© 2011, Christian Cassidy
Place: Former GMC Retail Branch
Address: 155 Fort Street (Map)
Architect: Max Zev Blankstein
Opened: December 1928
May 28, 1928, Winnipeg Free Press
The GMC Building at Fort Street and York Avenue has been associated with the automobile industry for most of its 85 years.
The mid-1920s were a great time General Motors Canada's Truck and Coach Division. Sales soared and in 1927 they embarked on a $2.5 million expansion of their manufacturing facility in Oshawa, Ontario and announced the construction of a second plant in Walkerville, Ontario.
A bigger presence in the West was needed as GMC trucks became a staple on farms across the prairies.
General Motors began marketing more types of vehicles from this location in the 1930s, including Chevrolet and Oldsmobile, and soon a regional dealership system was created by GM to sell their entire range of vehicles. As a result, corporate-owned showrooms such as 155 Fort Street were closed or sold off to dealers.
In February 1938 this location became a GM dealership called Inman Motors that specialized in the Chevrolet and Oldsmobile lines and had a large used car salesroom. (There were four GM dealerships in Winnipeg by 1946: Western Canada Motors on Edmonton; Carter Motors on Maryland; Pigott Truck and Tractor on Dufferin - which eventually moved to what is now the CBC Building; and Inman Motors.)
Harry Inman, the company president and CEO, was a 15-year veteran of GM's executive office. Most recently, he had been the western manager of General Motors Acceptance Corporation at Winnipeg. Several of the sales and service staff from the GM Retail Branch stayed on to work at the business.
1959 ad, Winnipeg Free Press
In March 1957, Inman Motors moved to a much larger location down the street at 180 Main Street at York and Boulton Motors relocated their Princess Avenue sales room and service shop here. They nicknamed the building 'Boulton's Corner'.
Boulton sold Studebakers and added Renaults in 1960. In 1961, the company centralized their operations to its second location on Rupert Avenue.
In 1961, a used car dealership and garage called Twin City Motors took over and rechristened 155 Fort the Mitchell Motors Building. They went bankrupt in 1966.
York Tool, a Princess Auto-type store selling everything from automotive and household tools to car mats and gloves, occupied the building from 1966 to 1978.
Address: 155 Fort Street (Map)
Architect: Max Zev Blankstein
Opened: December 1928
May 28, 1928, Winnipeg Free Press
The mid-1920s were a great time General Motors Canada's Truck and Coach Division. Sales soared and in 1927 they embarked on a $2.5 million expansion of their manufacturing facility in Oshawa, Ontario and announced the construction of a second plant in Walkerville, Ontario.
A bigger presence in the West was needed as GMC trucks became a staple on farms across the prairies.
May 12, 1928, Winnipeg Free Press
Around this time, W. B. Milliken was appointed Manager of Western Sales
for GMC and transferred to Winnipeg. It is likely that he was originally
from B.C., a car dealer in Victoria who relocated
to Vancouver around 1921 and got into the truck business.
Part of Milliken's job was to establish the first General Motors Retail Branch in Western Canada that would include a showroom, garage and parts depot under one roof. He began by striking a deal with Maw's Garage on King Street to use it as a temporary location while the hunt was on for a permanent location.
The company hired local architect Max Zev Blankstein to design the building for them.
Part of Milliken's job was to establish the first General Motors Retail Branch in Western Canada that would include a showroom, garage and parts depot under one roof. He began by striking a deal with Maw's Garage on King Street to use it as a temporary location while the hunt was on for a permanent location.
The company hired local architect Max Zev Blankstein to design the building for them.
Sept. 15, 1928, Winnipeg Tribune
V. O. Howett, assistant general sales manager for the GM's Truck and Coach Division, visited Winnipeg in May 1928 to inspect the preferred site for a permanent home and sign the paperwork. He said at the announcement, "it is just one more proof of the existence of a lively belief that business is going to be good in the West."
Howett said the company would not divulge the exact location until all the legalities had been finalized and it appears to have taken some time to seal the deal.
The Free Press ran a story in mid-August 1928 to say that the Royal Trust Company had announced the sale of the 126 x 100 foot lot of land at the northeast corner of Fort Street and York Avenue to General Motors. Part of the land was owned by a bank and the other part by the Cruthers estate of Peterborough Ontario. The sale price was $85 per foot.
The $75,000 building took up the entire site and and was constructed of concrete, steel, and brick and could fit up to 100 trucks. It had a showroom area that featured a terrazzo tile floor, a parts depot, and repair bays.
With its red brick exterior and stone accents, the GMC building bears a resemblance to the Rose theatre on Sargent Avenue that Blankstein had designed a couple of years earlier.
A "grand opening" ad can't be found, but it was certainly open by the time Robert S. McLaughlan visited it in December 1928. He and about 20 of his executives from Ontario spent time in the city en route to Regina to open a car manufacturing facility.
Howett said the company would not divulge the exact location until all the legalities had been finalized and it appears to have taken some time to seal the deal.
The Free Press ran a story in mid-August 1928 to say that the Royal Trust Company had announced the sale of the 126 x 100 foot lot of land at the northeast corner of Fort Street and York Avenue to General Motors. Part of the land was owned by a bank and the other part by the Cruthers estate of Peterborough Ontario. The sale price was $85 per foot.
The $75,000 building took up the entire site and and was constructed of concrete, steel, and brick and could fit up to 100 trucks. It had a showroom area that featured a terrazzo tile floor, a parts depot, and repair bays.
With its red brick exterior and stone accents, the GMC building bears a resemblance to the Rose theatre on Sargent Avenue that Blankstein had designed a couple of years earlier.
A "grand opening" ad can't be found, but it was certainly open by the time Robert S. McLaughlan visited it in December 1928. He and about 20 of his executives from Ontario spent time in the city en route to Regina to open a car manufacturing facility.
General Motors began marketing more types of vehicles from this location in the 1930s, including Chevrolet and Oldsmobile, and soon a regional dealership system was created by GM to sell their entire range of vehicles. As a result, corporate-owned showrooms such as 155 Fort Street were closed or sold off to dealers.
In February 1938 this location became a GM dealership called Inman Motors that specialized in the Chevrolet and Oldsmobile lines and had a large used car salesroom. (There were four GM dealerships in Winnipeg by 1946: Western Canada Motors on Edmonton; Carter Motors on Maryland; Pigott Truck and Tractor on Dufferin - which eventually moved to what is now the CBC Building; and Inman Motors.)
Harry Inman, the company president and CEO, was a 15-year veteran of GM's executive office. Most recently, he had been the western manager of General Motors Acceptance Corporation at Winnipeg. Several of the sales and service staff from the GM Retail Branch stayed on to work at the business.
1959 ad, Winnipeg Free Press
In March 1957, Inman Motors moved to a much larger location down the street at 180 Main Street at York and Boulton Motors relocated their Princess Avenue sales room and service shop here. They nicknamed the building 'Boulton's Corner'.
Boulton sold Studebakers and added Renaults in 1960. In 1961, the company centralized their operations to its second location on Rupert Avenue.
In 1961, a used car dealership and garage called Twin City Motors took over and rechristened 155 Fort the Mitchell Motors Building. They went bankrupt in 1966.
York Tool, a Princess Auto-type store selling everything from automotive and household tools to car mats and gloves, occupied the building from 1966 to 1978.
Circa 1996, Kip Park Fonds, U of M Digital Collections
The next long-term owner came in 1985 when Frontier Toyota's parent company operated a sales room, garage, and body shop here until 2000. The space was subdivided in the early 1990s to house a Thrifty and Avis Car Rental store. A and B Sound leased space for their car audio installation work in the early noughties .
Tony's Academy Auto Service was the last automotive-related tenant to call 155 Fort Street home. They occupied the space from 2000 - 2005.
It has since been renovated, including the removal of white paint from the exterior to reveal the original colour brick and stonework. It is now an office building with a number of smaller tenants.
Mention that the current look is a restoration! It had ugly paint slapped on it for many years, and someone in the 2000's wisely had it all cleaned off to reveal its original brick.
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