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Tuesday, 24 February 2026

The Manwin Hotel's ghost images

Something I have been curious about ever since the Manwin Hotel was demolished are the "ghost images" left on the south wall of the neighbouring Calder Block. 

The top row of the image above shows the empty lot and the south wall of the Calder Block. You can see windows and possibly a back side entrance outside the yellow line I drew. 

Looking back, I found that these windows were definitely part of the Manwin Hotel, as it opened in 1889 and the Calder Block didn't come along to block them off until 1912. The drawing of the original footprint of the Calder Block (Bottom right) shows that it followed the Manwin Hotel right to the back lane.

To further confirm that it was the Calder Block that caused these windows and doorway to be filled in, if you look at the 1906 Gibson postcard image on the bottom row, you will see what predated the Calder Block was a ramshackle single-storey building.

That building's outline appears to also be ghosted into the side of the Caldwell Block as the lighter portion inside the yellow line? I assume when it was demolished, it left something on the side of the Manwin that then got transferred to the Caldwell.

It’s impossible to tell when this smaller building was constructed. Street directories show that the address 661 Main Street was first used around 1890, the year after the Manwin opened. It was Peter Minuk’s Fruit Shop until around 1905, just before that postcard photo was taken, then it became Benjamin Cockshott’s real estate office and bookseller.

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