Winnipeg's Great War, close to one hundred years later...

Last week, I finished reading a book called Winnipeg’s Great War: A City Comes of Age by Jim Blanchard.

It was filled with interesting details, information, stories, and anecdotes about people, businesses, and the history of Winnipeg during the First World War starting in 1914.

I decided to learn a little bit more about some of those organizations and places the book references.

One of the first places I visited was the Bank of Montreal building located at the corner of Main Street and Portage Avenue. This building, located at what is one of Canada’s windiest corners, was finished in 1913, right before the First World War began.

Today, it is still absolutely stunning, made from marble with high ceilings and beautiful architecture.

Caronline Torres, the senior customer service representative for the BMO branch, told me that most of the branch’s employees at the time of the war were male. They all lived on the third floor of the building in apartments. They had maid service, three hot meals a day, and laundry service. When the war broke out, the branch lost most of its employees as many went to fight in the war. In fact, the statue in the front of the building (still standing today) is of one of the employees who went off to war.

“Most of the bank’s employees at that time were men. As a result, when they all went off to war, that’s when we started hiring women to work at this branch,” she said. “That was the beginning of women working here.”

Torres also said that the branch was built in 1913 at the center of the city because (as Blanchard states in his book) Winnipeg was the third largest city in Canada and that its growth was imminent and booming. Branch owners thought by building the bank at the center of the city, it was a great way to be in the center of an economic boom.

But Torres said, after the war occurred, the bank went from being focused on Winnipeg’s economic growth and prosperity to farming.

“This branch became the center for farming,” she said. “After the war, the bank was now earning all its money from the farming community.”

This got me thinking more about Winnipeg’s Exchange District.

That’s why after the Bank of Montreal, I headed down Main Street and visited CentreVenture Development Corporation located at 492 Main Street. The senior development officer there Jeff Palmer showed me a large framed photograph taken of Winnipeg’s Exchange District, a national historic site, in 1911 (right before the war).

“This building was built in 1894 and is a designated building by the City of Winnipeg,” he said.

He directed me to the City of Winnipeg’s website, and I learned that the building was MacDonald Shoes for a really long time.

Thomas Ryan opened the store that year, a businessman who had confidence in Winnipeg’s boom. At that time, the building, with its four stories, cost close to $35,000 to make.

In 1900, Armine Banfield, a household furnishings dealer, took over the property. After a fire in 1903, he rebuilt the building. In 1933, after another disastrous fire, MacDonald Shoes took ownership of the property. Interestingly, T.J Ainslie MacDonald served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War One before settling in Winnipeg. Today, CentreVenture has been operating out of the building for a few years.

It’s interesting, as I read Winnipeg’s Great War as lifelong Winnipegger, how many names of businesses that I recognized, such as the Canadian Red Cross that’s still around today as well as the Winnipeg Free Press (although it has moved from its original location on Carlton Street downtown to its location on Mountain Avenue now).

The Hudson’s Bay Company, located on Portage Avenue, is also mentioned in the book and it’s still around close to 100 years later, but the Eaton’s building is not (although I do remember when Eaton’s closed when I was a kid).

Other newspapers mentioned in the book, The Winnipeg Tribune (1890-1980) and the Winnipeg Telegram (1907-1920), are also no longer in existence.

The Royal Alexandra Hotel is mentioned in the book and it is no longer around. Instead, a plaque where it used to be in Winnipeg’s Exchange District exists in its memory.

Lt. Colonel’s Thomson’s old home is now St. John’s Ravenscourt School, a private school in Winnipeg. My brother goes to that school and I can say, having visited many times, it is amazing to see how much it has changed from a home to a school over the years. It’s hard to recognize it as a home anymore.

I also found in my research that although the First World War took place close to 100 years ago and across an ocean, there are many memorials here in the city, even today, to pay tribute to all those who fought for our freedom. At Augustine United Church, located at 444 River Ave, a memorial stands outside the church to commemorate the soldiers who fought.

Outside the Bank of Montreal on Main Street that I visited, like I mentioned before, a 9 foot tall bronze statue with a marble base is of a World War One soldier to pay tribute to the 230 BMO employees who died in the war.

I learned a lot by reading this book and even more by doing some research about the places, businesses, and people Blanchard mentions in his book.

The thing I took away from this reading experience is that it is really nice to know that close to 100 years, in so many ways, in Winnipeg, the soldiers who sacrificed their lives have not been forgotten.

I also think it’s interesting to know how so many businesses in the Exchange District have been around for so many years….every day while I drive by these buildings to get to school, I never stop to think about how long the buildings have been around or what they were first used for. I will definitely do that in the future.

I definitely recommend Winnipeg’s Great War: A City Comes of Age to anyone interested in Winnipeg’s history.

Happy Reading!