425 Henry Avenue - Turner and Walker Block / McCormick's Warehouse

 © 2023, Christian Cassidy

Place: Turner and Walker Block / McCormick's Warehouse
Address: 425 Henry Avenue
Constructed: 1912
Architect: J. M. Semmens
Builder: Carter Halls Aldinger

November 30, 1912, Winnipeg Free Press

A $63,000 building permit for this warehouse was issued in May 1912 to Turner and Walker, wholesalers and manufacturing agents. Charles S. Turner and Raymond Walker joined forces around 1910 at a small rented space at 147 Bannatyne Ave East but soon required more space.

The building itself was owned by Charles' father, Sampson Turner, who was a well-known businessman and politician, having served as both a city councillor in the late 1890s and MLA for North Winnipeg in the early 1900s.

The 30,000 square foot, four- storey block measures 52 feet x158 feet and its foundations were built so that another five storeys could be added the following year. Built for heavy equipment storage, the floor planks were laid edgewise so that they could hold 400 pounds per square inch.

The building was served by a spur rail line at the rear plus a large loading bay for carriages or trucks. Inside, it featured two large freight elevators and was fitted with the latest May-Otaway building alarm.

By the time it was all outfitted, the building cost around $100,000.

To accommodate the inevitable curve in a railway spur line this close to the rail yards, some buildings were constructed with a matching curve, such as the Frank H. Wiley block further east on Henry Avenue.

In the case of 425 Henry Avenue, the building was constructed at an angle to the street and only the slightest curve was needed along the north section of the east wall. There was likely a wood or metal loading dock attached to the building that would followed the curve more closely.

The architect of the block was John Nelson Semmens.

Originally from Ontario, Semmens attended Wesley College in Winnipeg before going to the School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation, he found work with New York City's prestigious firm McKim Meade and White. 

Semmens' first Winnipeg project was for his New York employers: the Bank of Montreal Building at Portage and Main (1910). He then settled in Winnipeg and started a firm of his own. Early commissions include this block (1912) and the St. John's Branch of the Winnipeg Public Library (1914). 

The war interrupted Semmens' career when he went overseas as an officer with the 78th Battalion (Winnipeg Grenadiers). He fell seriously ill in 1916 but recovered and rejoined his unit. In early 1918, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and became the commanding officer of the 78th. At the end of the war, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Semmens returned to Winnipeg and after the war and soon became the consulting architect for the Winnipeg School Division.

August 23, 1916, Winnipeg Free Press

Though Turner and Walker had a warehouse in their own building until around 1916 when the partnership dissolved, it seems that most of the space was rented out.

In 1913, for instance, other tenants included Otto Schultz - dry good wholesaler, McAvity and Sons – wholesaler of brass and iron goods such as plumbers supplies, and Wm. Galloway Company of Canada which sold commercial dairy and other agricultural supplies.

By 1915, it appears that Galloway took up much of the building and expanded their lines to include gas engines, cream separators, manure spreaders, farm implements and general merchandise.

The additional five storeys were never added to the building.

September 3, 1921, Winnipeg Tribune

Big changes came in 1921 with the arrival of R. Smith and Company. It was an eclectic combination of produce wholesaler and manufacturer of railway boarding cars, (things like kitchen cars, mail cars, crew accommodation cars, etc..)

Richard Smith came to Winnipeg in 1879 as part of a CPR construction crew. He worked in Edmonton and Fort William for the railway's boarding car department but returned to Winnipeg in 1904 when he  landed the CPR's boarding car construction contract. He died in 1906 but the company carried on under his name with another Richard Smith in charge and eventually added fruit and veg to the mix.

Smith's businesses left in 1921 or 1922. He rented an office in the McIntyre Block, then at 248 Princess Street, but it is unclear where the manufacturing and warehouse operations moved to.

The Manitoba Vegetable Growers Co-operative moved into the building in 1922. It was a consortium of 20 vegetable farmers who marketed and sold their food wholesale to large buyers. It reorganized in 1924 at a new location as the Manitoba Vegetable Growers Association with 150 members from around the province.

October 27, 1923, Winnipeg Free Press

The building was then home to Manitoba's first government-run liquor store.

Manitobans voted to appeal prohibition in 1921 but the provincial government was in no rush to get spirits back into the hands of the public. To appease both temperance leaders and politicos looking for additional government revenues, it established a government agency called the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) to manage the wholesaling, distribution, and sale of liquor in the province.

In 1923, the MLCC leased the Turner and Walker block which provided it with ample, secure warehouse space to hold approximately $250,000 of liquor with room on the main floor for a retail order outlet and room for 70 employees.

The MLCC store opened on September 22, 1923, and in its first month rang up around $250,000 in sales. About  $190,000 of that was to liquor permit holders such as bar owners and hoteliers and another $50,000 to pharmacists who prescribed alcohol by prescription. The days of selling to "Joe Public" had not yet arrived.

The MLCC bought the Miller Morse Building on McDermot Avenue in November 1927 as it offered a better location for MLCC's customers and it was closer to the post office and federal customs warehouse. The move to the new location was made by the summer of 1928.

February 9, 1929, Winnipeg Tribune

The building was purchased, (likely from Sampson Walker), in 1929 by Catelli Macaroni Products of Montreal.

The company was created in 1928 when eight companies led by C. H. Catelli Ltd. of Montreal merged in a bid to create a national pasta manufacturing company. One of the eight companies in the merger was Excelsior Macaroni Products Co. of 254 Dumoulin in St. Boniface.

This was typical in the Canadian food manufacturing industry at the time as groups of bakeries, dairies, etc. joined forces to make a national impact.

Catelli wanted to make Winnipeg its Western Canadian manufacturing centre and needed a larger facility that the one in St. Boniface with direct rail access. The Turner-Walker Block fir the bill.

Initially, it leased some of the excess warehouse space with Labatt's, which decades later would become Catelli's corporate parent.

January 15, 1937, Winnipeg Free Press

The Catelli factory rarely made the news with the exception of the war years when three employees were injured in serious accidents, usually to their arms or hands. This may have had to do with the company finding many of its regular employees on active duty and having to quickly hire new recruits to continue operations.

The mergers continued in the food manufacturing industry. By 1958, Catelli's parent company was known as Catelli-Habitant after amalgamating with the soup company. It was under this iteration that a new $1 million dollar manufacturing plant was constructed in Transcona in 1961.

March 25, 1919, Winnipeg Tribune

The next owner of 425 Henry Street was the McCormick's Ltd. division of the Canadian Biscuit Company which had already been using some of Catelli's warehouse space since at least 1951.

McCormick's was established in 1858 when Thomas McCormick opened a confectionery store and made his own biscuits and candies. In the early 1900s, some McCormick's products were carried in Winnipeg by food distributors and sold at Eaton's. By 1909, McCormick's had its own local warehouse  at 124 Princess Street.

In another example of conglomeration in the food manufacturing industry in the 1920s, the Canada Biscuit Company was formed in 1928 when several companies, including McCormicks, Perrin's of London, the Montreal Biscuit Company, Paulin Chambers of Winnipeg, and the Northwest Biscuit Company of Edmonton, joined forces. 

McCormick and its London plant was the largest individual manufacturer of biscuits and candy products in Canada by the 1940s.

It appears that McCormick's only used this building as a warehouse for candies and biscuits, not as a manufacturing facility. A December 1976 Winnipeg Tribune article about local Christmas candy facilities stated that McCormick's "produces an awesome array of Christmas candies", including creams, gums, assorted chocolates and their famous Christmas Mix. It noted that the treats were made in London and shipped here.

McCormick's closed its warehouse in 1979.

McCormick's still exists today after being part of many corporate mergers. It is now primarily a purveyor of spices, sauces and teas packaged under its own name and a distributor of brands including French's and Club House.  

This building sat vacant for a number of years when in 1987 the Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corporation (WHRC) announced that it would convert it into residential use.

Renovation work got underway in early 1988 but a roof fire delayed the project from its expected summer opening. It likely opened in 1989.

The building contains eight one-bedroom apartments, ten two-bedroom apartments and eight three-bedroom apartments and is still owned and operated by the WHRC.