426 Maryland Street - Scott / Maryland Apartments

© 2019, Christian Cassidy

Place: Scott Apartments / Maryland Apartments
Address: 426 Maryland Street (Map)
Built: 1914 - 15
Architect: Edgar Prain

December 3, 1914, Winnipeg Tribune

This twenty-eight unit apartment block was constructed in 1914 -15, which was the tail end of a five-year long apartment block building boom in the city's West End. The first "for rent" ads inviting people to discover its "comfort, convenience and economy" appeared in December 1914, (above), though it did not fill with residents until spring 1915.

The block was originally called the Scott Apartments. The name changed circa 1919 to the Maryland Apartments.

Its architect, Scottish born and trained Edward Prain, practiced in Winnipeg for nearly forty years and specialized in churches and apartment blocks.

Opening at the start of World War II, there were a number of families who had loved ones fighting overseas. The parents of Private C. L. Moore of suite 18 were notified that their son was injured in the war but he survived. Another soldier with parents in the building who survived was Percy Alexander.

Sadly, for Ethel Watson of suite 8 the news was not as good. She was notified that her husband, Frank, was killed in action on August 21, 1917.

Another tragedy associated with the building was the high profile death of 19-year-old Will Robson, (above), who was killed in a car crash on Highway 1 near Oak Lake, Manitoba. He and three other young men were driving to Vancouver to work summer jobs. In 1949, Robson was the rookie quarterback who led the St. Paul's High School football team to the city championship title.

 October 31, 1932, Winnipeg Tribune

The building had a normal existence for a middle class apartment block. Social clubs met in suites from time to time, newlyweds moved in, couples had babies and celebrated anniversaries there. Newspaper stories about major crimes or fires could be found prior to the 2000s.

A 1967 population study of the changing face of the inner city noted that 426 Maryland Street's residents consisted of one child, 33 adults and 9 elderly people as residents. This would have been very different to the family-oriented building that it and many of the apartment blocks in the neighbourhood were in previous decades.

Maryland Apartments ca. 2000

By the 2000s the building was facing a number of issues including reports of apartment invasions and the manslaughter of one tenant by another. Inner-city activist Rev. Harry Lehotsky told the Winnipeg Free Press in 2004: "The place was being systematically being destroyed by transient tenants and drug dealers and prostitutes." 

An additional problem was that around 2003 the building's steam heat system was replaced by electric baseboard heaters that were no match for the cold weather.

It was due to the cold conditions that the city finally stepped in and closed down the building in January 2004.

In 2008, the block was still vacant and cited under the city's Vacant and Derelict Buildings Bylaw for a number of infractions. The owner appealed, asking for an extension on the required work to bring it up to code because the building was in the process of being sold with the intention to renovate it back into a functioning apartment block.

The building was sold and eventually renovated.

Despite the repairs and red paint job, it wasn't long before the building was back in the news for crimes happening in and around it.

On January 13, 2019 it was heavily damaged by fire. The fifty or so occupants made it out alive. A week later, the vacant building suffered another fire.

It is unclear whether the building can be salvaged.