a hat trick at the pro level.

- Aaron Black Jr.: The second Black professional hockey player

Photographer L. B. Foote took this photo of the Railway Porters' Band of Winnipeg on the front steps of the Bank of Montreal Building at Portage and Main in 1922. I was curious to find out the back story of what turned out to be a short-lived part of Winnipeg's musical history.

- Behind the Photo: Railway Porters' Band of Winnipeg West End Dumplings

The nondescript Craig Block on Main Street is one of the few remaining buildings directly associated with Winnipeg's early Black community. In 1922, it became home of the locally organized Order of Sleeping Car Porters which some believe is the first Black union in North America. Other Black organizations joined it and the building became a community hub.

- Craig Block, 795 Main Street Winnipeg Places

Many Black celebrities have dropped in on Winnipeg over the decades. Here is the back story of some of these visits.

- Duke Ellington, Omar Williams, and their Banning St. jam session West End Dumplings
- The day Sammy Davis Jr. came to town West End Dumplings
- Jesse Owens at Osborne Stadium (an expanded version in the Free Press)