© Christian Cassidy, 2025
2012 Google Street View
Address: 351 McGee Street (Map)
Constructed: ca. 1907
Builder: Loftur Jorundson
Summary of long-time residents:
- The Jorundsons (ca. 1907 to ca. 1918 and ca. 1922)
In West End terms, McGee Street is old road. It is first mentioned in newspapers and the Winnipeg street directory in 1882. This is significant as that was the first year after Winnipeg’s boundaries were expanded westward from Maryland Street (then called Boundary Road) to present-day St. James Avenue.
McGee Street originally ran from Livinia Street (renamed St. Matthews Avenue in 1913 when St. Matthews Church was built), to Wellington Avenue. As the neighbourhood wouldn’t be formally surveyed or city services run to it for another couple of decades, McGee was likely little more than a country lane winding through pasture land connecting workers cottages and cattle or horse stables.
The 1888 street directory shows only five residences along McGee Street with four of them north of Ellice Avenue. The street was extended to Portage Avenue sometime around 1890 and by 1895 there were about ten houses in total from Portage to Notre Dame.
This area of the West End began to be surveyed into proper suburban lots, streets, boulevards, and sidewalks around 1904 and services like water and sewer were run to it soon after. Of the 25 or so homes that still exist on this block of McGee Street from St. Matthews to Portage, all but a handful were constructed in 1905.
According to the City of Winnipeg’s property assessment database, the two-storey, 1,680 sq. ft. house at 351 McGee Street was built in 1908, but this may be out by a couple of years.
The address first appears in the 1908 street directory, the data for which would have been compiled in late 1907. The above ad is from the Winnipeg Telegram of July 7, 1906 and could be this house. (I have come across many situations where an old house and the “permit issued” year are out by a year or two.)
Jorundson was born in 1861 at Hrisey, Iceland and came to Canada in 1888, likely first settling in the Lindar area. He married Jónína Magnússon in 1889 and the couple went on to have six sons.
The family moved to Winnipeg by 1900 and Jorundson, like many Icelanders, got into the home and construction business.
There are newspaper mentions of Jorundson getting building permits for three dwellings on Sherbrook Street in 1902 and six on Toronto Street between Wellington and Sargent in 1903. He likely built this house and a neighbouring house circa 1906. His most ambitious project was the Quo Vidis Apartments on Qu’Appelle Avenue at Kennedy Street.
For more about Jorundson, see my West End Dumplings post.
The Jorundsons temporarily disappear from street directories in 1918, perhaps returning to Lundar.
During this time, they rented out the house and it appears to have been divided into at least two suites. The following are listed in street directories as residents. (Note that some of these people would have had family living with them. Unlike a census, the directories only listed the head and working members of the household.)
- 1919: N A Macmillan, no occupation listed.
- 1920: M W Jagger of the CNR and a lodger, Mrs. W. Mitchell, a clerk at Eatons.
- 1921: Charles Bell, Grain Exchange employee; Sylvia Curtis, confectioner; Harry Curtis, mail clerk at CPR; Lydia Dawson, widow; and Roy Schold, student.
Loftur and Jonina reappear at 351 McGee Street in 1922. The following year, they moved to the Quo Vadis apartments where Loftur is listed as caretaker.
The next owner of the house was Martin W. Jagger and family who had rented it from the Jorundsons back in 1920.
Jagger started work with the Canadian Northern Railways in Winnipeg in 1909 as a yardman and in 1919 became assistant yardmaster at the CN East Yards (which was redeveloped into The Forks in the 1980s).
The Jaggers moved to a new house at 46 St. James Place (now Picardy Place) around 1930.
In 1931, George Shutler lived here with his wife Christina and two children, George aged 5 and Gladys aged 3. He was a salesman at Peerless Laundry, a commercial laundry company, located on Pearl Street.
Shutler’s job as a salesman at Peerless likely meant that he drove a truck and the above photo just might include him. He continued to work for the company until around 1943 when, near retirement age, he took a job at Paulin Chambers bakery. Shutler worked at Paulins until he retired in 1947, but sadly, it was not a long one. He died at his home on October 15, 1948, at the age of 68.
Christina Shutler, who was 17 years younger than George, didn’t live out her time as a widow. She worked on and off through her life at places like Picardy’s and Eaton’s. Around 1953, she took a position at the Manitoba Technical Institute, the forerunner to Red River College. Street directories do not list her exact occupation.
To help make ends meet, Christina continued taking in lodgers. For a time in the 1950s, George Jr. and his family lived in one of the suites. Other lodgers she took in were usually retirees.
Christina Shutler continued to live at the family home until around 1971. She died on November 16, 1983, at Misericordia Hospital.
After apparently sitting empty for a couple of years, Steve Roznowsky and wife Lora lived there. He was an employee at the Liquor Control Commission and then CN Rail. They were soon joined by Michael Pelypyshyn and his wife, Mary in the other suite. He was a porter at the Mall Hotel, then an employee of Mooni’s Catering. One or both men and their spouses were listed at this address in street directories until 1982.
The house appears to have been subdivided into a rooming house in the 1980s as “rooms for rent” classified ads appeared from time to time in the Free Press.
March 23, 1997, Winnipeg Free Press
The house was purchased by Chris Boning and Brian Smith, who had recently arrived from Toronto, in 1991.
Boning was a visual artist and Smith a chef. At the time, this section of the West End was in a state of decline and neglect. Boning told the Free Press in 1997 that “it was probably the most neglected rooming house north of Portage.” What caught their eye the exceptional craftsmanship of Jorundson and his contractors that was still largely intact.
After the purchase, the couple got a home renovation grant to replace the widows and began to restore the interior room by room, including the original staircase, fireplace, and oak floors. Boning used his artist’s eye to add colour, art, and other features. The back yard, which had resembled a “garbage dump” according to Boning, was transformed using plants and featured a deck and sunken pond.
The house was so striking that the Free Press featured it in their Sunday Homes section and Winnipeg Home and Décor magazine also did a story. The newspaper story concluded, “In this home, history and art blend to create a warm niche”.
Boning and Smith were known for more than their home. Professionally, the two opened the Panic Cafe, which was a higher-end restaurant, at 761 Westminster. In 1996, they moved it to 155 Spence Street in West Broadway. It featured dining on the main floor and a café/bar and art gallery on the second floor. It closed in 1999.
The couple bought an old warehouse at 205 Good Street in 1997 and converted it into an even bigger home for entertaining with a gallery and studio space for Boning.
The house has remained a well-kept single-family home. After Bonin and Smith, it was bought by a family in and they raised their two children there. In December 2004, it was purchased by a couple who are aware of its history and intend to keep it a single family dwelling.
Related:
West End Builders - Loftur Jorundson West End Dumplings
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