Plagiarising Winnipeg History - Part 5: Winnipeg City Hall

"... to take and use as one’s own (the thoughts, writings, or inventions of another person); to copy (literary work or ideas) improperly or without acknowledgement."
Justice Harrington, Federal Court of Canada (source)

In an online world, the plagiarism of one's work is hard to monitor. It does stand out, though, when it is done on a niche subject in a small community. 

About a decade ago, a Facebook group called Vintage Winnipeg started up and soon became a pain for people who collected and uploaded images. The page would raid photo sites, online archives, blog posts, etc. to take photos and post them as their own without crediting the source. It is a big reason why postcard / glass negative / photo collectors don't share their new finds publicly anymore.

The well of photo sources for Vintage Winnipeg to vacuum up must have dried up as earlier this year the "Vintage Winnipeg Blog" began. Given its penchant for not crediting other people, I thought I would take a look at their posts. Here's what I found.

Part 1 - Influenza in Winnipeg post
Part 2 - Lewis B. Foote post
Part 3 - Jessie Kirk post
Part 4 - Assiniboine Park Zoo post
Part 5: - Winnipeg City Hall
Five more to come !!

Part 5: Winnipeg City Hall
For its post about Winnipeg's City Halls, the Vintage Winnipeg Blog really went big time. No piddly local blogs or Wikipedia entries this time around. This time, it is lifted from an essay written by the esteemed historian Alan F. J. Artibise for a 1977 edition of the journal Manitoba Pageant. It appears here at the Manitoba Historical Society website.

Again, lots of photos. Some of the sources, if you want background information, dates and proper accreditation given to publications and photographers, include the Winnipeg Tribune Photograph Collection, as well as many collections at the U of M Digital Collections, such as the Henry Kalen Fonds, Winnipeg Building Index and Winnipeg Tribune Collection, (just search the term "city hall")

Here is the plagiarism, paragraph by paragraph:

Vintage Winnipeg Blog: In the two years following Winnipeg’s incorporation as a city in November 1873, city council meetings were held in a variety of buildings in the young city, including a furniture store. Construction of Winnipeg's First City Hall, located on Main Street between William and Market Avenues, began in 1875. The laying of the cornerstone in August of 1875 was greeted with a great sense of occasion with local businesses declared the day a holiday and over 500 people were said to have witnessed the ceremony. The ceremony began with a large procession down Main Street and concluded with the ritual of laying the cornerstone. In the corner-stone were samples of money, all the way from early Hudson’s Bay Company pounds and shillings to Canadian currency, British money, even Russian kopeks and Prussian coins brought in by Mennonite immigrants. There were photos galore, including the mayor and council, street scenes, dog trains, oxcarts, even Louis Riel and his government; newspapers, copies of charters, bylaws and progress reports; the prize list of the first annual show in 1874 of the Industrial and Agricultural Society of Manitoba; a copy of the city’s charter of incorporation and its “rules and regulations” for 1875. 

Alan Artibise in Manitoba Pageant: “In the two years following Winnipeg’s incorporation as a city in November 1873, city council meetings were held in a variety of buildings in the young city, including a furniture store. [1] By August, 1875, however, Winnipeg’s first city hall had been begun amid great ceremony. On 17 August 1875 a “grand civic holiday” celebrating the placing of the cornerstone of Winnipeg’s first city hall occurred. The ceremony began with a large procession down Main Street and concluded with the ritual of laying the cornerstone. Edith Paterson

, Tales of Early Manitoba (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Free Press, 1970), pp. 78-79: In what must have been the largest iron casket ever entombed in a corner-stone were samples of money, all the way from early Hudson’s Bay Company pounds and shillings to Canadian currency, British money, even Russian kopeks and Prussian coins brought in by Mennonite immigrants. There were photos galore, including the mayor and council, street scenes, dog trains, oxcarts, even Louis Riel and his rebel government; newspapers, copies of charters, bylaws and progress reports; the prize list of the first annual show in 1874 of the Industrial and Agricultural Society of Manitoba; a copy of the city’s charter of incorporation and its “rules and regulations” for 1875. [2]>

Vintage Winnipeg Blog: “Winnipeg’s first city hall, constructed at a cost of almost $40,000, was formally opened in March 1876 with a concert in aid of the Winnipeg General Hospital. During these early years, when the city hall was one of only a very few substantial buildings in the young city, the municipal hall was a “multi-use” building. In September 1876, for example, a group used the council chambers to organize Winnipeg’s first philharmonic society.”

Alan Artibise in Manitoba Pageant: “Winnipeg’s first city hall, constructed at a cost of almost $40,000, [3] was formally opened in March 1876 with a concert in aid of the Winnipeg General Hospital. [4] During these early years, when the city hall was one of only a very few substantial buildings in the young city, the municipal hall was a “multi-use” building. In September 1876, for example, a group used the council chambers to organize Winnipeg’s first philharmonic society. [5]”

Vintage Winnipeg Blog: “Almost from the outset, however, this first city hall proved to be structurally unsound. It had been built over Brown’s Creek, which crossed Main Street near William Avenue. The land fill on which the structure was erected could not support the building and as early as 1876 ominous cracks began to appear as the city hall slowly settled into the creek bed on which it had been built. During the winter of 1882-1883 an addition was made to the city hall but it too was soon in difficulty. The addition had been constructed during the “excessive cold weather of that winter” and when spring arrived “the building showed unmistakable signs of being unsafe. Huge cracks appeared in the walls, an arch fell down, the woodwork became warped, and so many hasty signs of construction were apparent that the building was propped up for several weeks and ultimately pulled down” in April 1883.”

Alan Artibise in Manitoba Pageant: “Almost from the outset, however, this first city hall proved to be structurally unsound. It had been built over Brown’s Creek, which crossed Main Street near William Avenue. [6] The land fill on which the structure was erected could not support the building and as early as 1876 ominous cracks began to appear as the city hall slowly settled into the creek bed on which it had been built. During the winter of 1882-1883 an addition was made to the city hall but it too was soon in difficulty. The addition had been constructed during the “excessive cold weather of that winter” and when spring arrived “the building showed unmistakable signs of being unsafe. Huge cracks appeared in the walls, an arch fell down, the woodwork became warped, and so many hasty signs of construction were apparent that the building was propped up for several weeks and ultimately pulled down” in April 1883. [7]”

Vintage Winnipeg Blog: “The first advertisements calling for plans and specifications for the erection of Winnipeg’s second city hall appeared in the city’s daily papers of Saturday, June 16, 1883. A year later, in July 1884, the cornerstone was laid. But unlike the first city hall, where difficulties occurred only after the building was completed, the second city hall was surrounded with controversy from the beginning. The first problem had to do with the location of the structure; obviously it could not be built on the same spot as its predecessor because of foundation problems. Disputes over the material used in the construction of the building and over fees paid to the architectural firm of Barber and Barber raged throughout 1884 and 1885.”

Alan Artibise in Manitoba Pageant: “The first advertisements calling for plans and specifications for the erection of Winnipeg’s second city hall appeared in the city’s daily papers of Saturday, 16 June 1883. A year later, in July 1884, the cornerstone was laid. But unlike the first city hall, where difficulties occurred only after the building was completed, the second city hall was surrounded with controversy from the beginning. The first problem had to do with the location of the structure; obviously it could not be built on the same spot as its predecessor because of foundation problems. But this initial problem was only one of many. Disputes over the material used in the construction of the building and over fees paid to the architectural firm of Barber and Barber raged throughout 1884 and 1885.

Vintage Winnipeg Blog: “Winnipeg’s second city hall was a “Victorian fantasy” that captured in layers of stone and brick more than any other building of the time the exuberance and optimism of the period. The new building, with its turrets and picturesque clock, embodied the spirit of the times. Like its predecessor, the great Victorian city hall quickly became a focal point for Winnipeg. It not only served the needs of municipal government, it also provided a home in the years immediately following its construction for the Board of Trade, the library and reading room of the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba and the club rooms of the St. George’s and St. Andrew’s Societies.”

Alan Artibise in Manitoba Pageant: “ Winnipeg’s second city hall was a “Victorian fantasy” that captured in layers of stone and brick more than any other building of the time the exuberance and optimism of the period. [9] The new building, with its turrets and picturesque clock, embodied the spirit of the times. Like its predecessor, the great Victorian city hall quickly became a focal point for Winnipeg. It not only served the needs of municipal government, it also provided a home in the years immediately following its construction for the Board of Trade, the library and reading room of the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba and the club rooms of the St. George’s and St. Andrew’s Societies. [10]”

Vintage Winnipeg Blog: “During the first decade of the twentieth century Winnipeg grew at a fantastic pace. When the second city hall was completed in 1886, the city’s population was only 20,238. By 1901 it had doubled to 42,340, and by 1911 it had soared to 136,035. As a result of this growth, city hall rapidly became overcrowded and ill-suited to the needs of the rapidly expanding civic bureaucracy.”

Alan Artibise in Manitoba Pageant: “During the first decade of the twentieth century Winnipeg grew at a fantastic pace. When the second city hall was completed in 1886, the city’s population was only 20,238. By 1901 it had doubled to 42,340, and by 1911 it had soared to 136,035. [11] As a result of this phenomenal growth, city hall rapidly became overcrowded and ill-suited to the needs of the rapidly expanding civic bureaucracy.”

Vintage Winnipeg Blog: “A committee of Winnipeg’s City Planning Commission recommended in January 1913 that a new civic centre be built. City council responded by holding a contest for a design for a new city hall. Thirty-nine designs were submitted in competition and on 10 March 1913, Winnipeg city council announced the winner. Had the plans calling for a new city hall been completed only a year or two earlier, there is little doubt that the structure would have been built. But by the fall of 1913, Winnipeg and, indeed, all Canada was deep in the midst of a severe recession. It was soon followed by a world war.”

Alan Artibise in Manitoba Pageant: “A committee of Winnipeg’s City Planning Commission recommended in January 1913 that a new civic centre be built. [15] City council responded by holding a contest for a design for a new city hall. Thirty-nine designs were submitted in competition and on 10 March 1913, Winnipeg city council announced the winner….. Had the plans calling for a new city hall been completed only a year or two earlier, there is little doubt that the structure would have been built. But by the fall of 1913, Winnipeg and, indeed, all Canada was deep in the midst of a severe recession. It was soon followed by a world war.”

Vintage Winnipeg Blog: “Instead, the building stood for another fifty years until its tower began to crumble. Falling plaster narrowly missed injuring City Hall visitors in 1958."

City of Winnipeg – History of City Hall: “Instead, the building stood for another fifty years until its tower began to crumble. Falling plaster narrowly missed injuring City Hall visitors in 1958."

Vintage Winnipeg Blog: "While the city gained a new city hall, the third in its history, it also lost its “grand old City Hall” when it was demolished in 1962. There were attempts to save the structure with groups in the city calling for its conversion to either a museum or a downtown library. But those who argued for its destruction won the day and Winnipeg lost its most visible landmark and an important link to it’s past."

Alan Artibise in Manitoba Pageant: "While the city gained a new city hall, the third in its history, it also lost its “grand old City Hall” when it was demolished in 1962. There were attempts to save the structure with groups in the city calling for its conversion to either a museum or a downtown library. [18] But those who argued for its destruction won the day and Winnipeg lost its most visible landmark. It also lost a firm link with the past."