421 Sherbrook Street - Private Residence

 © Christian Cassidy, 2025

421 Sherbrook in 2018 (Source: Google Street View)

Place: Private Residence
Address: 421 Sherbrook Street (Map)
Built: 1905
Size: 1,260 square feet with basement
Contractor: David J. Ross (?)

The building permit for this two-storey house was issued in 1905. It was one of more than a dozen residential permits issued for the block of Sherbrook Street between Portage Avenue and Ellice Avenue in a year of great change for the area. 

The city was desperate to open up new land for residential development and around 1903 began to build proper streets, boulevards, and sewer lines in what is now called the West End west of the University of Winnipeg. A July 1, 1905 Winnipeg Tribune story noted that the resulting residential lots were "selling like hotcakes".

This house may have been built by David J. Ross, a carpenter who lived at 145 Mayfalr Street. According to city records, "D. J. Ross" is the only builder listed on two building permits for houses on the east side of the block in 1905, (which could be this house and the "twin house" on the lot next door at 419 Sherbrook).

Sherbrook St. looking north from Portage, ca. 1912 (Rob McInnis postcard collection)

Sherbrook(e) Street, (the "e" at the end was dropped around 1915), was a desirable street to live on. It was on the edge of the city and away from the bustle and pollution of the downtown and warehouse district. Despite its distance from the city's core, it had great connectivity as it was serviced by a streetcar line that ran from Portage Avenue to Notre Dame Avenue. 

Many large, middle-class homes were constructed on both Sherbrook and Maryland Streets during this period and it wasn't unusual for them to sell in the $3,000 to $4,000 range, a thousand dollars more than houses on neighboring streets.

One person who chose this block of Sherbrook on which to build his family home in 1905 was Thorstein Oddson, a well-known and successful developer of homes and apartment blocks. 

Charles and Margaret Mather (Source: The Asquith Record)

The first residents of 421 Sherbrook Street were the Mather family made up of Charles L. Mather, wife Margaret (Maggie), and four children ranging in age from a few months to eight years old.

Charles Mather was originally from Peterborough County, Ontario where he taught school before coming to Morden, Manitoba in 1881. He married Margaret Hamilton Shaw and they moved to the Rosebank District to farm and start a family.

Asquith, circa 1910 (Source: Peel's Prairie Provinces)

In 1903, Charles and his brother Andrew purchased a large tract of land in Saskatchewan from the CPR on which the village of Asquith would be established. Charles moved his family to Winnipeg in 1905 and became the real estate agent for the Asquith town site and surrounding farmland.

Charles had a residence built in Asquith in 1907 and the family relocated there. He went on to serve as the village's first mayor from 1908 to 1912 and then as president of its board of trade.

October 2, 1914, Winnipeg Tribune

After the Mayer family left this was likely a rental property as a steady stream of short-term resident families came and went. Most years, the street directory notes that in addition to the main family there were usually two lodgers renting rooms. It's unclear if these rooms had a separate entrance but it would be odd to have several families in a row willing to have strangers living in their home. 

The house sat empty in 1907 but by 1909 real estate agent James Blanchard lived there with his family. There were also two lodgers: William. T. Millard, an employee of the government telephone service; and Edward Parkla, a clerk at Vulcan Iron Works.

In November 1910, Andrew R. Dodds, a foreman at Brydges Engineering and Supply Co., married Margaret Clark and the couple moved into the house on November 15. The 1911 census roll shows a whole other family of four, the Bartleys, living with them. 

The Dodds moved on to 499 Sherbrook Street in 1912 and Catherine Clark, widow of Neal, and her four grown children lived here. The lodger was carpenter Peter Hay. 

In 1913, this was home to Robert McAllister and family. He was a baker at Milton's Bakery. The grown children also living there at the time were Bert, an Eaton’s clerk, Thomas, a bookmaker, Samuel, an Eaton’s clerk, and William, an engraver. There was also a lodger named Walter Hearne who was a machinist.

November 11, 1916, Winnipeg Tribune

The next family to move in was that of Hugh and Sophie Mewha.

The Mewhas were from Portarlington, Ireland and came to Winnipeg in 1910 with their sons Percy, Tansley and Norman. Hugh was a salesman at a dry goods wholesaler called Tees and Persse.

Like the families before them, the Mewhas stayed just a couple of years from 1915 to around 1917 before moving to Furby Street.

Percy Mewha, who was a clerk at Eaton’s, enlisted with the 179th CEF Cameron Highlanders of Canada in August 1915, just days after his 17th birthday. He arrived in England aboard the S. S. Saxonia in October 1916.

According to Percy’s personnel record, he spent most of his time in England and made it through the war uninjured, unless you count his 28-day stay in hospital for tonsillitis. He returned to Canada aboard the RMS Baltic in March 1919 and arrived at the CPR Depot on Higgins Avenue by the end of the month with hundreds of other returning soldiers.

Percy lived a long life and died in 1971.

Top: September 1923. Bottom: April 1924.

The house appears to have become a formal boarding house or rooming house in the 1920s. Ads appeared throughout the decade which noted three rooms for rent on the "bathroom floor" and three rooms for rent on the main floor with the option of laundry or light housekeeping (LHK) service.

At times, the entire house was advertised for lease as a business opportunity. In those ads it was noted as having seven rooms, the seventh was presumably where the caretakers lived. Such rooming or boarding houses were often run by a retired couple or a widow.

Cecil S. Gunn, who took out the classified ads, was a real estate agent, property manager, and mortgage broker who came to Winnipeg in the early 1900s with the Merchant's Bank. He left the bank in 1910 to work in a real estate partnership then in 1920 created C. S. Gunn and Company. It is unclear if the company owned the house or acted on behalf of an owner. Gunn advertised for the house until 1931.

November 27, 1924, Winnipeg Tribune

Many dozens of tenants came through the house in the 1920s. One who lived there very briefly in late 1924 was Frank T. Matthews.

Matthews graduated from Brandon College's music program under Professor W. T. Wright around 1908 and taught there for a while. He then moved to Minnedosa where he gave piano lessons and was an organist and choirmaster at area churches. 

Matthews came to Winnipeg for a time in the 1920s and taught from various addresses, including this one in 1924. He returned to Winnipeg in the 1940s to be the organist and choirmaster at St. Mary's Cathedral and then at Christ Church on Henry Avenue.

June 21, 1933, Winnipeg Tribune

Gunn's classified ads for 421 Sherbrook Street ended in 1931 and the following year Mr. and Mrs. Lester T. Currie are listed in the street directory as the owners.

Lester Currie, 35, was a gardener by trade and graduated from the Prairie Nurseries Ltd. School of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening in Estevan, Saskatchewan in 1926. His wife was Violet Eugene Puffer, 31, from Saskatchewan. They came with their five children ranging in age from 6 months to 11 years in age and another daughter was born here in 1932. Sadly, their youngest son Ervin died the week before Christmas in 1933 at the age of three.

The Curries rented out two rooms with a shared front room and light housekeeping service. The 1933 lodgers were Miss E. Leeyus, a merchandise marker at the HBC, and John Norlen, a painter/decorator.

The rooms for rent ads disappeared in 1934 as the Curried family grew up.

August 31, 1939, Winnipeg Tribune

The year 1939 was a busy one for the Curries.

In January, daughter Cora got married at nearby St. Matthews Church. In May, Lester took out a $400 building permit to make foundation repairs to the property as the family made preparations to move.

New classified ads by C. S. Gunn appeared by the end of the year for a six-room house. It's unclear if the Curries owned the house outright and sold it back to Gunn when they decided to leave, or if they rented it from him the whole time and kept the six rooms for themselves.

The Curries relocated to Riverton, Manitoba where both died young. Lester in 1948 at the age of 48 and Violet in 1953 at the age of 53.

February 26, 1944, Winnipeg Tribune

Gunn's new  "rooms for rent" ads ended by 1940 and the homeowner listed in street directories from 1940 to 1943 was Leonard Smith, a baker at Bryce Bakeries, who returned to taking in lodgers.

Rooming or boarding houses were popular during wartime as many young couples and families downsized their accommodations due to the coming financial strain as the "man of the house"  going to war for an unknown period of time. For single men who enlisted, renting a room in a rooming or boarding house meant not having to live in barracks in the months leading up to their deployment and provided a local mailing address while overseas.

There were at least three men associated with 421 Sherbrook who participated in the Second World War and all appear to have survived. There was Warrant Officer Joe Linsday, shown above, Glen Richardson lived there in 1945 and was listed in the street directory as being "on active service", and Jean Benoit who graduated from No. 7 Bombing and Gunnery School at Paulson, Manitoba in December 1944.

Lillian J. Benoit (Source: Free Press Passages)

The house's ownership found stability in 1944 with the arrival of the Benoit family which consisted of  Jean and Lillian and their children John, Raymond, and Gloria.

The Benoits first appear in 1944 with "Mrs. Jean Benoit" listed as the head of household. As noted above, her husband was away at No. 7 Bombing and Gunnery School at Paulson, Manitoba and graduated in December 1944. Most years there were a couple of lodgers also listed at the address.

Mr. Benoit then appears as the head of household from 1946 to 1949 with his occupation listed as a mechanic at Trans Canada Airways until 1949 when he became a plumber at Cotter Bros. in Winnipeg.

The head of household changed again in 1950 to "Mrs. Lillian J. Benoit" and Mr. Benoit disappeared from the Winnipeg street directories. It is unclear what became of him. A clue may be that in the 1955 directory the word "widow" appears after Lillian's name. (Curiously, it only appeared in that one edition. Normally, when someone is labelled a widow they retain that title through multiple directories.)

If Lillian Benoit was widowed, no obituary for Jean J. Benoit can be found in either local newspaper to confirm this.

Lillian lived at this address until at least 1999 when the publication of local street directories end. During her time here there is no occupation listed next to her name, though starting in the mid-1980s the word "retired" appeared.

As mentioned, Lillian had at least one lodger through much of her time at this house. A constant from 1951 until 1969 was James Wright.

Wright was a veteran of the First World War who worked for the Manitoba Telephone System until his retirement in 1945. His wife died in 1951 and he soon moved into 421 Sherbrook Street. He died in January 1969 at the age of 89 and his obituary noted that he was survived by a daughter named Lilliam J. Benoit!

Lillian Benoit died on June 22, 2011 at the age of 95. (Also see)

421 Sherbrook and twin house next door in 2007 (Google Street View)

This house ran into disrepair and by 2004 had been condemned by the city.

It was sold for $1,000 by the city to Lazarus Housing. This program, which bought up and extensively renovated derelict West End houses, was created by Harry Lehotsky's New Life Ministries. Some of the properties were sold off and others were kept as rental properties operated by the church. This article says that the program renovated 26 houses and over 100 apartment units while it was in operation.

421 Sherbrook Street was sold in 2005 and remains a single family home.

785 Main Street - The Sutherland Hotel

© 2025, Christian Cassidy

Sutherland Hotel in 2010

Place: Cosmopolitan Hotel / Palace Hotel / Sutherland Hotel
Address: 785 Main Street (Map)
Built: 1882 (with subsequent extensions)

Like many of Winnipeg's old hotels, the Sutherland has had many names, renovations, and owners throughout its history.

The bones of the building, or at least some of them, “bones” date back to the Cosmopolitan Hotel built in 1882 with J. J. Gavin and R. J. Swayze listed as proprietors. It was described in a December 30, 1882 Free Press article as simply “a huge brick structure”.

The Cosmopolitan opened just in time to host 100 CPR men for Christmas dinner paid for by the train master. Street directories show that of the 36 first residents, all but a handful worked for the CPR and were renting rooms on an ongoing basis. This close association with the railway and railway workers lasted for decades. 

A sign of how busy the hotel was is that it did not advertise rooms in local newspapers.

Within a year, Joseph Bernhart leased the hotel and went on to purchase it outright in January 1891.

Bernhart, who lived at the hotel with his family, made several improvements to the building, such as a major interior renovation in 1895 and the Free Press noted that "a handsome new front is being put onto the Cosmopolitan Hotel, Main Street North" in September 1899.

Bernhardt sold the hotel in September 1902 for around $30,000, which was triple what he paid for it. He used the money from the sale to begin buying up other hotels and by 1907 owned the Imperial, Windsor, and Winnipeg. He started construction on the Bell Hotel but sold it before it was completed.

Soon after, Bernhardt's hotel empire crumbled and had to sell them off. He ran hotels in Saskatchewan for a while before returning to Winnipeg where he died in 1923.

As the Palace Hotel, right, ca. 1906, (Martin Berman Postcard Collection)

September 12, 1905, Winnipeg Free Press

Frank Currie of Killarney, Manitoba bought the hotel in October 1902 for $35,000 and in Spring 1903 renamed it the Palace Hotel. Currie, who also owned racehorses, sold the hotel to Charles F. Bunnell in the fall of 1906 for a reported $100,000. 

To give a sense of how valuable the Sutherland was due to its proximity to the train station, the Free Press reported that around four months after the purchase, Bunnell was offered $150,000 or the hotel but turned it down.

Instead of selling, in late 1907 Bunnell had the interior of the hotel renovated and renamed it the Sutherland Hotel.

June 9, 1908, Winnipeg Tribune

Bunnell likely ran into financial difficulty in 1908 as that June his house and all of its contents were sold off "at a bargain". It seems that the sale was in aid of keeping the hotel afloat as newspaper ads continued to list him as the proprietor until spring 1912.

A familiar name was back by 1913 when Frank Curry, who had been managing the West Hotel across the street, returned as proprietor of the Sutherland with a great deal of capital to spend. 

In 1913, Currie took out an $18,000 building permit for an additional storey to the building. The architect was T. R. Evans and the builder was W. Horner.

Curry's return was short-lived as he sold the hotel around 1917 just after the start of prohibition which lasted until 1922.

Initially, the hotel seemed to survive prohibition with proprietors James Turner ca. 1919 and Andrew Sorenson in the early 1920s. Both men, it should be noted were caught and fined at least once for having liquor on the premises.

Sorenson was an Icelandic immigrant who initially settled in Selkirk. His career as a hotelier was short-lived as he died in October 1922 of Bright's disease at the age of 47. He left behind a widow, five sons, and five daughters.

April 16, 1924, Winnipeg Free Press

In 1924, the United Veterans Association of Canada took over the hotel, likely in a lease agreement, to be used as lodging for ex-servicemen. The organization ran it as a dry hotel and even seemed to have temporarily renamed it as a classified ad for one of their dances invites people to come to the "Daniels Hotel" at Sutherland and Main.

April 4, 1928, Winnipeg Tribune

In 1928, the hotel was renovated and reopened as a hotel under manager A. J. Fletcher, though the business was owned by an entity called Sutherland Hotel Company Ltd. He and his wife lived at the hotel and ran it until 1934. The next manager was John M. Turner, a native of Beausejour and a graduate of Wesley College, followed by C. G. Hutchinson to round out the 1930s.

The hotel eventually became the property of Drewry's Brewery. 

Many hotels faltered during prohibition and not being able to sell alcohol meant many went bankrupt or owners simply handed their keys over to their biggest creditor - usually a brewery. 

Some breweries did not take well to running hotels, but Drewry's created a new company that bought even more hotels in subsequent decades. These included the Sutherland, which it owned at least into the 1950s, the Yale, Vendome, and Kings.

Sutherland Hotel in 1978 (Source: Peterson Projects)

The last long-term owner of the hotel appears to have been Boris Kirjner.

Kirjner wrote a letter to the editor of the Free Press in 2008 taking exception to using a photo of the hotel to illustrate a story about the problems of the Main Street strip. He noted that it was a family-run business and 80% of its customers were older regulars, not the people out causing trouble on the streets around the hotel. He was still the owner in 2015 when the hotel had its liquor license suspended.

A December 2024 Free Press story notes that the hotel had been up for sale for the third time in four years. The building had been gutted in an attempt to redesign the space for commercial space on the main floor and larger rooms upstairs, but the rebuilding did not proceed.

On January 15, 2024, the vacant hotel suffered a major fire. 

The first Christmas dinner after being rechristened the Sutherland.
December 24, 1907, Winnipeg Tribune

248 Princess Street - R. Smith Co. Block

© 2025, Christian Cassidy

Google Street View, 2024

Place: R. Smith Co. block
Address: 248 Princess Street (Map)
Constructed: 1904 - 05
Architect: J. H. G. Russell (also see)
Contractors: John Heslip and Samuel McComb

The Winnipeg Granite and Marble Company purchased a coal and wood yard owned by M. Bawlf and Company at 248 Princess Street in 1904. It then applied for a $13,000 building permit for this stone and brick, two-storey block with full basement

The architect name listed on the building permit is John Heslip, but he was just a stone mason. Thanks to Jordan M., who researches building histories for the Manitoba Historical Society, for pointing out two brief 1904 Winnipeg Free Press mentions attributing the the project to the prolific architect J. H. G. Russell, including this one from July 1904: “Architect Russell is calling for tenders for the erection of a stone warehouse on Princess Street ... for the Winnipeg Granite and Marble Company.”

Jordan sent a second mention from a November 1904 article that states “The Winnipeg Granite and Marble Works' (sic) company's new bullding, on Princess street is 40x90, two-storeys and high basement, is another manufactory added to the list of Winnipeg industries. The structure is a very substantial one and reflects credit upon the architect J. H. G. Russell.”

We agreed that it is most likely that the architect name on the building permit was recoded incorrectly, which sometimes happened. It makes more sense that a building this substantial would be designed by someone like Russell given that Heslip is not mentioned in newspapers as being the architect of any other buildings.

April 3, 1906, Winnipeg Free Press

Heslip likely came from Ontario and first appeared in Winnipeg street directories in 1903 as John Heslop and Co., a brick and stone contractor. By 1907, he was a foreman at May-Sharpe Construction Co. and in 1911 appears to have returned to working for himself.

Heslip's name is only mentioned in a few building permit-related newspaper articles, always as a contractor. Once was in 1911 for a warehouse on May Street (now Waterfront Drive), likely now demolished, and the following year for a warehouse on Macdonald Street, also demolished. One of his buildings that still stands is the 1912 Sparling Methodist Church on Elgin Street West.

It is likely that Heslip's elderly father, John Heslop Sr., came to live with him. When the father died in 1916 at the age of 87, both Heslips disappeared from the Winnipeg street directory. Heslip Jr. may have relocated to Shoal Lake, Manitoba. 

May 20, 1907, Winnipeg Free Press

Samuel McComb was Irish-born and came to the West in 1872, living in both Calgary and Winnipeg. He was a stonemason by trade and a prominent Orangeman. 

Until August 1900, McComb worked in partnership with George A. Mitchell as Mitchell & McComb before starting is own firm. He was also the stone and brick contractor for the Boyce Carriage Works building on Ross Street. 

McComb died at Stonewall in 1907 at the age of 64.

July 15,  1905, Morning Telegraph

The Winnipeg Granite and Marble Company was established in December 1903 by brothers Alex L. and John A. MacIntyre who had been in the stone monument business since the mid-1890s. Their new company was based in Winnipeg with branches in Morden and Portage. Another branch opened on Scarth Street in Regina in spring 1904.

The company's new building at 248 Princess Street opened in 1905 and contained its offices, showroom, and a work area out back.

Winnipeg Granite rented extra showroom space in the building to the Moffat Stove Company and in the summer of 1907, Moffat took over the entire building. Winnipeg Granite then relocated its offices to 37 Rorie Street and later to the McIntyre Block on Notre Dame Avenue. The company disappeared around 1909.

Moffat Stove was joined in the building by the Simpson Produce Co. and by 1911 the latter appears to have taken over the whole building. It was then home to Neal Bros. wholesale grocers until around 1919.

The building found stability in 1920 with the arrival of the Smith family. Initially, R. Smith Wholesale Produce opened on the main floor and was followed in 1921 by the R. Smith Company.

Richard Smith came West with the construction of the CPR in 1879. Stationed in Emerson, he was in charge of providing food and personnel, such as cooks and cleaners, to boarding cars and boarding camps for the railway. (It appears that boarding cars were the "coach" class cars with few amenities used for transporting immigrants, troops, etc.. The camps were railway workers' camps and sidings where stations had not yet been built.)

The Smith family then moved to Fort William (now Thunder Bay) to run the CPR hotel there and around 1886 Smith began contracting the boarding car services to the CPR under the name R. Smith and Co. based in Winnipeg. He soon secured the contract to service boarding cars from Thunder Bay to the B.C. coast.

Richard Smith died in 1906 and one of his six sons, Nelson Noel, took over the business and ran it until his death in 1941. The Smith family continued to operate R. Smith and Co. from this address until shortly after the death of Agnes Smith in 1959.

After sitting mostly vacant for a couple of years the building became home to the Esdale Stationery and Printing Company in 1963.

Esdale Stationery and Printing was established in 1935 by Matthew Esdale in the basement of the Great West Permanent Building at 356 Main Street, (now demolished). Esdale was a master printer by trade who was born in Ottawa and relocated to Edmonton in 1913. In 1927, he came to Winnipeg where he was a long-time department manager for Willson Stationers.

Matthew Esdale ran the company until his retirement in 1962.

The company was then purchased by printer Harry S. Turner who relocated it to 248 Princess Street. It shared the space with John G. Turner's General Office Machines Ltd.. The two men were likely brothers.

Harry S. Turner was Esdale's president until his death in July 1974 at the age of 59.

The company was then purchased by Ron Hughesman, a long-time employee of Esdale dating back to the mid-1950s. He was later joined by sons Dale and Darren. The third generation of the Hughesman family now run the company. 

July 23, 1974, Winnipeg Free Press

J. G. Turner Ltd. / General Office Machines continued on in the building. As office technology expanded, they sold and serviced everything from computerized cash registers to various brands of photocopiers.

The company went into receivership in 1990 and 248 Princess was put up for sale at a mortgage auction in February 1991. 

The building became home to Generic Computer Systems Ltd. until 1993 and then for what was described in classified ads as a "busy embroidery company" until at least 2001.

As J. G. Turner's General Office Machines, 1975 (U of M Building Index) 

In 2006, three local film producers, (Jeff McKay, Merit Jensen-Carr and Ruth DeGraves), purchased the building as Princess West Enterprise Ltd. for a reported $250,000. It is now home to several film production companies, including Merit Motion Pictures.

The mural on the north wall of the building was painted in 2013 by CRISP, an Australian street artist based in Bogota, Columbia.

259 Fountain Street - The Cosmo Block

© 2024, Christian Cassidy

Place: Cosmo Block
Address: 259 Fountain Street
Built: 1904
Architect: A. Erickson
Cost: $3,200

1906 Henderson's Street Directory (name likely misspelled or Anglicised)

A house was built on this site in 1901 for Swedish immigrant Konstantine Flemming who was a printer by trade. The first mention of him being involved in a local publication was as owner and publisher of the Swedish language newspaper called Väktaren (The Guardian) from 1894 to 1895. It was one of eight Swedish-language newspapers published in Winnipeg from 1887 to 1970.

The house was removed in 1904 so that Flemming could construct this building designed by architect A. Erickson and built by day labour for  $3,200. Flemming moved into a suite on the top floor and the rest of the building was home to his Cosmopolitan Printing Ltd., later renamed Fleming Printing Ltd.. It was a commercial print shop that also published the weekly Canadian Farmer magazine and Swedish language newspaper Canada Weekly.

It is unclear if the business went under or was sold off, but in 1907 Flemming appears in the street directory as a customs clerk and there is no mention of the print shop. He continued to live in the building until around 1909 when the Canadian Steam Shirt and Collar Manufacturing Company moved in. It was later the Invicta Shirt and Collar Manufacturing Company.

Training College in 1919, Salvation Army Archives

In 1914, the building was sold and it became a Salvation Army Metropole. This was a “brand name" the organisation used in various cities for a type of hostel for indigent men, often new immigrants, to provide short-term residence until they got on their feet. 

A hall was added to the south side of the building in 1916 (now demolished).

Captain Ernie Simms ran the Salvation Army's men’s social department and was manager of the Metropole with an office on-site. Simms worked directly with men, not just the destitute but some of Manitoba’s roughest criminals at Stoney Mountain Penitentiary. Some Metropole residents likely were former inmates working their way back into society.  

The Sally Ann converted this building into its Canada West Cadet Training Centre in 1919 where 43 cadets lived. It served in that role until 1927 when a larger centre opened on Portage Avenue.

After the Salvation Army left, the building became the "Danish Home" managed by Lawrence Berg from 1928 to around 1934. In this online biography of the Christensen family, it states: "At that time, the centre of social activity for the Danish community in Winnipeg was the Danish Immigrants' Home on Fountain Street.”

The building became a private apartment block called the Cosmo Bock starting in 1935. Its first proprietor was Chin Gee and it contained around 25 units.

George and Mary Rondos took over the building in 1941 and also lived on site. They came to Winnipeg in 1926 from Slovakia and first settled at 44 Austin Street where they ran a restaurant and lived around back where they raised their two children. 

Mr, Rondos was heavily involved with Slovakian immigrants. In 1932, he co-founded the National Canadian Slovak League based in Winnipeg. One historical account about early Slovakian immigration to Canada states: “George Rondos has been called the 'father of the Slovak immigrants' because of his life-long devoted work on their behalf." 

The block was very much working class and thanks to great streetcar connections its residents worked around the city. Tenants in 1945 had occupations such as hotel employees, Eatons employees, drivers, a meat packer, a bakery worker, a couple of machinists, a bowling alley employee, and a labourer at a cardboard box manufacturing plant.

George and Mary moved to an apartment on Osborne Street by 1955 and their son John, his wife Rose, and their two children, continued to live at the Cosmo Block through the 1960s.

Two of the 1945 residents of the block were Mr. and Mrs. William Burke.

Mr. Burke's stepson, Leonard Watt, showed up on Christmas Day to wish his mother a happy Christmas and to borrow 10 dollars. He gave her his watch as security. When William heard about the transaction, he became angry and kicked Leonard out without the money.

Later, when Leonard realized he had left his watch behind, he returned to ask for it back. He was denied access to the suite and he broke the door down. He and his stepfather argued and it eventually became a fight. The two men rolled out of the broken door into the hall where neighbours, not really sure of what was going on, decided to come to the defense of Burke and began beating Leonard.

When the fight returned inside, Leonard grabbed a knife that was on the kitchen counter to ward off his attackers. As he was waving it about, Burke lunged and was stabbed. He soon died from his wounds.

Leonard Watt was arrested and charged with murder but at his trial the jury believed that he was just defending himself. He was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 23 months in prison.

Sadly, that is not the last troubling incident in the Cosmo Block.

Even in recent years, the building was closed after a 2019 fire left one person in critical condition. After renovations, it reopened but there was a stabbing in 2021, and in February 2024 Charles Chartrand was murdered there.

The building closed soon after the murder and was put up for sale. A for sale ad describes the building as containing 35 units - 6 apartments and 29 rooming house rooms.

The building appears to be undergoing renovations in September 2024.

580 Ellice Avenue - Mixed-use building

© 2024, Christian Cassidy

Place: Mixed-use building
Address: 580 Ellice Avenue (Map)
Constructed: 1904 - 05
Builder: William B. Robinson

March 26, 1904, Winnipeg Free Press

This was one of three residential dwellings on this block of Ellice Avenue to have building permits issued in 1904. It was likely designed and built by carpenter William B. Robinson.

It was a time of great change for this area of the city as the West End's pastureland was being laid out by surveyors into suburban lots with properly aligned streets, boulevards, and sewer lines. Between 1905 and 1910, thousands of houses and apartment blocks were built around this intersection. 

This house's neighbour, the original St. Matthews Church (now the West End Cultural Centre), was already established on its site when the house was built but it was the original wooden structure. The brick building we see today came in 1909.

May 17, 1922, Winnipeg Tribune

Initially, this served as a rooming house for some of the men who built the West End.

The following are listed as renting a bed there in 1906: Robert Stone, boilermaker; Herbert Mustow, bricklayer; Alexander Lawrence, plasterer; James Gray teamster; and Joseph Beattie, steam fitter. The men were single, most in their twenties, and most immigrants from Britain.

It remained a rooming house for years to come. The 1911 census entry for 580 Ellice (see below) shows ten people living there: two couples, two children, and four lodgers. The above ad from 1922, when it already had live-in owners, advertised three residential suites for rent.

December 6, 1912, The Voice

May 1, 1913, Winnipeg Free Press

August 6, 1915, The Voice

Two of the people found in that 1911 census entry were travelling salesman Richard Holden and his wife Elizabeth. They were the first long-term resident-owners of the home and likely added the initial commercial extension to the front of the building that has been a feature for more than a century.

The first listing for a commercial enterprise comes in the 1912 street directory, which would have been compiled in 1911. It was Andrew Colville, jeweller and watchmaker, who lived at 692 Sherbrook Street and had his shop at 580 Ellice Avenue, (see ad below).

The following year, Richard Holden decided to get off the road and replaced Colville's shop with his own sewing machine sales and repair shop. Newspaper ads show that he also dabbled in real estate from this address. After a couple of years, he added a small-run knitwear manufacturing business from the home.

The Holden residence was still packed with people despite having multiple businesses operating from it. The 1916 census entry (see below) shows Richard and Elizabeth Holden, the Thornton family with their two children, and one lodger.

This would be the Holdens' last year at 580 Ellice as world events would soon take them away.

Attestation papers for Richard Holden, Library and Archives Canada

Despite being in his late fifties, Holden enlisted for wartime service in May 1916.

It was fairly common practice when the "man of the house" enlisted that the spouse / family relocated to smaller premises or went to live with family due to the coming drop in household income. In this case, Richard and Elizabeth moved to Mansfield Court apartments at Ellice and Maryland.

Holden was discharged from Camp Hughes in October 1916 for being "medically unfit for service". This could be because he lied about his age. Holden gave his age as 56 to the 1916 census taker but on his attestation papers he claimed his birth year was 1867 which made him 49.

Undeterred, Holden reenlisted in December 1916 and noted "musician" as his trade rather than "sales agent". He also used what was likely his real birth year of 1859 which made him 57. He was accepted into the special services band unit of the 250th Battalion and spent some time in Calgary with the rank of Lance Corporal.

Unfortunately, Holden was again discharged as unfit for service due to being "over age" in July 1917. The medical exam done prior to his dismissal noted that he was in "fair health", a "very corpulent man", (his measurements were 5 foot 4 inches in height with a 39 inch waist), with high blood pressure and and showing signs of  hardening of the arteries.

It is unclear what happened to the Holdens after the war. They seem to disappear from Winnipeg street directories and I cannot find obituaries for them. It could be that he and Elizabeth settled in Calgary together.

February 21, 1923, Winnipeg Free Press

The house was then owned by Samuel Maxwell, no occupation listed, for a couple of years. One of his lodgers, Mary Kirkup, ran her dressmaking shop from the retail space in 1917 and 1918.

Archibald McLellan, a carpenter, bought the house in 1920 and leased the retail space to Alfred F. Eacott, a shoemaker.

McLellan's era came to a close not long after a bloody dispute with a tenant named Alex Fennell in February 1923.

Fennell was having a drinking party in his upstairs suite with five or six guests. At 3 in the morning, McLellan decided to break up the party and demand the back rent that Fennell owed him. He took a carving knife along with him for protection.

A few minutes later, McLellan rushed back down the stairs "badly cut about the head and hands."

August 14, 1934, Winnipeg Tribune

From 1925 to 1936, Alex Johnston and his wife Margaret are the homeowners. The Johnstons were married in Lesmahagow, Scotland in 1902 and came to Winnipeg in 1910. They celebrated their silver anniversary at this house.

Mr. Johnston started out his time here as a meat cutter at Laurent Meat Market and within a few years was a butcher at HBC. 

Late in the McLellan era or at the start of the Johnstons, it appears that the rooms for rent were converted into one larger suite as from this point forward street directories list additional people (usually just one person or a family) as "renters" rather than lodgers.

From 1928 to 1931, the renter was Catherine Tennant, a clerk at Kresge's and most likely a relative of Mrs. Johnston as Tennant was her maiden name.

Margaret died at the home in August 1934 at the age of 55 and the following year Mr. Johnston moved on.

Clarence Ross, a carpenter, and his wife Clara were the homeowners from 1937 to 1949. They, too, continued to rent out the second residential suite.

August 12, 1938, Winnipeg Tribune

During the Johnston years and part way through the Ross years, the retail unit was a shoe repair shop under several proprietors: John Rollo (1925 to 1928), William Niznyk (1929 - 1933), Albert Leblanc (1934 - 1936), Harry Chabinyc (1937 - 1940), Emil Ruttig (1941), and Joseph Donato (1942 - 1943).

The retail unit then has no street directory listings from 1943 until the early 1950s. It is unclear if the structure was removed for a time or perhaps Mr. Ross, a carpenter, used it as a workshop or storage area.

Around 1950, John Arseniuk, a tailor, and his wife Mary (or Marie) bought the house. From 1953 to 1955, it was owned by Peter Selluski, an employee at Carter Motors, and his wife Madelaine.

It was under the Selluskis that a new retail tenant came on the scene. Audio Visual Supply Co., was a film distribution and motion picture equipment rental company owned by Marvin Melnyk. According to classified ads, the company marketed itself more towards residences or church basements that wanted to rent films and equipment rather than large cinemas.

September 17, 1966, Winnipeg Tribune

A major change came to 580 Ellice Avenue in 1954 in the form of its longest-term resident-owners who also ran their business from the retail space for 25 years.

The German Book Store was established in 1954 on Notre Dame Avenue by Eugen and Henriette Ambros who had come from Mannheim, Germany in 1952. As the name suggests, it specialized in German-language books and periodicals.

The store did not advertise in daily papers. The only mentions of it are in ads for the Winnipeg Film Society as one of ten or so ticket outlets for its showings of foreign and art films. The only newspaper mention of the business during that time is a June 1968 Free Press article noting that Ambros ran a German magazine rental service from the store that had customers all over North America.

The front retail extension of the house may have been rebuilt during the Ambros' ownership. A permit for a new retail extension was granted in 1967.

The Ambros' lived at the house and rented out the suite until 1958 then they lived there on their own until the store closed in 1980 and they moved out.

Eugen died in 1995 and is buried in Brookside Cemetery. No newspaper obituary can be found for him. Henriette's date of death, burial place, or obituary can't be found.

June 29, 1997, Winnipeg Free Press

From 1980 onward, there were a series of relatively shorter-term businesses that called the space home.

Asian Fashions, Arnjit & John Kooner and Marion Grewal, proprietors, was there from 1981 to 1984. It was Edlors Jewellery from 1986 to 1991under owner Eduardo Tumang who also lived in the residential portion.

After Edlors, a company called Seldor Enterprises tried opening a massage parlour in the building. Their 1992 application was rejected by the city after local residents protested. They did appeal and there was no follow-up news story about how that went. the license may have been granted as the building had no business listing for the next four years. (A massage parlour would not want itself listed in street directories for obvious reasons.)

Whether it was a massage parlour or sat empty, in 1997 it was advertised for sale as “fully equipped restaurant” with five rental units on the second floor for $114,900.

The building then took on a new life as a pizza joint. First it was Pepperoni Pete's from 1997 to 1998, then Niakwa Pizza in 1999, and Mr. Bones Pizza until 2003.

The pizza shop era ended in 2004 when Bear Clan Designs took it over in 2004 -2005.

King Cob Market Plus, the sign for which is still displayed on the side of the building, existed from around 2006 to 2007. In 2008, it became Katrina’s Bakeshop and Party Supply.

It then became a clothing store with Ji Xiang Clothing and Gifts in 2012 and Unicool Sports in 2016.

The retail portion of the building appears to have sat empty from 2018 onward.

The building was purchased in 2018 by Darryl Friesen, a 20-year resident of the West End, with plans to renovate it into a pub and eatery. He chose the name King Cob Market Pub due to the existing "King Cob Market Plus" sign on the side of the building and he liked the sound of it.

The pub was to have opened in 2022 but Friesen instead chose to extensively renovate the building from top to bottom. The main floor of the house is the commercial kitchen and the upstairs will continue to be a residence.

Some of the timber removed during the renovation of the house section of the building has been reused in the commercial section as wall panelling and the bar top.

King Cob Market Pub is expected to open in August 2024.


Related:
My Flickr album of 580 Ellice Avenue

First commercial tenant:

September 27, 1911, Winnipeg Free Press

Census entries for 580 Ellice:

1906 Census of Canada, Library and Archives Canada

1911 Census of Canada, Library and Archives Canada

1916 Census of the Prairie Provinces, Library and Archives Canada