© Christian Cassidy, 2025
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)
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
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.
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 2006 and remains a single family home.
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