775 St. Matthews Avenue - St. Matthews Food Centre

© 2023, Christian Cassidy

Place: St. Matthews Food Centre
Address: 775 St. Matthews Avenue
Constructed: 1922

This store was built in 1922 with the building permit issued to "K. Nixon". This is likely Kendal Nixon of Arlington Street in Wolseley who was a prominent farmer and former mayor of Wapella, Saskatchewan before coming to Winnipeg after his retirement in 1908. The property was rented out as a source of retirement income.

The building had two units with 775 the main store and a small unit with a side entrance known as 777 St. Matthews, which will be mentioned later.

775 St. Matthews Avenue

The first person to rent the building was William Fewings who came to Canada from England in 1906 and was joined the following year by his wife Emily, sons Arnold and Leslie, and daughter Winifred. Soon after arriving here, Fewings got a job as buyer for Gault’s, the dry goods wholesaler that operated from what we now know as the Artspace building, and the family settled at 418 Home Street.

By the late 19-teens, the two oldest children had moved out leaving just Arnold behind and he and Emily moved again to 98 Sherbrook Street.

Fewers was 63 years old when he opened Fewers Dry Goods in 1922, no doubt using his years of experience at Galt's to make a go of it. The store lasted just a couple of years before he retired in 1924.

Fred and Margaret Luce, June 12, 1944, Winnipeg Tribune

The building then became one of three dry goods stores owned by Frederick Luce that sold men's wear, linens, hosiery, shoes, boots and work clothes. The other Luce's Dry Goods were at 523 Logan Avenue - the original location established in 1904 and where he and his family also lived - and 126 Marion Street.

Luce was a noted singer and violin player who performed at concerts and other special events around the city. He also sold real estate on the side. It is likely due to how busy he was with his sidelines that the two branch locations closed in 1927.

In 1928, the building became Home Street Pharmacy owned by Joseph Pinx. He renamed it Home Street Sick Room Supplies in the 1930s. By 1935, it was known as the West End Pharmacy owned by Max. C. Garland.

November 27, 1947, Winnipeg Tribune

The building's decades-long run as a grocery store began in 1938 when it became one of twelve Shop Easy stores.

Shop Easy Stores Ltd. of Winnipeg was incorporated in 1937 with D. O. Boyce as president. Its stores were full range groceries with meat departments and fresh produce and were open until 9:00 p.m.. Unlike some early grocery chains that were a loose affiliation of independently-owned stores, it appears that Shop Easy stores started out as corporate-owned locations.

In November 1952, Shop Easy had 21 stores and took over the Jewel Stores' grocery chain and its 17 stores. The 775 St. Matthews location was dropped from the chain soon after the merger.

January 13, 1955, Winnipeg Tribune

Morris and Zelda Tessler of Atlantic Avenue, who had operated Economy Grocery on Alfred Ave, then bought the store. They ran it under the Red and White Stores banner, then as a Solo Store.

It was taken over by V. L. Hunt and renamed Hunt's Grocery in 1956.

In 1958, the store was taken over by the Zamick family and renamed St. Matthews Food Centre. Street directories list Clara Zamick as the proprietor of the business. She, her husband Max, and their two young daughters, Fern (born 1956) and Sandy, lived in the small unit at the side of the store.

The Zamicks previously ran a Red and White grocery store at 173 Nassau Street and lived in an apartment on Wardlaw Street.

The store had a quiet life under the Zanicks. It twice made the papers in 1971 and 1975 when Clara was held up at gunpoint. Max died in 1983 and Clara died in 2021.

March 14, 1992, Winnipeg Free Press

It is unclear how long the Zamicjks ran the store. By the 1990s it Sunhee and Jinwhan Youn.

The store closed in 2022. It was extensively renovated and reopened in 2023 as Skin by Abi, a medical aesthetics spa.


777 St. Matthews Avenue

From the beginning, this building had a second retail unit with a side entrance known as 777 St. Matthews.

It was James Boyd's bakery in 1922 and in 1924 became C and H Grocery and Confectionery run by Stella Harrison and Stella Campbell.

By 1929, the space became a barber shop and hairstylist owned by William Hoare from the early 1930s through the 1940s. In the late 1940s, Mrs. Leslie Stuart, who appeared to also live there with her family, ran the beauty parlour portion into the 1950s.

When the Zamicks took over in 1958, they used the space as their residence.