© 2026, Christian Cassidy
On Saturday, I appeared in a CTV Winnipeg news story about the 120th anniversary of Happyland, which held its grand opening weekend May 24 - 26, 1906. Here is a deeper dive into the history of this "magnificent resort for fun and frolic" that struggled to survive financially for most of its existence.
Part 1: The Glory Days (1906 to 1908)
Part II: New Ownership (1909)
Part III: The Final Countdown (1910-1914)
Part IV: A Wartime Reprieve (1915-1920)
Part IV: A Wartime Reprieve (1915-1920)
February 26, 1915, Winnipeg Free Press
The city included money in its 1915 budget to survey the Happyland site so that extensions to Garfield and Sherburn streets could be added to the city's street inventory. Construction of the full streets, sidewalks and boulevards would still take many years.
In February 1915, Fisher took out ads offering his own financing to home builders who wanted to purchase lots and vowed that construction would take place "war or no war". This was, no doubt, to get around the fact that bank financing for most construction projects had dried up at the start of the war.
Residents in 1917
Some lots were built on, as noted by the Winnipeg Free Press in an article in late April: "Work has commenced on ten houses on Garfield Street south of Portage Avenue, in the Happyland property, by Rackow." Fisher attended the city's public works committee that month to ask that sewer and water be hooked up to that section of the road.According to the Henderson Street Directory, these houses, five on each side of the street, were clustered somewhere between Portage and Westminster avenues. (At some point, the street was renumbered, as this is now the 200 block of Garfield.)
Some of the early residents included: Albert Racknow, the builder of the homes; Verner Fox, manager at Baker Valve Co.; Wilfred Campbell, secretary treasurer of the Canadian Freight Association; and J. Banbridge, assistant manager at Ford Motor Company.
Ski hill at Happyland, February 14, 1915 (Winterbos on Flickr)
As Happyland was awaiting its transformation into suburbia, the south end of the site had a revival.
The Winnipeg Ski Club, which was founded a couple of years earlier at Elm Park, was given permission to build a ski jump by the river in January 1915. The Winnipeg Tribune reported that 1,000 people came out on its opening day of Sunday, January 17th, to watch club members, including some past champions, do acrobatic jumps.
The initial hill was 50 feet tall, but structural issues near the top caused concerns about its safety. That section was rebuilt, and the hill was increased to 70 feet for the following weekend.
Also in February 1915, there was a gathering of up to 7,000 troops on the site for an inspection by senior military brass. It included a memorial service for those lost on the battlefield.
May 29, 1915, Winnipeg Tribune
On Victoria Day 1915, the Winnipeg Follies music and theatre group began a summer-long engagement at the park. The shows were held in an "open-air enclosure" described as a fenced-in area with a raised stage surrounded by chairs. It's unclear how many people it could hold.
The shows were held most nights, weather permitting, through to the end of August. Proceeds went to various wartime patriotic funds.
The Winnipeg Follies, now named the Queries, performed a small number of shows at Happyland, but were kept busy elsewhere in the city.
In summer sports, the ball diamond was used for some games in both the Intermediate and Junior amateur baseball leagues, including their finals in August.
August 14, 1916, Winnipeg Free Press
From August 14 to 19, 1916, "The once -famous pleasure centre, Happyland, blazed forth again in all its former glory", when a travelling show called The World at Home took over the grounds. This was a travelling carnival, circus, and wild west show likely based out of Chicago.
The most notable acts were a lion show, trick horse riding, a sword swallower, and a high dive act that had acrobatic divers jump from 100 feet into a five-foot deep tank. Many of the divers and rodeo "cowpersons" were women.
The Manitoba Patriotic Fund brought the show to town, and all proceeds went to wartime charities.
The Winnipeg Ski Club's hill returned in January 1917 and proved to be as popular as ever.
On Saturday, February 10, a reported 10,000 people came throughout the day to see several ski jumping competitions that offered "thrills, spills, and chills that kept the good-natured crowd amply entertained". The height of the jump was increased to 100 feet for the occasion
On Saturday, February 10, a reported 10,000 people came throughout the day to see several ski jumping competitions that offered "thrills, spills, and chills that kept the good-natured crowd amply entertained". The height of the jump was increased to 100 feet for the occasion
For good measure, around 200 members from various snowshoe clubs also attended the site that day and held a series of races.
June 2, 1917, Winnipeg Tribune
The sports and entertainment offerings at Happyland in 1917 continued through the spring and summer.
The big summer event at Happyland was a combination of the Gollmar Bros. Circus and James Patterson's Wild Animal Shows, on June 7 and 8. The two put on a parade from the Great Northern Railway yards at the present-day Forks, to the site.
Happyland came alive with various big top tents, activity booths, wagons, and concessions. The animals included five elephants, lions, tigers, and even a hippopotamus.
The World at Home, with its circus and midway, returned for a week-long stay in August, with all proceeds to the Returned Soldiers' Aid and War Widows Association.
The ball diamond was kept busy as the main site of the Intermediate League. The field must have been in good shape that summer as the Intermediate League, Junior League and Midget League all held their finals at Happlyland in August.
May 17, 1917, Winnipeg Tribune
Nothing more was mentioned in the newspapers about this work and it does not appear to have included any house building.
June 8, 1918, Winnipeg Tribune
There was no winter activity at Happyland in 1918, but its baseball diamond was a busy place throughout the spring and summer with both the Júnior and Intermediate amateur leagues using it as their main venue.
One travelling circus that applied to use Happyland in August had its application rejected by the city and it instead used a site north of the city. There was no explanation why, but Happyland was a busy enough place that summer without it.
February 17, 1919, Winnipeg Tribune
The winter games resumed in 1919 as the Winnipeg Ski Club and Winnipeg Snowshoe Club made use of the site most weekends from mid-January to late March.
In April, the Midget and Intermediate baseball leagues held practices at the Happyland diamond. Also, the St. Margaret's Tennis Club voted to use the site for lawn tennis and considered hiring a caretaker to keep the courts in top shape.
Despite this, there is no mention of any baseball or tennis being played at Happyland through the summer. This could be because surveyors were busy on the site.
January 24, 1920, WInnipeg Free Press
1920 was a year of great change for the Happyland site, and it began with the death of William Mann Fisher, the real estate man and owner of the Happyland site since the park's inception in 1906.
Fisher was a long-time resident of 147 East Gate with his wife, Amelia, and their three children. Both of their sons, Edwin Fisher and Harold Fisher, were killed in action within weeks of each other in the First World War. (A bronze tablet honouring the brothers was unveiled at All Saints Church on Broadway in 1922).
The first mention of Fisher's death, age 62, in newspapers is the above Free Press article from January 24th, after his funeral had taken place. There is no mention of the details of his death in any news articles.
The estate, including the undeveloped Happyland site Fisher held onto for so long, along with other property, stocks, and bonds, were to be liquidated and the money split evenly between his wife and daughter.
May 15, 1920, Winnipeg Tribune
Black and Armstrong was chosen as the firm to sell the 208 or so lots along Garfield and Sherburn streets. Wanting a quick liquidation, they were priced low, and it used taglines such as "Greatest Bargain in Years" and "The Cheapest Residential Property South of Portage Avenue" in its ads.
The lots sold quickly thanks to the low price and post-war housing financing schemes established in 1918 by the federal and provincial governments to spur residential development after four years of almost no new construction.
There were some building restrictions in place to ensure that the housing was of a high standard and fit in with the neighbourhood that had grown up around it.
For instance, houses had to be set at least 24 feet back from the street, and the minimum construction value had to be $4,500. Because the lot owner chose their own home builder, it was expected that "no two houses would be the same", which set it apart from some other streets that were being built quickly with "cookie-cutter" homes.
May 7, 1921, Winnipeg Free Press
A representative of Black and Armstrong updated the daily papers about the progress of Happyland lots.
By July 1921, thirty houses were in various stages of construction on Garfield and Sherburn streets, all ranging in price from $5,500 to $7,000, with twenty more expected to start over the summer. It was also noted that many people bought lots but were holding off for another year or two in the hopes that the cost of building materials and labour would go down over time.
It appears that the sale of the lots was completed by the summer of 1921, as Black and Armstrong's ads disappear from the newspapers by the end of the summer.
June 23, 1921, Winnipeg Tribune
In one last hurrah to Happyland's past, its final exotic animal residents stayed there in June 1921.
The Winnipeg Spring Jubilee brought Howe's Great London Circus and Van Amburg's Wild Animal Show to town from June 20 to 26, 1921. The show was held across Portage Avenue from Happyland. This was vacant land that had been used several times in Happyland's latter years as an alternative for such shows.
The shows arrived in Winnipeg by train on June 12. The enormous size of the production, which included over 600 staff, meant that some of its equipment had to be staged on lots elsewhere in the city.
There was no room at the show site to keep an enclosure for its four elephants between performances, so one was set up across the street on some of the Happyland lots. the paciderms were were walked across the street for showtime.
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