UPDATE: Past crimes at the Sherbrook Hotel (see bottom.)
Address: 685 Westminster Avenue (Map)
Opened: Summer 1965
Architects: Duncan Rattray Peters Searle
Cost: $800,000
Background:
In the summer of 1964, plans were announced for the Westminster Motor Hotel at Westminster Avenue and Sherbrook Street. This was in the midst of a 1960s motor hotel building boom that included the Dakota Motor Hotel, Osborne Village Inn, Lincoln Motor Hotel, Balmoral Motor Hotel, Carlton Motor Inn, and others.
The original owner was Richard Hugh "Dick" Hooker, an executive with Dow Breweries who stepped down from the company to run the hotel. His brother Hal was a co-owner and acted as secretary-treasurer of the ownership company.
To prepare for construction, four houses on Sherbrook Street, three on Westminster, and six on Furby Street were demolished.
June 27, 1964, Winnipeg Free Press
Architects Duncan Rattray Peters Searle's plan called for three distinct sections to the building.
The single storey commercial structure to the west allowed commercial paces, including the hotel's restaurant, to be accessed directly from the street. It would also house most of the space for the 200 seat beverage room. Its rooftop would be home to the hotel's outdoor pool.
The first business to move in was the Toronto Dominion Bank, which relocated from the south east corner of Sherbrook and Westminster, in June 1965. Later that year, the Friar's Club Dining Room opened.
In the tower, the ground floor housed the administrative area, a cocktail lounge (called the Guards' Room), and the entrance to the beverage room. The three upper floors of the hotel tower were designed to hold 14 double rooms per floor, (it opened with a total of 33 rooms). The structure was built so that more storeys could be added at a later date. The basement level contained conference rooms of various sizes, the largest being Saxon Hall.
To the east, across the back lane, was the parking area. It was envisioned as a multi-level parkade connected to the hotel by a walkway. Like the additional storeys, the parking structure never materialised.
The Westminster Motor Hotel began advertising for staff, in June 1965. I cannot find a notice of an official opening but it was operating by August.
It was a typical neighbourhood motor hotel, home to numerous banquets, receptions, political nomination meetings and service club gatherings. The 100-seat Friar's Club restaurant (1965 - 1978) featured steak and ribs during the week and a Sunday smorg aimed at families. Bands played on Friday and Saturday nights.
In 1968, the American Automobile Association gave it an "excellent" rating, noting that it had 33 rooms that rented in the $15.00 per night range.
July 21, 1978, Winnipeg Free Press
The hotel was purchased for $1.5 m by National Promotions, controlled by he Kives family of K-Tel fame, in 1969. They also owned the Plaza Motor Inn (later called the Osborne Village Inn) and the Viscount Gort Hotel.
Hal Hooker went on to run the Pembina Hotel in 1971, and in 1978 became manager of the Granite Curling Club.
ca. 1975
The Westminster likely hosted its most famous guest in 1969.
Jim Pattison, a Vancouver radio station owner and chair of the upstart conglomerate called Neonex International, stayed here while scouting a possible purchase of Winnipeg's CFRW radio station, which had gone bankrupt. (Source: Wpg Free Press, November 8, 1969, p. 27.)
In the decades to come, Neonex grew into The Jim Pattison Group with annual sales of $7.3 billion. In 2012, Forbes pegged Pattison's personal worth at $4.3b, making him the fourth richest person in Canada.
ca. 1990
The Kives' sold the Westminster for $1.4m in 1978, citing that "it was a problem to run." The new owner was Ahmed Ali, an employee of the hotel and previous owner of the Hodgson Hotel in Hodgson, MB. The ownership is unclear from 1979 until the mid 1980s.
Around 1985, Bill Bailly and family, who also owned the former White Pine Inn in Fort Frances, purchased the hotel and it was rechristened the "Sherbrook Inn". The restaurant was renamed The Brook and the bar was renamed Classics.
Sherbrook Inn, circa 2012
Like many inner-city neighbourhoods, the character of West Broadway began to change in the 1970s. The families that once lived in its large homes had left for the suburbs and the residences became hundreds of rooming house units.
The bank left the hotel in the late 1980s, and in 1991 the space was leased to Deno's Furniture Sales that applied for a pawn shop license the following year. Despite opposition from some councillors and area residents, the permit was eventually granted. The Tallest Poppy replaced a Chinese restaurant from 2014 to 2023.
The Sherbrook Inn gained a reputation as a rough place and was blamed for a lot of the neighbourhood's anti-social behaviour. Much of this reputation was unwarranted.
A newspaper scan of the mid-1970s to late noughties shows that it was a fairly quiet place. Some of the serious crimes reported to have happened there actually took place in the vicinity of the hotel - two of them a block away on Sara Avenue. (See list below.)
UPDATE - October 2025
Soorsma reopened the bar and vendor, which had been closed since February 2024, and announced that he wanted to extensively renovate the ageing hotel. This included the bar area, hotel rooms, and even to reopen the rooftop pool.
Part of this changeover involved evicting seventeen tenants, some of whom had lived there for years, which caused some controversy.
In a March 2025 Free Press interview, Soorsma said that several changes and renovations had already been made and that the hotel's name would soon be changed to the East Gate Inn.
Proposed development for Sherbrook Inn parking lot
The biggest change could be to the Sherbrook Inn's surface parking lot.
The city's Committee on Property and Development will be asked at its October 9, 2025 meeting to approve a plan that would change the zoning on the Westminster Avenue lot to allow for a six-storey building with 86 residential units and one ground-floor commercial unit.
If approved, the project could begin construction as early as January 2026.
The building is designed by Cibinel Architecture, whose recent projects include the WAG's Qaumajuq Inuit Art Gallery (2021) and the Transcona Library (2018).
The developer is Lotus Holdings Winnipeg Ltd. which has developed several buildings in partnership with Cibinel, including Solara Flats for the University of Winnipeg.
Here's Cibinel's FAQ about the proposed development.
Was the Sherbrook Inn's bad reputation warranted?
In September 2012, I did a newspaper scan for serious crimes reported "at the Sherbrook Inn" from the mid-1970s to late early 2010s. Here's what I found:
February 2012 – Sherbrook Inn is one of three hotels robbed at gunpoint, all believed to be related.
March 9, 2007 – A man was found stabbed to death in back lane of Sherbrook Street near Sara Avenue. He had been drinking with friends earlier in the evening at the Sherbrook Inn, then left for somewhere else. While walking home, he got into an argument and was killed.
March 18, 1997 - Police received a tip about a couple wanted for a biker gang murder in Montreal. They search the hotel and the man's SUV in the parking lot. An explosive device was found in the vehicle and was removed by the bomb squad.
August 4, 1990 – Joyce Ray was found dead "at the Sherbrook Inn." A couple were drinking earlier in the evening at the Sherbrook. When they returned home at 5 am they accused Joyce Ray, who was looking after their child, of pilfering a stash of hashish. She was badly beaten but escaped the apartment and was found later that morning near the Sherbrook Hotel.
January 12, 1989 – Clifford Disbrowe was found stabbed “outside the Sherbrook Hotel.” Later stories confirmed the location as Sherbrook Street and Westminster Avenue on the block outside the convenience store. There was seemingly no link to hotel.
February 1988 – A man was struck in the head in the beverage room and received a fractured skull.
May 1988 – A man held up at the vendor at knifepoint and left on a stolen bike. Later, he stabbed a man on Langside Street who was treated and released from hospital.
June 1988 - Two brothers from Cross Lake got in a fight in the Sherbrook Inn parking lot. One produced a gun but didn't fire.
November 11, 1987 – Russell Siska was stabbed to death by two men at 2:45 am "by the Sherbrook Hotel", which was later reported as at the corner of Furby Street and Sarah Avenue. The man had been at the Sherbrook Inn earlier in the eventing and left with someone. It was case of a robbery gone bad.
March 27, 1986 - A man ejected from the hotel threatened two bouncers with a knife. He was later arrested later for causing a disturbance at Club Morocco.
December 16, 1983 – Local drug dealer Roger “Cat” Myre was shot in the head while drinking in the beverage room of the Westminster Motor Inn. Myre had slashed the throat of his murderer a month earlier outside another hotel. The killer was also wanted for a Calgary murder.
April 26 1977 – A man held up the hotel at gunpoint but fled empty handed.
March 20, 1972 - the night manager of hotel was robbed at gunpoint as he left to make the night deposit.
See above for a list of serious crimes that I could find at the hotel using about a dozen search terms at the Free Press archives. There were a couple of serious incidents but most things that happened "at the Sherbrook Inn", when you follow the story for a bit, didn't actually happen there.
ReplyDeleteMy brother Russell Siska was not drinking as he was a diabetic. He was at the bar and did walk out with someone he met there but unfortunately he was randomly chosen for a robbery that went bad.
DeleteThis is a great history compilation. I am fascinated that there used to be a pool on top of the bar. Just a small nitpick but the byline date on the construction is 1864 not 1964.
ReplyDeleteBetween the closing of the TD Bank and the opening of the pawn shop, there was a video rental store in that space. Perhaps for 2 years.
ReplyDeletei am currently living there on the third floor. yes the pool is still there. a bunch of the rooms have been renovated and look awesome! I renovated two adjoining rooms. i will try to send some pics. The hotel does have a seedy rep, but being there for some time it is for the most part unfounded. The staff are great, its just a few idiots who drink to much or whatever they are doing that cause this rep. Now that a new restaurant "The Tallest Poppy" has opened i have noticed a dramatic increase in the amount of people around and a change in the 'demographic"
ReplyDeleteIs Son Terry still the current owner in 2023?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteUnimpressed with the current spate of renovations. Apart from a ton of garbage having been carted out, there is little noticeable improvement of the exterior or interior of the public spaces. With the reopening, the lane between Sherbrook and Furby is noisy at night, with steady foot traffic down the lane, resulting in strewn garbage and rifled-through bins.
ReplyDelete