Relics of Winnipeg's olden days
 

Maybe we can make a small thread out of this. Any little oddities or pieces of Winnipeg's past that have survived the years. Things that don't seem to serve any purpose must have had one once ... what were they?

My dad used to point out a big tall pole in the yard of a house on the river at the foot of Cockburn Street South that was supposed to be some relic of River Park -- a racecourse marker or something like that. I don't know if it's still there though. There was also the big depression in the riverbank along Kingston Row where the pontoon bridge used to be, but I think that might be gone now.

There are the occasional pieces of exposed streetcar track as well.

I was going to post a picture of Vic Toews but ...

How about those old street lamps on Ash in River Heights (north of Grosvenor or Kingsway i think), and i think in Wolseley too ....

Well, maybe not so much now he's got octogenarian Schreyer cabinet minister Al Mackling running against him.

Street lighting is an interesting issue. I had a whole book on Winnipeg's streetlighting plans in the 40s ... not sure where it went. Ratepayers could pay more to get fancier lighting for their streets, as I recall.

You mean that wasn't an April Fool's joke?

Those old lamps are still fairly common, always on blocks that are exceedingly pleasant: old River Heights, the most stable blocks in Wolseley, and Sherburn between Portage and St. Matthew's. Any idea when they date from?

Well, I believe my 40s book wrote about it as though it were part of a contemporary or fairly recent program. But maybe some are even older than that. It's possible some developers might have put in special lighting to distinguish their subdivisions, like the stone gates (with lamps) at the top of West Fernwood Avenue in St. Vital (at St. Mary's Road).

Hm, interesting. I've always thought of them as being from some time in the Interwar period.

Also, street railway infrastructure. Every spring I see what looks like rails show up in pot holes at locations where tracks were (Garry and Ellice, Broadway and Osborne, for example), but is that what it is? Did they really just pave over railway tracks?

Yes. The tracks come out when the do a major rebuild on the street though.

they sure did rob they sure did but... the road inferstructure underneath that the track lays in is in ruff shape........ in most places

also if coble stones apear in pot holes in the main st underpass in the right lane in the same spots all the time

Tracks were removed from the Redwood bridge when it was rebuilt along with a big copper bus bar.

if you look closely, theres still some in Old St. james, btwn Ferry and Polo

Also, Andy -- isn't Osborne Place now called Mostyn Place, or was it a different street to the north?

No... Osborne Place was renamed Whitehall Ave. sometime before 1920. I've written about it before because it's the street my grandmother grew up on in the 1920s. It was eliminated when Great-West Life was built, but there is still a small section of it that leads east off Balmoral into the GWL parking lot. There's actually a single lone house on it at the corner of Balmoral. The old Winnipeg Amphitheatre was at the corner of Whitehall and Colony.

Went by there tonight-- it's still there. Will come back with a camera sometime soon. So if it was renamed Whitehall after 1919, that means the sidewalk is from prior to that time?

quiteposibly

Anybody know any info about that last remaining house?

It has sat there vacant for as long as I can remember, however the grass gets cut in the summer.

Does this house have any historical importance?

@Andy6 - if this house was at the corner of Whitehall and Balmoral, and it is currently at the corner of Mostyn and Balmoral, does that mean it sat as a single house on Balmoral between two cross streets? If so, that would be somewhat unique?

If this is the one i'm thinking of, which i thought was at Mostyn/Balmoral, it's owned by Great West Life. I think it has municipal heritage status. It's been vacant as long as i remember. I know non profit organizations have approached GWL to redevelop it but they are waiting for it to fall down. Not sure why it's strategic other than probably the only privately owned parcel on that entire mega block ...

^ that's the one I am thinking of. However the remnants of the WHitehall street that Andy6 is talking about appears to me to be the "backlane-ish" access to the GWL parking lot on the north side of the house. Mostyn cuts across the south end of the property.

Yes. The block between Whitehall and Mostyn must have been pretty narrow. That whole big GWL megablock has a fairly complicated and busy land use and development history. I think Andy knows more about it than anyone.

Colony Creek also ran through there originally (that's why there's a dip in Broadway between Osborne and Balmoral). I remember reading a newsclipping from 1883 about a dead infant that was found along Colony Creek. Gathering very violent and morbid stories from Winnipeg's early days is also another project one could busy themselves with--there is no shortage of them.

I often dream about daylighting a few creeks but then the reality of them likely only existing as seasonal bug breeding sloughs sets in.

Whitehall must be the lane that I turn around in ever time I need to park at the Granite.