661 Broadway - Howell Court

 © 2025, Christian Cassidy

Place: Howell Court
Address: 661 Broadway (map)
Constructed: 1903

Designer: Arthur E. Ham
Contractor: Day labour
Summary:
- Ham residence (1903-1906)

- Galloway residence (1907-1918)
- Medical clinic / doctors' offices (1907-1961) 

- Howell Court (1925-ca. 2022)

Howell Court has sat vacant since around 2022. Recently, the land was rezoned and a new multi-storey, mixed-use development was approved for the site in June 2025. There have been many chapters to this building's history, from single-family home to medical clinic to apartment block. 

Before it's demolished, here's a look back at its 122-year history.

The Hams

Imperial Dry Goods Department Store

The original residents of this home were Arthur E. Ham and family. He was the store manager and secretary of the Imperial Dry Goods Company and is also credited with designing the house.

The Imperial Dry Goods Company was created in February 1898 after investors bought out the S. Dunwoody-Swain and Co. dry goods retail store at 452 Main Street. Its focus was on growing the store to have "one of the largest and best stocks in the west".

One of its major investors was Robert J. Whitla, who already ran a successful dry goods wholesale company. Another investor was Arthur E. Ham, who was hired from Toronto where he had been involved in retail business for over a dozen years. He became the store's manager and the company's secretary.

The company initially operated from the original Dunwoody store. In 1900, the old building made way for 26,000 square-foot, $90,000 building that extended from Main Street through to Albert Street where it had a back entrance and loading bay. (Since then, the Main Street side of the building was demolished to construct a bank, but the Albert Street half of the original building still exists.)

The expanded department store sold everything from hardware to fabrics to home furnishings and even had a fresh flower counter. Its staff grew from four clerks to thirty.

1906 census, Library and Archives Canada

Ham arrived with his family, wife Katherine and two children aged 8 and 5, in April 1898, just weeks after Imperial Dry Goods Company was created. They initially stayed at the Leland Hotel before settling at 146 Garry Street. By 1901, they lived at 178 Langside Street.

The property at Broadway and Furby came up for sale in 1903, and Ham purchased it to custom-build a new family home. According to the city's 2009 historic buildings report for the building, Ham is listed as the architect and it was built by day labour.

The building permit does not appear to have been mentioned in newspapers of the day, so it is unclear when the house opened. Ham, likely accompanied by his family, left for a month long buying trip to eastern North America in August 1903. Classified ads show Mrs. Ham advertised for servants at this address starting in December.

The 1906 census entry for 661 Broadway shows the couple had four more children after arriving in Winnipeg and had two live-in servants.

Ham, circa 1901

Ham, who was in his early thirties when he came to Winnipeg, appears to have been well-liked by his employees. He played on the company's baseball and lacrosse teams and held an annual picnic at a public park for his staff.

In February 1901, the Hams hosted a party for the 50 or so store employees at their home on Langside Street. It consisted of games, music, dancing and a midnight dinner that ended in a rendition of Auld Lang Syne. At the end of the night, the Hams hired cars to bring staff to their respective homes. 

January 17, 1906, Winnipeg Tribune

The store survived the nearby Bulman Block fire in 1903 that heavily damaged several neighbouring buildings, including the complete destruction of Ashdown's department store just a few doors north.

In 1905, however, a combination of events led to its closure. The T. Eaton Company opened its massive department store on Portage Avenue in July, and in December, major investor Whitla died. His estate decided not to carry on with Imperial Dry Goods and the store was liquidated in January 1906. 

Ham told a Free Press reporter: "Personally, I consider this a great pity, as the Imperial Dry Goods Co. has always enjoyed a large measure of public confidence and during the past season our trade was never better."

January 14, 1906, Winnipeg Tribune

Before the liquidation sale began, about 40 staff members showed up at Ham's 661 Broadway home to present him with a gold locket with his initials on it. Ham was said to have been astonished at the event and so overcome with emotion had to sit down in his parlour for a bit. 

In making the presentation, an employee said: "It is with sincere regret that we, your late employees, gather to say good-bye to you and the Imperial Dry Goods Company.... You can, sir, look back with pride for the past eight years and say that through your efforts a splendid business was built up."

Ham did not return to retail. The following year, the family moved and Ham became the Superintendent of Insurance for the Province of Manitoba and went on to have a career in the insurance industry. He died in 1931.

The Galloways

Galloways in the 1911 census

The next residents were Dr. Herbert P. H. Galloway and family, who rented the house from Ham in 1907 and went on to purchase it around 1913.

Galloway was an orthopedic surgeon who practised in Toronto for nine years before coming west in 1905 with his wife, Charlotte, and two young daughters.

Dr. Galloway in 1917, U of M  Faculty of Medicine Archives

Dr. Galloway began teaching at the Manitoba Medical College in 1906 and became its first chair of orthopedic surgery in 1907. He was also the Winnipeg General Hospital's first orthopedic staff surgeon. It has been said that "He can truly be called the father of orthopedic surgery in Western Canada."

The well-respected Galloway was a member of several medical boards. He was a founding member of the Manitoba Medical Association and served as its president in 1910-11. He was elected president of the American Orthopedic Association at a conference in Philadelphia for the year 1918-19. He served as head of surgery at the Tuxedo Military Hospital with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel during the First World War. 

The building at 661 Broadway served as both the family home and his medical clinic, the same setup the Galloways had in Toronto on Bloor Street.

Charlotte Galloway ca. 1920s

Charlotte Galloway (nee Sanderson) was as well known as her husband thanks to her community organising and charitable work. A Winnipeg Tribune article noted that: "Mrs. Galloway, since coming to Winnipeg, has been identified with the most progressive philanthropic movements of her city."

One prominent charity was the Anti-Tuberculosis Society, which was instrumental in the development and operations of the province's main TB Sanatorium at Ninette. She was its secretary for many years and its president from 1918 to 1922.  

Mrs. Galloway was also involved with the Council of Women of Winnipeg, serving for seven years as its secretary and two years as president (1914 - 1916). 

For more about Mrs. Galloway and her extensive community work see my West End Dumplings post about her. 

Top to bottom: Aug. 1907, Jan. 1921, Jan. 1924

Furby Street, the original 1903 house in the middle (Google Street View)

Over time, the medical practice grew from being a doctor's office attached to a family home into a full medical clinic with at least two partners.  

A $6,000 building permit was granted to expand the building in 1910, and another expansion took place in 1917. These additions were to the main floor surrounding the original house structure on three sides, as can be seen in the Furby Street view above.

In 1918, the clinic became known as the Galloway-Gibson Clinic. This was thanks to the addition of physicians Dr. Alex Gibson, Andrew P. MacKinnon, and dentist Oliver Waugh. George Galloway, likely Dr. Galloway's brother, was the clinic's manager.

Due to the clinic's expansion, the Galloway family moved to 638 Wellington Crescent around 1919.

The Galloway-Gibson Clinic campus

Not only did 661 Broadway expand, but neighbouring houses were bought up to create a small medical campus.

By 1920, the house behind the clinic at 251 Furby Street had been converted into a private hospital for the clinic. The house immediately east of the clinic at 655 Broadway became a convalescent home, and the house east of that, 647 Broadway, was the nurses' residence. (Both of those homes are now demolished.)

The clinic and hospital attracted many young doctors and nurses who were eager to learn from Dr. Galloway.  There was also a dedicated team of support staff.

Miss Sadie White was secretary to Dr. Galloway and then to Dr. MacKinnon for decades.

Mrs Annie Jackson was matron of the convalescent home from 1919 until 1926, when she left to open her own nursing home. 

Minnie Garrioch R.N. worked at the clinic for several years after graduating in 1919 and went on to be a specialty TB nurse at major sanatoria in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Clinic side entrance off Furby Street, 2025 (C. Cassidy)

The expanded medical partnership and its services were short-lived.

In May 1924, the hospital building was put up for sale and "rooms for rent" ads began to appear for that address in September.  It had gone from a single-family residence to a hospital to an apartment block in a space of five years. It remains an apartment block to this day.

The convalescent home became a rooming or boarding house, advertising rooms for rent in late 1924.

As for 661 Broadway, rental ads for its new, eight small suites began in February 1925. The building also took on the new name Howell Court. (Galloway's mother's maiden name was Mary Howell.) 

This did not mean the end of the building's medical connections. Doctors Galloway and MacKinnon continued to have offices and see patients in the building for years to come.

July 13, 1939, Winnipeg Tribune

Galloway's first wife died in 1923 and he remarried a couple of years later. By this time, he was around 60 and began stepping back from his hospital and university work, but still saw patients in his office and did the odd lecture.

Dr. Galloway died in 1939 at 661 Broadway whilst dictating notes to his secretary. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

MacKinnon Clinic / Howell Court

Dr. MacKinnon ca. 1936 (Manitoba Medical College)

Galloway's long-time medical partner and fellow orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Andrew P. MacKinnon* continued to practice at 661 Broadway and was soon joined by his nephew, Dr. William B. MacKinnon, also an orthopedic surgeon. The offices were renamed the MacKinnon Clinic.

(Note that the spellings "McKinnon" and "MacKinnon" were used interchangeably throughout his career. According to his wartime attestation papers, which he filled out himself, the proper spelling was MacKinnon, but McKinnon appears far more often in newspapers. Even publications of the Manitoba Medical College, where he was on the board and an honorary president, used the incorrect spelling when referring to him, such as here.)

Howell Court, 1931 Census, Library and Archives Canada

It is unclear who owned the clinic after Galloway died. The medical offices were retained on the main floor for the MacKinnons and the eight residential suites continued to rent under the name Howell Court.

The apartment side changed very little over the years. Through the 1920s, several of the people who lived upstairs were involved with the clinic. They included: George Galloway, the clinic’s manager; Mrs. Ethel Curr, the stenographer, and her two children; and Sadie White, secretary.

The 1931 census shows 20 people living in the eight suites. Many were retail clerks or salespeople, many were couples without children. A decade later, the street directory shows many married women with no husbands – perhaps they were widows or long-term patients?

Three of the 1931 residents, Mrs. Chrispin, Mrs. Gaffekin and William / Elizabeth McLaughlin, are still living there. These are the 1940 residents by suite number:

1. Mrs. Roberts – no occupation listed
2. Mrs. Frances Chrispin and daughter Brenda -  both Eaton employees
3. Mrs. Matilda McDonald - no occupation listed
4. Mrs. M. Stafford, no occupation, and Mona Stafford, clerk at Royal Bank
5. Wm McLaughlin, salesman, and wife Elizabeth
6. Alfred G Morin and wife Florence– watchmaker
7. Mrs. L Gaffikin - no occupation listed

8. Miss M Taylor- – no occupation listed

The longest-serving tenants were likely Elizabeth McDonald, who died here in 1965 at the age of 84 after around 35 years of residency. Alfred G. Morin and his wife Florence lived here from at least 1940 until he died in 1975. Florence eventually moved to Beacon Hill Lodge where she died in 1987.

There were numerous death notices for this address from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s for elderly residents, and the "for rent" ads during this time specified no children. It is likely that Howell Court was an informal seniors home.

June 5, 1942, Winnipeg Tribune

There was at least one wartime casualty with a connection to Howell Court: Sgt. Joffrey Kitchener McDonald.

McDonald grew up in Elkhorn, Manitoba and joined the Air Force in February 1941. He was assigned to the 113th Bomber Reconnaissance Battalion in Yarmouth NS.

On June 1, 1942, he was part of a four-man crew who went out on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Bay of Fundy. They took off just before noon and were never heard from again. The men were declared dead in December.

McDonald likely lived in Edmonton when he enlisted, but his mother, Mrs. Matilda McDonald, was his next of kin at suite 3, Howell Court.

Main entrance, 2015 (C. Cassidy)

Dr. Andrew MacKinnon died in 1945,  and William MacKinnon continued to keep an office here until 1961. He then relocated to 404 Graham Avenue, the original, ca. 1923, Medical Arts Building, which contained hundreds of doctors, a diagnostic laboratory, and an x-ray clinic under one roof.

After nearly 55 years, 661 Broadway's association with the medical profession ended.

Classified ads appeared throughout 1962 to rent out the vacated 1,200 square foot office space, but newspaper and street directory searches through the remainder of the 1960s indicate no new commercial tenant was found. The space was likely converted into two additional suites, as more recent documents indicate that Howell Court was a ten-suite apartment block.

The end of Howell Court

Howell Court has sat vacant since around 2022. In 2023, an application was approved to have the land rezoned for a larger development on the site. 

In June 2025, an application was approved for the building to be demolished and replaced with a four-storey mixed-use residential and commercial building with three commercial units on the ground floor and 21 residential units on the upper floors.

It is unclear when Howell Court will be demolished.

Related:

661 Broadway My Flickr album of Howell Court
661 Broadway City of Winnipeg Historic Building Report (2009)
661 Broadway Plan approved by City Centre Community Committee, June 25, 2025 (see item 3 and its two attachments)