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
Designer: John Heslip
Contractor: 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 designed by John Heslip and constructed by Samuel McComb. 

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 Hislip's elderly father, John Hislop Sr., came to live with him. When the father died in 1916 at the age of 87, both Hislops disappeared from the Winnipeg street directory. Hislop 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

285 College Avenue - Stratford Hall

© 2024, Christian Cassidy

Stratford Hall in 2022 (Google Street View)

Place: Stratford Hall
Address: 285 College Avenue (Map)
Opened: 1910
Architect: David W. Bellhouse
Developer: J. E. Wilson

October 31, 1927, Winnipeg Free Press

Construction on Stratford Hall began in late 1909 and by the end of December, its first eight suites were filled with the rest ready for occupancy by the end of February 1910.

This was an era of great transformation in the North End with many large sections of former river lots being converted into residential streets. This block, bounded by Mountain and College avenues and Main and Charles streets, went from mostly vacant land to full of homes and two large apartment blocks in just a couple of years.

Source: Armstrong’s Point Heritage Conservation District Study, City of Winnipeg

The architect of Stratford Hall was David W. Bellhouse.

Trained in England, Bellhouse came to Canada in 1883 and initially settled on a farm at Cypress River. He and his wife relocated to Winnipeg in 1896 where he went to work for several well-known architects before working as a draughtsman for the CPR from 1902 to 1906. He left the CPR to start his own practice which he ran until 1938.

Primarily known for residential work, including three houses on Middle Gate, Bellhouse also designed the original Lakeview Hotel in Gimli (1906), the Henderson Building on Bannatyne Street, and St. Edwards Roman Catholic Church on Arlington Street in 1913.

Bellhouse was president of the Manitoba Association of Architects on two occasions.

September 18, 1918, Winnipeg Free Press

Stratford Hall contained 29 suites of three and four rooms that originally rented for $25 to $37 per month. Each suite featured a screened balcony, full bathroom and oak flooring. The building was built with white pressed brick featuring Tyndal tone trim, (the red paint job came ca. 2014).

The 1911 census shows around 115 people living in the building. Those listed in the Henderson Directory for that period, which only included working adults or retirees, were:

Clifford Bassett, clerk at HBC; Frank Boult, draughtsman at CPR; Wm. Bowman, salesman at Karn Morris Pianos; Milton J. Crosby, clerk at CPR freight depot; A. J. Cunningham, inspector at CPR boxcar department; Roy Dart, swiitchman at CPR,;James A Davidson, electrician; H. J. Donnely, conductor at CPR; L. J. Flanagan, salesman; R. E. Goodwin, switchman at CPR; Arno Green, assistant manager Crystal Spring Water Co.; Albert Halley, fur cutter; Frank Hanson, clerk at Ackland and Son; J. A. Hawley, fur cutter at Holt Renfrew; D. G. M. Hayes; A. Irish; Stanley Lewis, clerk Henderson Directories; Frank Mitchell, manager of F. B. Mitchell Co.; Marcus Moore, International Harvester Co.; Susie P. Moor, clerk at Glines and Co.; William Page, cashier J. H. Ashdown; W. E. Pilkey; Sidney Restall, clerk at city; John Royle, janitor; Reginald Scarratt, clerk freight department of CPR; Wilfred Searle, engineer at CPR; Walter Slater, owner Imperial Barber Shop; Ernest Stewart, travelling salesman; Harry P. Tanner, department manager Dunn Bros.; J. H. Thomas, manager W. J. Inglis Co.; Thomas Thompson, ticket agent Great Northern Railway; Wyman E. Towns, clerk McNeil McLean and Garland; Charles Uhl, city inspector; Herbert Walker, travelling salesman; William White, clerk W. H. Stone Co..

August 1, 1944, Winnipeg Tribune

Some residents of the block were on active duty in the First World War. They included Joseph Edwards of the Royal Flying Corps, Sgt. Roy Russell Robbins of the 100th Grenadiers, William Dart, and Captain George Gomez Nagy. All appear to have made it home.

In the Second World War, Warrant Officer A. F. Parker, Trooper George "Bus" Jack, George Edward Thomas, and John "Jack" Lindsay called Stratford Hall home.

Thomas, a lineman (for an electricity or phone company), became a signalman with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals and during his tour of duty was awarded the Military Medal for showing "courage and devotion to duty which was an example and inspiration to all ranks of his section and worthy of the highest tradition of his corps." Unfortunately, the newspapers did not go into further detail about Thomas and his award. According to a Free Press article from July 1946, Thomas was one of 59 Manitobans who was on hand to receive his medal from the Governor General at Fort Osborne.

Jack Lindsay, 37, worked at Eaton's and relocated to Stratford Hall with his wife and two children before he enlisted. Originally from Airdrie, Scotland, Lindsay came to Winnipeg in his late teens. Assigned to the Canadian Armoured Corps Training Centre at Camp Borden, Lindsay was killed on active duty in a motorcycle accident in July 1944. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

Stratford Hall in May 2012 (Google Street View)

In recent years, Stratford Hall has been the scene of many gruesome crimes.

In November 2020, police responded to a call at the building and found a homicide victim inside. In September 2023, a man was shot inside the building and died on the boulevard out front. In February 2024, three police officers were shot and wounded during an armed standoff in the building.

Winnipeg Police Service told the Free Press that they had responded to 108 reports of violent crimes in or just outside the building between October 2022 and October 2023.

In July 2024, tenants were told that the building was being immediately shut down and were refunded the remainder of July's rent. The units were cleared of furniture and personal belongings and the building locked. After an outcry from governments, Indigenous organizations, and mental health and homelessness advocates, there was an about-face and the building reopened a week later.

 

585 Ellice Avenue - Mac's Building

© 2024, Christian Cassidy

Place: Mac's Building
Address: 585 Ellice Avenue (Map)
Built: 1912
Architect: John D. Atchison. (Also see)
Builder: John A. Moxam Construction

The Mac's Building was designed in 1912 by John D. Atchison, one of Winnipeg's foremost architects of the early 1900s.

This would have been a small project for Atchison as he had already designed the original Assiniboine Park Pavillion (1908), Maltese Cross Building on King Street (1909), Great-West Life Building on Lombard Avenue (1911), and Union Trust / National Bank Building (1912).

July 1913, Manitoba Free Press

I can't find period newspaper mentions of the building's construction. This would have been a small suburban project, hardly newsworthy compared to the banking halls and high-rise office towers rising in the downtown during one of Winnipeg's busiest construction years. 

The block was built for and presumably named after local developer and real estate agent Neil T. MacMillan. MacMillan's involvement could help explain how the services of an architect of Atchison's stature were acquired for such a small project.

MacMillan's real estate firm, MacMillan and Vollans, marketed several lots in and around Ellice Avenue and Sherbrook Street in the previous decade. A building they commissioned on one of their properties was the Casa Loma block in 1909.

MacMillan likely kept this corner lot for himself as his next company, N. T. MacMillan Co., managed the Mac's Building for several years after it opened.

Born in West Elgin, Ontario, MacMillan came to Manitoba as a young man in the 1890s and settled in Morden where he got into the grain trade. He relocated to Winnipeg in 1903 where he took an interest in the city's lucrative real estate market and was first elected to the board of the Winnipeg Real Estate Exchange in 1906.

MacMillan was also a long-time member of the Winnipeg Industrial and Development Bureau and served as its president in 1908 and 1909.

Due to his varied business interests and position with Industrial Bureau, MacMillan travelled throughout North America on business and was a great booster of Winnipeg and its fortunes. In a 1907 Winnipeg Tribune interview he even managed to put a positive spin on the city's weather by stating: "The climactic conditions here make it one of the healthiest on the continent."

The N. T. MacMillan Co. was an active real estate and property management company until 1924 when MacMillan relocated to Orange City, Florida. He continued to dabble in Florida real estate until 1929 and died in Jacksonville, Florida in May 1931.

University of Winnipeg Archives, Western Canada Pictorial Index,
City of Winnipeg Hydro Collection – A1791, 58507

The Mac's Building has had several owners over the decades. The block wasn't large enough for its various sales to be newsworthy but building permit information helps piece together an approximate timeline of its owners.

MacMillan kept the building until at least 1917 and it was bought by the Union Bank / Royal Bank in the early 1920s. It was then owned for decades by the various operators of its cinema, including Western Theatres in the 1930s, Allied Amusements from the 1940s to 1960s, and the Holunga family from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

In more recent decades, it was owned by New Life Ministries from 2004 to 2013. The Adam Beach Film Institute acquired it in 2014. Andrew Davidson, author of the novel The Gargoyle, purchased it in 2019.

The building's exterior has remained remarkably unchanged in its 112 years.

The Mac's is not a large building but it has three distinct sections. This post is divided into the main floor retail space, upstairs suites, and Mac's Theatre.

RETAIL SPACE

Top: October 23, 1908, The Voice

Bottom: J. R. Robinson ca. 1916 (source)

The first retail tenant of the Mac's building was pharmacist Joseph R. Robinson of Gertrude Street who relocated his practice here from Logan Avenue and Reitta Street.

Born in Toronto, Robinson came to Winnipeg to attend the Manitoba College of Pharmacy. The only J. R. Robinson listed in The History of the Faculty of Pharmacy was part of its first graduating class of 1900.

Robinson's store remained at this address until 1921 and would return three years later for a second run.

March 30, 1922, Winnipeg Tribune

A Union Bank of Canada branch opened here in 1921 which forced Robinson to move across the street to 602 Ellice Avenue.

Established in Quebec City in 1865, the Union Bank made inroads in Western Canada with the expansion of the railway and it opened a large regional headquarters in Winnipeg in 1904. By 1911, 145 of its 242 branches were located in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and the following year the bank's head office was relocated to Winnipeg.

The Ellice and Sherbrook branch, managed by William R. Learmonth, was the Union's fifteenth in Winnipeg.

The Union Bank likely bought the building as an investment property to install its branch there. Despite the purchase, the branch only lasted until 1924. The reason for its closure wasn't reported on in local papers but it may have had to do with an upcoming merger.

May 23, 1925, Winnipeg Tribune

In May 1925, it was announced that the government had given the green light for the Royal Bank of Canada to purchase the assets of the Union Bank. The merger was ratified by Union Bank shareholders in June and the only major chartered bank headquartered in Western Canada disappeared.

Perhaps this branch was closed knowing that this merger was on the horizon. The Royal already had branches at Sherbrook and Portage and at William and Sherbrook with a Sherbrook and Sargent branch in the works. This made an Ellice and Sherbrook location unnecessary.

The Union's demise created the opportunity for Robinson to move back to his former location. 

Robinson, a long-time resident of 497 Gertrude Street who never married, ran the pharmacy until 1936 and then retired. He died in April 1949 at the age of 70 and is buried in Brookside Cemetery.

September 15, 1939, Winnipeg Free Press

Robinson sold the business to Samuel Goodman, a fellow graduate of the U of M's School of Pharmacy from the class of 1929.

After graduating, Goodman went to work for the five-store chain Roberts' Drug Store and became assistant manager of its new Sargent and Sherbrook branch in 1933.

July 31, 1947. Lögberg

The next owner of the business was Reuben "Rudy" Goldman who graduated from the University of Manitoba with a degree in pharmacy in 1937.

After service in the war, Goldman bought the business in 1945 and over the years it was known as Rudy's Pharmacy, Rudy's Discount Drugs, Gurvy and Rudy's Pharmacy (with business partner Harry Gurvey.) For a time, he owned a second pharmacy on Logan Avenue called Westwood Pharmacy.

Goldman leased out the store portion and its lunch counter in the 1980s but continued to run the pharmacy counter until around 1990. He died in 2008.

March 18, 1966, Winnipeg Free Press

It was during Rudy's tenure that the building saw one of its saddest moments.

Ten-year-old Kenneth  Meisner got into an argument with a boy or boys in the back lane between Sherbrook and Furby streets when one of the older boys brandished a pocket knife and stabbed him three times. A passing motorist found the unconscious boy and carried him into Rudy's where he was laid out on the floor.

An ambulance filling up at a neighbouring gas station was summoned and within a few minutes, the boy was off to the Children's Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

It was a rough time for Mrs. Meisner. She and her children moved to Sherbrook Street just a week earlier after losing everything in an apartment fire. Not long after being informed of the death of her son, she was told by police that her other son, Kenneth's half-brother, was arrested for his murder.

Holunga siblings, Oct. 6, 1988, Winnipeg Free Press, (by Rob Mullin)

It was the Holunga family who leased the store from Goldman in the 1980s and renamed it Ellice Variety. The family was familiar with the building as their father, Hector, ran the Mac's Theatre since 1966, (see below for more about him.)

Aside from the pharmacy counter, Ellice Variety was a gift shop, postal outlet, and lunch counter with about ten seats. The family purchased the store and likely the building in 1986.

Ellice Variety was a neighbourhood institution until its closure in March 2003.

In April 2004, just weeks after Ellice Variety closed, Rev. Harry Lehotsky announced that his New Life Ministries bought the Mac's Building.

It converted the former Ellice Variety retail space into a 40-seat community-friendly café, renovated the upstairs suites for low-income housing, and fixed up the long-vacant theatre space to show films. The Ellice Theatre and Café opened in February 2005.

The ministry continued to operate the building after the death of Lehotsky in 2006, but in August 2012 announced that it would sell it to concentrate its efforts on managing two nearby residential buildings it owned. The Ellice Café's last day was August 24, 2012.

In April 2013, it was reported that the Adam Beach Film Institute purchased the building. Actor Adam Beach grew up in the neighbourhood making it a homecoming of sorts.

The main floor retail space became Feast Café Bistro which was opened in December 2015 by Christa Bruneau-Guenther. It specializes in Indigenous-themed food and it is still in operation in 2024.

UPSTAIRS SUITES

Nov. 7, 1913, The Voice

The upstairs of the Mac's Building initially contained three office spaces. The first tenants were: Dr. James R. McRae, physician, in suite 1; Mrs. Margaret Madill, hairdresser, in suite 2; and the Winnipeg Motorcycle Club began meeting there in September 1913 and lasted just a year before moving on.

By 1917, the offices emptied and two residential units appeared. This became four units by 1920.

The 1921 street directory lists the following households: Charles Hill, a mechanic at Central Tire and Vulcanizing on Portage Avenue, in unit 3; Alex Lytle, a clerk at Eatons, in suite 5; William Richardson, a clerk at Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment Clinic in unit 1; and J. R. Wilkinson, no occupation, in unit 7. (Despite the varied suite numbers, there does not appear to have been more than four suites upstairs.)

The upstairs of the Mac's Building continues to house four residential units.


MAC'S THEATRE

June 19, 1914, Winnipeg Tribune

The 320-seat Mac's Theatre opened as a moving picture house with little fanfare in late 1913. There were no write-ups or ads for its shows until 1914.

A small, independent neighbourhood cinema could not rely solely on second-run silent films to make money - it also had to be a theatre for hire. Mac's had a small stage area that over the decades featured countless music recitals, lectures, political speeches, and showings of independent documentaries by travelling 'movie men' who would set up for a day or two and move on.

The Fundamentalist Association of United Church Laity called the Mac's home through 1928 offering sermons every Sunday.

Odeon-Morton Coming Soon intro, 1979 (FT Depot on YouTube)

The first manager of the Mac's Theatre was Henry Morton who wanted the venue to be family-friendly and “...would not tolerate the showing of any picture which would mar the feelings of the most fastidious.”

Admission was a dime and some weekend night showings included prize giveaways.

One 1915 'advertorial' about its upcoming movies began with the lines: "Everybody has one problem: Where can I get good entertainment for a dime? There is one answer: The Mac's Theatre, corner Sherbrooke and Ellice Avenues. Here at all times one is sure of the best and greatest of pictures."

Morton managed the Mac's for only a couple of years but he would go on to create his own cinema chain in the 1930s and 40s that owned movie palaces such as the Strand, Garrick, and Walker. It merged with Odeon Theatres of Canada in the early 1940s to create the Odeon-Morton Theatre Company which he served as president of until he died in 1951.

In 1980, Paul Morton sold the Morton family share of the company to Canadian Odeon Theatres Ltd. At the time, Odeon-Morton operated six cinemas and two drive-ins in Winnipeg and had more screens in Saskatchewan. After other mergers through the 1980s, the North America-wide Cineplex Odeon Corporation was created.

March 8, 1919, Winnipeg Tribune

Another early manager of the Mac's Theatre was George Farncombe. He was likely originally from the Brandon area and worked in the art industry. The year before he became proprietor of the Mac's Theatre in 1918, he was a travelling salesman for Winnipeg's Canadian Art Galley on Main Street.

The Mac's Theatre had a small role in the Winnipeg General Strike during Farncombe's tenure. A tactic of striking workers was to run volunteer replacement firemen off their feet by calling in false alarms to fire halls. In the first couple of days of the strike, there were 76 false alarms for Mac's Theatre.

Farncombe left Mac's around 1929 to go back into sales for  the local office of a U.S.-based publisher called the Grolier Society.

November 12, 1931,  Lögberg

The early 1930s was a tough period for neighbourhood cinema owners as their costs soared and revenues dropped.

The advent of "talking pictures" in the late 1920s put pressure on owners to make costly renovations to their spaces or find themselves behind the times showing silent films that few people wanted to see. The Depression meant that even most working-class families did not have the money to spare to see films on a regular basis causing their customer base to shrink.

The first Winnipeg cinema to be wired for sound was The Metropolitan in late 1928 and over the next couple of years most other cinemas followed suit. Mac's was a bit behind the times as it closed in the summer of 1931 for extensive renovations and reopened in October as a "talking picture house". 

Saturday afternoons were reserved for Westerns and it showed double bills throughout the week.

December 23, 1931 Heimskringla

The new owners of Mac's who likely foot the bill for adding the sound system were James Gudmundur Christie and his wife Jonina. In the December 23, 1931 edition of Winnipeg's Icelandic-language newspaper Heimskringla, he wrote a letter to the editor encouraging people to come down to the newly renovated venue.

The following translation of his letter is with the aid of Google Translate:

"The only cinema in the city run by an Icelander. Let's blame the very difficult times, I have decided to set entrance to a show at Mac's at only 15 cents for adults and 5 cents for children who appear at 7 pm. At that time I guarantee to show as good a pictures as other houses in the city. The house is cozy, warm and newly renovated. Talking machine is of its best type. Come down to Mac's Theatre and save money. Ellice is wide, nice (for parking cars).

Merry Christmas, 

J. G. Christie."

The Christies' Lakeview Hotel, Gimli (Source: Glimpses of Gimli)

James and Jonina Christie came to Canada from their native Iceland in 1899 and first settled in Gimli where they were the first owners of the original Lakeview Hotel (which later became part of the original Bethel Home). They adopted a son named William in 1918 and after a stint in Selkirk moved to Winnipeg in 1930.

In some street directories, Jonina is listed as the manager of the Mac's Theatre and James' name does not appear. This suggests that they may still have had business interests in Gimli or Selkirk and he stayed there for periods to manage them. Their Winnipeg home for a time was suite 2 above the Theatre.

The Christies hired staff to help with the theatre through the 1940s. The 1944 street directory lists Mrs. Mary Dunlop as a door girl, W. H. Margot as the projectionist, and Miss Margaret Reeves as the usherette.

February 23, 1948, Winnipeg Tribune

James Christie made headlines in February 1938 when he thwarted an armed holdup at the Mac's Theatre.

Described by the Tribune as a "spunky 65-year-old", Christie was working in the box office inside the theatre lobby when a young man in a dark coat pulled out a pistol and said, "Put 'em up and let's have it".  Instead of panicking or handing over the money, Christie grabbed the man's coat and yelled out "There's a man with a gun". This brought patrons out of the theatre hall into the lobby when the man broke free and ran down the street with some patrons giving chase. He was never caught.

Christie told the Tribune that he was not scared as he had been in scrapes before when he owned a hotel. He felt the odds were that the gun had no bullets in it and that nobody desperate to hold up a box office was willing to kill for such a small amount. (He obviously forgot about the death of Constable Charles Gillis in 1936 after a botched gas station robbery of thirty cents.)

In the early 1940s, the Christies moved from an apartment on Maryland Street back to suite 2 of the Mac's Block. James died there in June 1943 at aged 70 and is buried in Gimli cemetery. Jonina died in February 1963 at age 85 at a room she rented in a home on Cambridge Street.

June 20, 1956, Winnipeg Free Press

The Mac's had two short-term managers until around 1951 and then there are no street directory listings for a few years. As the theatre rarely advertised during this time it is unclear if it was operating as a cinema during this period..

A Winnipeg Free Press article in 1956 about the plight of independent cinemas notes that Mac's was a "Miles-run house", referring to Jack Miles' Allied Entertainment Ltd. and its chain of neighbourhood theatres.

Allied Amusements was created by Miles in 1912 to run a single theatre, The Palace on Selkirk Avenue. By the end of the 1920s, it had grown into a chain of four with the addition of custom-built venues The Roxy (on Henderson), The Rose (on Sargent), and The Plaza (on Marion at Tache). The Uptown Theatre, Miles' largest and most opulent venue, opened in 1931. Others were added over the years as independents sold up or small chains went under.

Some independent owners complained that after Miles' large theatres were done with a first-run movie, it would be sent to Mac's before it was made available to them as a second-run film. They felt that this holdup was unfair and a sign of how much influence Miles had when it came to local film distribution.

Many neighbourhood cinemas were on the ropes by the late 1950s as television had established itself as the dominant media for mass entertainment. Some cinema chains folded or merged and many of their buildings were demolished or converted to other uses. Even Allied fell on hard times. Its large Uptown and Roxy became bowling alleys in 1960 and The Palace was gutted to become a retail store in 1964.

The remnants of Allied's community cinema empire, including the smaller Deluxe, Windsor, College, Starland, and Mac's, continued to advertise together until late 1965.

The Mac's Theatre was bought by Nestor Holunga in 1966. He was the son of Romanian immigrants who in 1946 built and ran a theatre in Inglis, Manitoba.

Initially, Holunga kept up the tradition of showing second-run mainstream movies and then began to intermix foreign-language films from countries such as Germany, Poland and Ukraine.

The success of the foreign language films brought attention and new investors.

April 4, 1975, Winnipeg Tribune

Three Winnipeg businessmen: Basil Lagopolous, (who ran a boutique store in Osborne Village); David Rich; and Will Hechter (a law student), reached a lease agreement with Holunga and invested $1,200 to make minor renovations to the space.

The venue was rechristened "Cinema 3". The name, Hechter would later explain, was in response to the new Garrick Cinema and Northstar Inn opening a "Cinema 1" and "Cinema 2" under the same roof. The partners thought that Cinema 3 sounded "kind of ridiculous".

The venue specialized in "interesting foreign and English-language movies which are unable to gain bookings at the more commercially-minded Winnipeg Cinemas" and opened on September 24, 1969, with La guerre est finie by French director Alain Resnais.

Ca. 1980s. Image credit: Howard Curle

In a March 1970 Free Press article the owners expressed surprise at how successful the venue was having grossed $20,000 in the first five months despite only two showings a day, four days a week. This was thanks in part to the French film The Two of Us that played played for almost nine weeks.

The Cinema 3 partners had to concentrate on their main businesses in the early 1970s and Chris Jones was brought in to manage the venue. In 1974, Hechter returned to look after the bookings and management and brought in Holunga, who still had the lease on the building, to look after the front of house and manage the small staff.

Holunga was both managing the venue and booking the films by 1978.

Holunga siblings, Oct. 6, 1988, Winnipeg Free Press, (Rob Mullin)

The Holunga children, Bonnie, Connie and Wayne, ran Ellice Variety, formerly Rudy' Pharmacy, took over Cinema 3 from their father in 1980 and continued the tradition of showing foreign language films. Connie and Bonnie worked the front of house and Wayne did the books and at times was the projectionist. They likely purchased the entire building from Goldman in 1986.

According to a 2003 Free Press article, Cinema 3 closed around 2000 and Ellice Variety closed in March 2003.

When New Life Ministries bought the Mac's Building in April 2004, they renovated the 220-seat theatre which reopened as the Ellice Theatre in February 2005.

It was mainly a venue for hire, though for a time did show classic Hollywood films from the 1940s on an "admission by donation" basis. 

The Ellice Theatre closed in August 2012.

In April 2013, the CBC reported that actor Adam Beach, who grew up in the neighbourhood, purchased the building and the theatre would house the Adam Beach Film Institute. The organization appears to have moved to Balmoral Street after a couple of years.

 

Andrew Davidson, author of the novel The Gargoyle, purchased the building in 2019.

Extensive renovations soon began on the theatre space but were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 146-seat Gargoyle Theatre hosted its first performance on February 9, 2022.

The Gargoyle Theatre is a workshop theatre dedicated to presenting new plays and musicals by local artists.

ETCETERA

Related:
My Flickr Album of the Mac's Building