731 Wellington Avenue - Former Modern Drugs

© 2023, Christian Cassidy

Place: Former Modern Drugs
Address: 731 Wellington Avenue (Map)
Constructed: ca. 1924
Architect: Unknown

This building first appears in street directories in 1924 as Wellington Meat Market, Victor Marshall proprietor. In 1934, it was renamed Falcon Meat Market under new owner Christian Johnson.

Around 1936, the building took on a new life as Modern Drug Store. The original proprietor was Sidney J. Pearlman of 410 Alfred Street.

January 29, 1938, Winnipeg Tribune

A feature of the drug store were its frequent robberies and break-ins. In January 1938, it was victim of what was believed to have been the first armed holdup in the city by a woman.

The Tribune reported: “With flashing dark eyes,, hand thrust beneath a heavy coat as if it held a gun, and a steady threatening voice as her weapons, Winnipeg's first female bandit, a tall, dark young woman struck coolly and swiftly this morning to hold up a clerk at the Modern Drug Store, 731 Wellington Avenue, and escaped with about $9 cash.”

The clerk, 20-year-old Harry Posner, was left scared and bewildered after the woman who nicely asked for a package of cigarettes turned on him after he turned his back. The woman, who was never found, would have made off with more than the $9 if she hadn't chosen to rob the store minutes after it opened at 9:30 a.m..

For Posner, it was a sign of things to come. In August, two men brandishing a revolver entered the store. They forced him into the back storeroom and scooped up $40 from the till before fleeing on foot.

Pearlman himself was held up by a gunman in August 1938.

The store changed hands in 1940 to Leon Cam and a couple of years later it was run by David Donner. In 1949, Jack Garland, an employee of the Donners, took over and renamed it Garland's Modern Drug Store.

Garland was a well known in the city as the choirmaster for Shaarey Zedek Synagogue and musical director for numerous festivals and events. Though his first love was music, Garland's parents convinced him that he needed a more stable career to fall back on and he graduated from the U of M's College of Pharmacy in 1949.

In the same year he graduated from university, Garland also submitted his Symphony in A Minor to the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto as his thesis for his Associate Diploma. The piece was performed by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra on February 26, 1953.

Garland's musical career took up more of his time as the years went by. He sold the store around 1953 and by 1955 was the full-time musical director for Sharrey Zedek Synagogue. (For more about the career of Garland.)

1965 Henderson Directory

The next owners of the drug store were Maurice and Ruth Selby who also managed Sargent Pharmacy a few blocks away. The store lasted just a year and by 1955 its days as a pharmacy were over.

The building then had various owners and uses, including:

- 1955 Durall Ltd., a plumbing and heating contractor;
- 1960 Kitchen Planning Services Ltd. warehouse, owned by W. C. Smithson;
- 1965 Economy Roofing Co. Ltd.;
- 1967 Deluxe Messenger Service.

In 1970,  Western Inventory Service, "Canada's largest Inventory Company", moved in and advertised daily in the classified section of the Free Press for full and part-time retail inventory counters through to the end of 1980.

The building was put up for sale in January 1981 for $60,000. The ad described it as 1,400 square feet with several offices, a lunchroom, and storage room.

It is unclear who bought the building and what it was used for through the 1980s as the address dos not appear in newspapers.

Interior from a 2017 rental ad

The building was put up for sale again in December 1993 for $50,000. It spent some of the 1990s as the
Islamic Education Centre of Winnipeg.

It was up for sale again in 2017, this time for $114,000. The estate agent's ad noted that the building was now zoned residential. Later that year, it was listed as a home for rent at $1,200 per month.