Address: 502 Selkirk Avenue
Constructed: ca. 1903. Demolished 2019
The house at 502 Selkirk Street was likely constructed in 1903. Its first owner was Jacob Dick, a conductor with the CPR. John C. Ward, a fellow conductor, was his lodger.
October 1917 ad
Around 1908, it became home to Louis Miclowsky and family. A tailor by trade, he initially worked in a shop at 612 Ellice Avenue. By 1917, he had a small shop at 253 Sherbrook Street.
Other owners over the next decade included:
1923 - Samuel Block and family
1925 - Louis Kelin and family. He was foreman NorthWest Hide and Fur.
1930 - fruit dealer Benjamin Rabinovich and family
1932 - carpenter Mike Kovel and family
In 1934, Hymie Kleiman, cabinetmaker, and family moved in. It appears that it was Kleiman who had the retail front added to the building in 1937. From the store portion he operated the Winnipeg Bentwood Chair Co.
The store lasted just a couple of years, but he continued to work as a cabinet maker and used the store front as his shop.
The Kleimans usually had lodgers.
In 1939, it was Harry Wener and wife, Tillie. He was a salesman for Perths Cleaners and Tillie worked at clothing manufacturer Freed and Freed. The following year he enlisted to serve in the war. When he returned in 1948, they moved on.
April 4 1963, Jewish Post
In 1948, it appears that Kleiman, by then retired, sold the building. The new owner was Steve Kushnir who opened the Montreal Fur Co. in the retail space and lived in the residential portion wih his wife, Mary, and two young daughters.
Born in Ukraine, Kusnir came to Winnipeg in 1929 and soon began working for Montreal Fur Co., a fur manufacturer that had been in business since at least 1920. (Interestingly, in 1937, of the ten employees listed, all with different last names, they all listed their residential address as 117 Selkirk Avenue.)
Kushnir became a partner in the firm in 1938 when it was located at 223 Dufferin. By 1941, he is listed as the proprietor. That same year he married Mary Sanko who cad come to work for him.
In 1987, Kushnir retired and sold off the building. Mary died in 1980. He died in 1994.
The next long term tenant was gift shop Yorkdale Imports owned by Sam Victor. He closed the store in summer of 2011 citing the decline in Selkirk's fortunes as a retail street. (The Selkirk BIZ noted in a 2011 study that between 2005 and 2011, 75 of the 125 businesses on the street disappeared.)
Aside from a short-lived restaurant venture in 2017, the retail portion of the store has remained vacant. Suites for rent had been advertised in the residential portion as late as September 2018.
The house portion was destroyed by fire on April 3, 2019.
Czas, May 3, 1950
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