847 Main Street - Doner Paint and Hardware

© 2020, Christian Cassidy

Place: Former Doner Paint and Hardware
Address: 847 Main Street (Map)
Constructed: Unknown

1905 Henderson Directory

City records do not indicate a year of construction for this building. There are a number of times in the history of the site that it could have been built or was cobbled together from a couple of existing buildings.

The site appears to have contained a house with a business space on the ground floor prior to 1901. From 1899 - 1900 there were two residents who lived there and the office was that of the Socialistic Labour Party. The space was sometimes referred to as Socialist Hall.

It then became home to Sophia M. McLean's wholesale flour and feed shop.

The 1901 census shows Sophia M. McLean was a 29-year-old mother of two children aged one and three who lived at 802 Wardlaw Avenue. Her husband, Milton, was a builder. By 1903 the family had moved to Pritchard Avenue and Milton worked for his wife as a clerk. 

It was unusual for a woman to run a business at this time, especially under her own name, but that's what Sophia did until circa 1908. There were no newspaper articles or ads about the business and I could find no obituary to find out more background information about her. 

The shop became Laing Bros Flour and Feed in 1909. That same year, Milton is listed as a hay presser by trade and in subsequent street directories with no occupation which could mean he went back to being a self-employed builder. Sophie disappears from the street directories after the business changed hands. This suggests she became a homemaker as the directory normally only listed people who worked outside the home.

The building became home to Hyman Dillman Furniture and Hardware in 1911 and M. Doner and Co. hardware in 1913.

The roots of Doner Paint and Hardware run deep in the North End.

The 1896 Henderson Directory shows William F. Doner, carpenter, operating from his home at 100 Juno Street. By 1902, he had moved to 102 Scott Street. William was joined in business by his son William Jr. in 1908 and the firm became known as William F. Doner and Sons.

In 1906, W. Doner and Sons "real estate and contractors" had an office on in the Grundy Block on Main Street at Bannatyne, (now demolished), and advertised their services, including lots and finished homes for sale in the classifieds section.

May 14, 1920, Winnipeg Tribune

M. Doner and Co. was formed in 1913 and operated from 847 1/2 Main Street. The partners included Moses Doner, a self-employed painter from Manitoba Avenue, William F. Doner, now living at 361 Boyd, and Samuel Copp of 42 Aikins Street.

Over time, some of the Doners went off to start other businesses, such as Doner Drug on Selkirk Avenue and the Doner Tawapit Lodge at Clear Lake. By 1925, the company was known as Doner and Copp Hardware.

Tragedy struck on August 8, 1934 when Samuel Copp was struck and killed by a street car on Main Street outside the store. He was likely returning from the Northern Hotel across the street which he also owned.

The Dufferin Avenue street car overran a switch and the motorman had to reverse back down the track. Copp, not expecting traffic from that direction, was crushed under the back wheels of the car and killed almost instantly. It took an hour to extricate his body from under the vehicle.

Copp was just 44-years-old and left a widow and three children ages 3 to 15.

The motorman of the street car was found not to be at fault at the coroner's inquest. The private street car company had recently switched from two-man crews down to one due to the drop in revenue thanks to the growing popularity of private motor cars and the Depression. The driver, the jury felt, had no way of seeing what was on the track behind him and had followed the rules set out for backing up on city streets.

The Tribune concluded in an editorial that the accident should mean the end of one-man cars in urban areas, calling them "an abomination and menace to the public life."

April 10, 1952, Jewish Post

Soon after Copp's death the company became known as Doner Paint and Hardware with William N. Doner as proprietor and manager.

The company's address went from 847 1/2 Main to simply 847 Main after it became Doner and Copp. In the late 1940s, it took over the neighbouring building at 845 Main Street and for a few years advertised as 845 - 847 Main Street. By the end of the 1950s it was again using just 847 Main.

It could have been during the late 1940s expansion that either a new building was constructed or the two existing buildings, 845 and 847, were combined and a common front added.

Circa 1940s (Source)

The company operated quietly. There were no big dramas reported in newspapers, just the odd break-in and safe cracking which was common for the times.

The Doner family also didn't make the news much. William and Betty raised their two daughters at their long-time home at 361 Boyd Avenue.

September 13, 1962, The Jewish Post

William N. Doner died September 26, 1961. I couldn't find an obituary in the daily or Jewish weekly papers to fill in more details about his life.

If you are interested in more about the history of the Doner, sometimes spelled Donner, family, Jerry Posner wrote a two-part interview with Eileen Sever, a descendant of the Doner family, in 2019. Part 1 is here and part 2, where the store is mentioned if you scroll to page 21, is here. (This history of Doner Hardware was not written using family records, but mainly newspaper stories and street directories.)

The company was  purchased the year after Doner's death by two employees, Morris Muttner, 38, and Hyman Geller, 43, and it was reorganized as Doner Paint & Hardware 1962 Ltd. The two still co-owned it as of 1979.

It is unclear what happened to Geller as in later years it is Muttner who became the face of the business.

Muttner was born in Estevan, Saskatchewan in 1923 and moved to Winnipeg in his twenties. Not long after arriving here he began working for Doner. His 2002 obituary described him as "a quiet man who was filled with love, kindness, courage, devotion and charm."

Doner Paint and Hardware was purchased in 1991 by Ted Sobieski who operated the store until at least 2004. By 2007 it was PD Dollar Store. In 2012, it became home to Top Pro Roofing.

December 24, 1948, Winnipeg Tribune

February  8, 1945 The Jewish Post

A couple of items of note about "William F. Doner" who may have been part of this Doner family:

- A William F. Doner was granted a Canadian patent in 1913 for improvements to a rotary engine: Patent No. 145575

- A William F. Doner was granted a temporary exemption from wartime service in 1917 and was eventually assigned to the non-permanent active militia. (This likely wasn't William Sr. as he died in  1932 at the age of 75 so would have been 60 at the time of the war.)