353 Langside Street - North West Investment Co. Building / Club Morocco

© 2022, Christian Cassidy

Google Street View, 2015

Place: North West Investment Co. Building / Club Morocco
Address: 353 Langside Street (Map)
Constructed: 1912 - 13 (Demolished February 2022)
Architect: John D. Atcheson
Contractor: Davidson Bros.

June 12, 1912, Winnipeg Tribune

Winnipeg-based Great North-West Investments Company took out a permit to construct this building in June 1912. Other newspaper notices that summer show that the company was primarily involved in selling large tracts of undeveloped land in areas such as near Lower Fort Garry, near Assiniboine Park and Wilkie, Saskatchewan.

The architect was John D. Atcheson who relocated to Winnipeg after starting his practice in Chicago. Though he was only active in Winnipeg for about 15 years, ca. 1905 to 1920, he had an enormous impact on the city's skyline. Some examples of his work that are still around include the Oldfiled, Kirby Gardner Building at Portage and Garry, Fairchild and Co. Building on Princess Avenue, the original Great West Life Building on Lombard Street at Rorie Avenue and the Boyd Building on Portage Avenue.

In fact, the Langside and Portage building, though quite decorative, was a small project for Atcheson at this stage in his career.

Though it is most noticeable from Portage Avenue, the legal address of the building is 353 Langside. The building does not appear to have ever had a name, which is unusual for one of this era.

March 21 1914, Winnipeg Tribune

The building featured up to eight commercial spaces on the main floor over two streets and a large hall upstairs. The 1914 street directory, which would have been complied in late 1913, shows the initial lineup of tenants:

573 1/2 Portage (upstairs) - vacant
575 Portage - vacant
577 Portage - New York Hat Shop
579 Portage - John McMillan, grocer
581 Portage - A. J. Wallen, druggist at 581
353 Langside - Aluminum & Crown Stopper Co.
355 Langside - John McEachern Electrical Apparatus and Supplies
357 Langside - James Mackie and Co.

Of note is the hat shop of Isabelle White of 776 Jessie Street. Though not unheard of, this would have been very early for a woman to be in business for herself.

The lineup of businesses was similar the following year with the addition of Home Billiards Parlour and Home Barber Shop upstairs and the drugstore changing hands from Wallen to William Kirkwood.

1916 Census of the Prairie Provinces

The Kirkwood family came to Winnipeg in 1912 from Northern Ireland.  It consisted of  Rachel, the matriarch, and her three adult children, Robert, William and Amy. They all settled at a new house at 629 Lipton Street.

William soon got a job as a druggist with Gordon Mitchell Drug Co., a chain of six downtown pharmacies.

July 20, 1921, Winnipeg Tribune

When Kirkwood Drug Store opened at in 1915, William would have been around 25 years of age. The business appears to have been a family affair with Amy and James also working there at times.

The store was in operation until 1946 and is likely the longest-lasting commercial business to call the building home.

December 3 1921, Winnipeg Tribune

Tracking the hundreds of main floor commercial tenants that came and went over the century is difficult, but the upstairs hall is a little easier to pin down.

After the pool hall, the next long-term tenant was the New Arcadia dance hall. It was more a facility for rent than an ongoing club. Some dance teachers had offices there and it hosted fundraising events for many organizations. The venue was known as Arcadia Gardens by the time it closed around 1930.

On March 10, 1928, the offices of the Manitoba Chapter of the Amputations Association of the Great War Inc., (now known as the War Amps), opened upstairs and for a couple of years the two venues shared the hall space. The association used it for fundraising whist tournaments, dances and concerts.

There's no indication that the building ever had an elevator which surely made it an unfortunate location for some amputees who wanted to attend events. Nonetheless, they rented the hall until around 1953.

February 9, 1956, The Jewish Post

The best-known tenant of the building was Harry Smith's Club Morocco.

Smith, a Polish Jew, came to Canada at the age of 16 in 1929. He eventually got into the restaurant business and bought the Roseland Dance Gardens at Kennedy and Portage in 1950. When its lease ran out in 1953, he began looking for a new location to open a supper club.

Club Morocco had a soft opening the week of December 10, 1956 with musical entertainment by Lloyd Semers featuring Del Wagner. The grand opening ads appeared the following February.

This was the era of the supper club where one could get dressed up to go out and eat dinner, see a show, and dance all in one location. Other clubs at the time included The Towers,  Copacabana, Pierre’s, Chan’s Moon Room Cabaret, The Paddock, the Constellation Room, The Cave, and Rancho Don Carlos.

Some of the clubs relied on American-based club circuits to bring in up-and-coming or big-name entertainers. Rancho Don Carlos hosted many star-studded evenings. The Towers featured Barbra Streisand just as she was about to make it big in the U.S..

The 400-seat Club Morocco had fewer big names, relying mainly on local and regional talent. In the 1960s, Duke Ellington is said to have dropped by to catch a performance by female Canadian jazz drummer Aura Ursi.

Through the 1960s and 70s the house band was usually the Al Sprintz Orchestra with supplemental performers Del Wagner on drums, accordionist Paul Zubot, bassist Bill Brant, and singer Jeannie Kolbe.

Circa 1960s, City of Winnipeg Archives

The supper club trend began to wane through the 1960s as liquor licence changes allowed hotels to open live music venues and night clubs of their own. Club Morocco, however, carried on through the 1980s.

Smith leased out the space in 1989 and it became a night club. The following year, he took it back and without the cabaret licence had to open it as an alcohol-free venue. It appears to have closed by the end of the year.

Harry Smith died in August 1997.

On February 2, 2022, a fire broke out in one of the main floor businesses. The building was destroyed by the blaze.

Also see:
353 Langside - Historic Building Committee Report