The circa 1907 Beveridge Block at 802 Main Street was one of the buildings damaged in that fire on Main Street last week and will have to be torn down. It is a building that many have driven by thousands of times but never noticed.
I'm glad to have documented some of the building's history in a blog post and a follow-up Free Press story and CBC Radio interview.
Our history is not just in the old brick mansions and office towers, it is also in these working-class buildings in poorer neighbourhoods. I'd argue that in many ways the stories of these buildings are more important as they were the homes of those who literally built the city, as in swung the sledgehammers, laid the rails, worked in the foundries, transported the cargo, etc..
None of them ended up becoming land-rich Winnipeg millionaires or had streets named for them. They had a hard life of barely scraping by before probably an early death.
2 comments:
Too bad some unemployed, lazy local had to set the fire that took out this building.
Hard-working people helping to build up a city.... you're sounding like the media-assassinated, soon to be ex, premier Pallister ;)
BTW both he and thee are correct in the historical take of this issue (people coming...building).
You're 100 % correct in Your assessment. This city is unbelievably slow an unwieldy in most cases at getting things accomplished. They are however Johnny on the spot when it comes to demolishing old historic buildings . Maybe in this case the damage was beyond repair , but I'd expect an empty lot there ongoing , if they can't manage to put in a few cars
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