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.