Historical Winnipeg discussion

[plrh]

Originally Posted by Andy6

There were once plans for a power generating canal alongside the Assiniboine.

Streams tended to become very polluted and to create conditions for the spread of typhoid and other diseases, so there was a strong public health motivation for burying them.

I have heard that there were plans to build a generating station about where the st James bridge is a long time ago.

[cllew]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

an entire field of engineering was started cause of our soil conditions. witch are common around the world but the freez thaw frost heaves reak havoc on everything

Are you thinking of the Parrish & Heimbecker elevator (back then it was owned by CP) tipping over in in the CP Rail Transcona Yards?

That soil failure is apparently one of the things studied by potential PE's going into Geotechnical Engineering around the world.

[cllew]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I love those types of articles. Growing up, it was said there was a creek that ran through our old street, and basically right under our house. Looking at the McLeod's creek map, it sure did run RIGHT under our house in Valley Gardens haha. We did have issues with the foundation cracking and getting water inside.

Funny enough, the creek also runs right behind my current house!

Apparently there are some houses in Valley Gardens north of the hospital that have their sump pump running 12 months of the year due to water coming in the weeping system. I inherited my parents house down by the EK YMCA and I remember that east part of Kimberly Ave by Molson being bush and sort of swampy when I was young. That would have been late 60's early 70's.

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by cllew

Apparently there are some houses in Valley Gardens north of the hospital that have their sump pump running 12 months of the year due to water coming in the weeping system. I inherited my parents house down by the EK YMCA and I remember that east part of Kimberly Ave by Molson being bush and sort of swampy when I was young. That would have been late 60's early 70's.

My sump pump runs all year in south st Vital, never used to, started about 4-5 years ago.

[LilZebra]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I love those types of articles. Growing up, it was said there was a creek that ran through our old street, and basically right under our house. Looking at the McLeod's creek map, it sure did run RIGHT under our house in Valley Gardens haha. We did have issues with the foundation cracking and getting water inside.

Funny enough, the creek also runs right behind my current house!

I guess you like water.

[BubberMiley]

Originally Posted by Wpg_Guy

My sump pump runs all year in south st Vital, never used to, started about 4-5 years ago.

Apparently the water table rose considerably with the obliteration of the meat packing industry.

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by LilZebra

I guess you like water.

My family roots in Europe are from islands in Estonia and Sweden many centuries ago. Always been moving by boats and such until more modern times. So I guess it's in my DNA. haha My cat's origins are also traced to Russian ships. Must be something in the water.

[Authentic_City]

Originally Posted by BubberMiley

Apparently the water table rose considerably with the obliteration of the meat packing industry.

The large scale meat packers in St. Boniface were gone long before 4-5 years ago. It's been decades now, hasn't it? Did it take that long for the water table to rise, or is something else happening to raise the water table recently in places like St. Vital?

On an unrelated note, is the old water tower in the St Boniface stockyards area abandoned, or is it still used for anything?

[esquire]

^ I think the last of the packing plants near the stockyards must have closed in the late 80s, or thereabouts? IIRC that was the decade when many of the old school meatpacking plants in Western Canada closed down.

[bomberjet]

So I searched water table in Winnipeg and got a whole ton of ads for kids water tables for sale in Winnipeg lol

Upon further searching, I found this:
http://www.apegm.mb.ca/pdf/PD_Papers/wpggrndwater.pdf

Lots of good info. Seems to be from around 2010. Water level is still recharging from the drop in pumping of the aquifer over the last few decades. So yes, packers pant would be one of those users, and a very large one. But in general, the water table has been rising for many decades. According to that report.

On page 30 from 1970, there is a noticeable hole in the contours at the packers site. On page 31 from 2010, that hole is gone. However there seems to be another hole over near parker lands. Maybe this is natural.

Summary, there has been a 1m to 7m rise in water elevations since the 70's due to decrease in pumping. With 7m being at the packers site. St. Vital is in the ~3-4m range.

Also interesting monitoring wells have been added in the Garven area since 1970. Water table there is very high compared to Winnipeg. Due to land elevation I would presume.

[dmacc]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

My family roots in Europe are from islands in Estonia and Sweden many centuries ago. Always been moving by boats and such until more modern times. So I guess it's in my DNA. haha My cat's origins are also traced to Russian ships. Must be something in the water.

Who the hell are you... Aquaman?

[cllew]

If one looks at supporting documents for different City of Winnipeg underground works there are reference to water table levels .

In a 2016 tech report for the Waverly Underpass tender (Grant Park area) noted in the past there were some large apartment blocks that were drawing water for summer cooling use but discharging the water into the sewer system.

The report says the blocks have either stopped drawing water or they are now putting it back into the ground as ground water levels are rising in that part of the city too.

[plrh]

^I wonder if that new lake there would contribute to raising the water table? I would think so, but I don't know if the effect would be very localized.

[bomberjet]

Anytime someone puts a borehole into the ground, water level is determined. So there's loooooads of info out there. Would be a matter of gathering it all up.

But I think in general those that need to know, already know.

[1ajs]

caption said 1919

[davequanbury]

I'm hoping this Winnipeg tribune link from u of m archives behaves...
It appears that the corner of Bannatyne and Albert was the scene of a great fire in Oct 1904. The first Ashdown hardware store was destroyed along with the mysterious Bulman Block that was under construction. The Winnipeg tribune has an sketch of the building. Would have been quite a massive structure.

https://digitalcollections.lib.umani...uofm%3A1668712

The following document has an actual photo after the fire on page 9. You can make out the still-two-story Woodbine Hotel as well as part of the building that currently has Natural Cycle in the basement.

http://wartimecanada.ca/sites/defaul...20Topics_0.pdf

[wardlow]

Originally Posted by davequanbury

I'm hoping this Winnipeg tribune link from u of m archives behaves...
It appears that the corner of Bannatyne and Albert was the scene of a great fire in Oct 1904. The first Ashdown hardware store was destroyed along with the mysterious Bulman Block that was under construction. The Winnipeg tribune has an sketch of the building. Would have been quite a massive structure.

https://digitalcollections.lib.umani...uofm%3A1668712

The following document has an actual photo after the fire on page 9. You can make out the still-two-story Woodbine Hotel as well as part of the building that currently has Natural Cycle in the basement.

http://wartimecanada.ca/sites/defaul...20Topics_0.pdf

I've never seen a drawing of what that building looked like. Thanks!

After the fire, the site was quickly rebuilt, although it was only a two-storey building according to the 1906 fire insurance map, with commercial units facing the Bannatyne side.

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by wardlow

I've never seen a drawing of what that building looked like. Thanks!

After the fire, the site was quickly rebuilt, although it was only a two-storey building according to the 1906 fire insurance map, with commercial units facing the Bannatyne side.

The Ashdown Store was rebuilt quickly as they were able to build on the foundation of the old store, so the existing McKim building was built in 1906 on a 1880s foundation.

[davequanbury]

Originally Posted by TimeFadesAway

The Ashdown Store was rebuilt quickly as they were able to build on the foundation of the old store, so the existing McKim building was built in 1906 on a 1880s foundation.

Too bad the Crocus fund didn't have the same longevity...
I love this map, did you find it online?

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by TimeFadesAway

The Ashdown Store was rebuilt quickly as they were able to build on the foundation of the old store, so the existing McKim building was built in 1906 on a 1880s foundation.

Bulman rebuilt in a matter of weeks. They had an ad in the paper asking for 1000 men, or some such number, before the smoke had cleared from the fire. Until the Time Building fire, that was probably the most spectacular fire in the history of downtown Winnipeg. The Bulman Building was complete, just, when it burned down but there may not be any surviving pre-fire photographs. It would be worth asking the Bulmans if there are any in their records.