© 2021, Christian Cassidy
Place: James B. Brown Block
Address: 902 Home Street (Map)
Constructed: 1912
Architect: Edward Prain
Contractor: Claydon Bros.
January 12, 1900, Winnipeg Tribune
This building was constructed for the James B. Brown Printing Company in 1912.
James Brunless Brown was born in Scotland in 1876 and sent to live with an uncle in Newfoundland . when he was a young teen. His family soon joined them and eventually relocated to Winnipeg.
Brown began working as a printer for the Manitoba Free Press and in 1899 started his own print shop on Notre Dame Avenue.
Garry Street building. November 14, 1903, Winnipeg Free Press
Business must have been good as Brown had a new building constructed in 1903 at 323 – 327 Garry Street between Portage and Ellice, (now demolished). It housed his print shop and stationery store plus two additional retail units on the main floor with two floors of residential suites above.
Brown initially lived above the Garry Street shop with Ontario-born wife, Harriet, and children, Grace born ca. 1902, and Ralph born ca. 1904. In 1907 they moved to a new house at 27 Dundurn Place.
July 26, 1928, Winnipeg Tribune
Ralph Brown graduated from Kelvin High School where he was a track and field star and was attending the faculty of engineering at the University of Manitoba when he died in a plane crash on July 23, 1928, at the age of 25.
Interested in airplanes, Brown was a pilot cadet with the RCAF on a summer training exercise at Camp Borden, Ontario. Just days after receiving his pilot's licence he flew over the resort community of Wasaga Beach and dropped a note from his plane to his fiancee. Witnesses said he may have been doing some stunt flying when it appears he hit an air pocket and was driven down into the treetops. His plane was destroyed and his body badly mangled.
Brown received a full military funeral back in Winnipeg on July 30, 1928, and is buried at Elmwood Cemetery. (He is not the same Ralph Brown for whom the school is named after.)
November 9, 1912, Winnipeg Free Press
Brown's company did not advertise much as it was mainly a commercial printer of catalogues, directories, and booklets.
Business continued to thrive and in 1912 Brown commissioned another building, this one on Home Street near Notre Dame Avenue, to act as his warehouse and printing plant. He kept the Graham Avenue location as his stationery shop and downtown order centre.
The three-storey brick building was designed by Edgar Prain.
Born and educated in Scotland, Prain came to Winnipeg in 1908 and initially worked in partnership with another architect. This was one of his first commercial commissions under his own name. In a career spanning 40+ years, he designed dozens of buildings, mostly apartment blocks, around the city.
April 6, 1929, Winnipeg Tribune
Like the Garry Street property, this building was much larger than Brown needed so that he could rent out space. Companies that also called 902 Home Street home in those early years included Ideal Knitwear, Hughes Electric Heating Company, Banfield Furniture, and the Radford Hat Manufacturing Company.
Hughes was probably the best known of the early tenants. Based in Toronto, this was its western Canadian plant. It built stoves, ranges, bake ovens, water heaters, car heaters, and furnaces sold at retailers across the West.
By the late 1920s, the building's additional space was home to the Northwest Chemical Company, makers of White Dove food extracts, and the Electric Heating Co. Ltd., which manufactured Red Seal brand hot water heaters, car heaters, and furnaces. There was also an antique furniture shop called Alty's.
January 15, 1934, Winnipeg Tribune
The building was advertised for sale in 1934. This may have been due to the Depression taking its toll on the printing industry or Brown, now 58, was downsizing as he got near retirement age. The building sold and for a number of years the James B. Brown Printing Co. carried on from its Garry Street address.
The year after the sale of the building its tenants included Monarch Machinery Co., the Electric Heating and Manufacturing Co, and Imperial Casket. By the end of the decades, the lineup is the Electric Heating and Manufacturing Co., M. Abramson, a long-time furrier who ran a fur repair and remodelling business, North Star Printing, and a social club.
The Assiniboine Club held regular whist drives, bingos, and other social events in their hall at the James B. Brown Block.
The morality squad of the Winnipeg Police raided a couple of halls, the Roseland Dance Gardens on Kennedy Street and the Assiniboine Club, on April 12, 1938, for hosting bingo games. A bylaw change the previous month made private bingos offering cash prizes into illegal lotteries.
After the raid at 902 Home Street, 300 or so "bingo addicts" were sent home and the bingo equipment was seized. Casare Sellan, a tailor who lived on Elgin Street and operated a tailor shop in the building, was fined $25 for operating an illegal gaming house. (In some articles he is identified as the owner of the building.)
Months later, the club re-branded itself as the "Me-O-My Club" and initially went back to having regular whist drives which were okay under the bylaw.
In December 1941, the club and Sellan hosted a series of five bingo nights in association with local charities including the Country Mission at Sandy Hook and the Ladies Auxiliary of C Battery of the Royal Canadian Horse. He may have convinced himself and these organizations that by joining together it would be a way around the private bingo bylaw, but he was wrong.
Later that month, he was arrested and charged with keeping a gaming house and operating a lottery. He plead guilty and paid a $50 fine. In April 1942, Sellan was fined $75 for hosting a bingo at Patterson Stables on Keewatin Street. A final charge for operating a gaming house at 902 Home Street came in November 1943 when John B. Zyrd was fined $96 plus costs.
March 27 1971 WFP
Various businesses operated from the building in the 1960s and 70s. The largest were likely the Lorne Manufacturing Company, makers of Varcon seat cushions and covers, and LaFrance Textiles. From about 1970 to 1975, Tecum Teak Furniture Ltd. operated a retail store from the site.
During this time, Leon A. Brown Co. was the rental agent. It would eventually purchase the building.
Noticeable in the late 1960s through the 1980s was constant advertising for large amounts of space available for lease in the building, usually 6,000 of its 14,000 or so square feet. The building was home to dozens of tenants, from fabric wholesalers to office supply warehouses and even a karate club.
Pine Falls Clothing Company occupied the main floor of the building from about 2000 until it relocated about 2012.
The building sold in 2021. Plans for its redevelopment are unknown.
September 24, 1947, Winnipeg Free Press
As for the man who had the building constructed, James B. Brown died at General Hospital on September 22, 1947. He was survived by his daughter. His name can still be seen in the "ghost sign" along the north wall of the building.
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