© 2025, Christian Cassidy
Olafson House in 2008 by C. Cassidy
Place: Gisli Olafson House
Address: 539 William Avenue (Map)
Constructed: 1895
Architect: Unknown
Builder: Unknown
Demolished: 2025
Summary:
- Olafson family (1895-1907)
- Melville family (1907- ca. 1928)
- Knight family (1940 - ca. 1945)
- Tomchuk family (1946 to at least 1964)
Sadly, Olafson House has been demolished after yet another fire. I spent a lot of time at the HSC in my teens and passed the house weekly on the bus. It was one of my favourite houses in the city. Here's a look back at its history and some of the people who called it home over the past 130 years.
This 3,367 square foot house was constructed in 1895 for Gisli Olafson (Gísli Ólafsson) and family. The architect and contractor are unknown.
This was one of several upper-middle-class brick homes built on or just off of William Avenue pre-1900. The area was far enough from the hustle and bustle to be considered an early suburb of Winnipeg's warehouse district.
Olafson came to Winnipeg from his native Iceland in 1886, at around the age of 30. He married Elin S. Jonsdottir and they had a daughter, Alpha, in 1895.
As Olafson's background was in agriculture, he opened a feed and flour store on King Street in 1889. It was a great success and eventually took up several King Street addresses.
January 12, 1902, Winnipeg Free Press
In 1901, Olafson financed the construction of the $40,000 Olafson Block, a three-storey building at 216 James Avenue (now demolished). It contained his offices and stock on the main floor and around 20 apartment units upstairs. Despite a serious fire in 1904, Olafson rebuilt and was back in business within months.
Olafson was well respected, particularly in the Icelandic and agricultural communities, but his business empire came to an abrupt end due to poor health.
In 1907, around age 52, he closed his business and leased out the Olafson Block. The commercial space was rented by Wilton Bros., a retail and wholesale flour and feed company.
August 10, 1909, Winnipeg Tribune
The Olafsons relocated to a suite inside the Olafson Block and spent time at the family cottage in Whytewold.
On Saturday, August 9, 1909, a friend called on Olafson in his suite while his wife and daughter were at the cottage and found him dead on the floor. The doctor ruled that it a was bout of paralysis, likely a stroke, that killed him.
Olafson was 54 years old and is buried in the Olafson mausoleum at Elmwood Cemetery.
February 4, 1905, Winnipeg Free Press
The next owners of the house were the Melville family: Alexander and Helen, plus five daughters and one son who ranged in age from 1 to 7 years old.
Alexander Melville was born in Fraserburgh, Scotland, and trained and practiced as an architect in his home country before coming to Winnipeg in 1903 with his wife and eldest daughters. He came at the urging of his brother, William, a fellow architect who had arrived the year before.
The Melvilles practised together until 1912. During that time, they designed over a dozen of Winnipeg's early fire halls, which they are best known for today. In all, the Melvilles designed hundreds of buildings across Manitoba. See a list of Alexander Melville's works here and here.)
Alexander and William Melville were also early cottagers in the community of Donnottar, and it is said that he was the one who chose the community's name, as Donnottar Castle is located just a few miles from Fraserburgh.
March 20, 1924, Winnipeg Tribune
The Melvilles raised their children at the home. In March 1924, Gertrude, the eldest daughter, married E. Gordon Braithwaite in a ceremony in the living room.
The newlyweds initially moved to Vancouver, then relocated to Lethbridge in February 1928. Two months after they moved, Mrs. Braithwaite died suddenly at the age of 27, leaving a 2-year-old and an infant child. Newspapers did not mention what caused her death.
November 1, 1927, Winnipeg Tribune
539 William was put up for sale in 1927 as a ten-room house with fir floors and forced air heating for $4,500. It appears to have sat empty for a year or two and then reappeared in 1931 as a rooming house advertising two or three furnished or unfurnished rooms for rent.
The house was for sale off and on through the late 1930s. In 1937, its listed price was $3,000. Through most of 1939, that had dropped to $2,200. By December 1939, it was down to $2,000 and was finally sold.
This drastic price reduction was likely due in part to the lasting effects of the Depression and a sign that the neighbourhood had moved on from being an upper-middle-class suburb.
The house continued to be owner-occupied with a couple of rooms for rent through the 1940s. Several death notices in the newspapers for this address indicate that retired couples and senior citizens lived here.
Another tenant in the 1940s was Della Linklater (nee Prettie), who rented a room when her husband went overseas to fight in the Second World War.
The Linklaters married around 1931 and lived in Springfield, Manitoba, when William Benjamin Linklater enlisted in September 1939. He went overseas with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in August 1940.
Linklater was part of the Dieppe Raid on August 19, 1942 and was killed in action on the beach that day, leaving Della and their two young children.
Della and the children continued to live at the home after William's death. In 1943, she contracted tuberculosis and was brought to the St. Boniface sanatorium where she died in September 1943 at age 30.
It was George and Julia Knight who bought the house for that drastically discounted $2,000 in 1940.
They were retired farmers from St. Andrews who moved to Winnipeg in the late 1920s. At times, some of their 14 grown children appear at this address, and they also rented out a couple of rooms or small suite for extra income, including to Della Linklater.
George died in February 1942 at the age of 82, and Julia continued to run the house until around 1945.
The Linklaters married around 1931 and lived in Springfield, Manitoba, when William Benjamin Linklater enlisted in September 1939. He went overseas with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in August 1940.
Linklater was part of the Dieppe Raid on August 19, 1942 and was killed in action on the beach that day, leaving Della and their two young children.
Della and the children continued to live at the home after William's death. In 1943, she contracted tuberculosis and was brought to the St. Boniface sanatorium where she died in September 1943 at age 30.
February 23, 1943, Winnipeg Free Press
It was George and Julia Knight who bought the house for that drastically discounted $2,000 in 1940.
They were retired farmers from St. Andrews who moved to Winnipeg in the late 1920s. At times, some of their 14 grown children appear at this address, and they also rented out a couple of rooms or small suite for extra income, including to Della Linklater.
George died in February 1942 at the age of 82, and Julia continued to run the house until around 1945.
John and Helen Tomchuk were from Poland and came to Manitoba separately in 1913 and 1909, respectively. They married and farmed at Stead, Manitoba for 25 years before retiring to Winnipeg in 1944 when John was aged 50.
John Tomchuk died in 1954 at the age of 59, and Helen continued to live there with some of her grown children, including sons Walter, Frank and his wife Shirley, and Paul and his wife Katherine (Kay).
Helen moved in with her daughter Josephine and husband Frank on McDermot Avenue in 1960, and her son Paul and wife Kay took over the house and raised three daughters here.
Kay (nee Kondryshyn) was a bookkeeper at T. Eaton Co. when she and Paul married in 1954. Paul was a tailor and had owned his own store, The Slack Shop, until about 1959. He then worked for Howard's Mens Wear until 1963, then at Tip Top Tailors, where he remained until he died in 1983.
The Tomchuks continued to live at the house until at least 1964. (At this point, online versions of the Winnipeg street directory end, though physical copies can be accessed at the local history room at the Millennium Library.)
In 2011, by C. Cassidy
Through the 1970s, the only newspaper mentions of this address are the odd "room for rent" ads.
In 1982, a rezoning application was made to change it from a two-family dwelling to a four-family dwelling with a new attached garage. In later years, it had become a rooming house with several suites.
A 2009 report for the city's Historical Buildings Committee gave the house high marks, noting that "This is one of the more outstanding single-family dwellings built in the pre-1900 era in Winnipeg".
Google Street View images show that the building was occupied until at least 2021, and possibly as late as June 2024. By the summer of 2025, it was boarded up.
The building suffered four fires since it was vacated. The final one was in the early morning hours of November 13, 2025, after which the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Department ordered it to be torn down.
Related
539 William Avenue - Winnipeg Historic Buildings committee Report (2009)
539 William Avenue photographs - My Flickr album
Vacant home demolished since burning for fourth time since August - Winnipeg Free Press
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