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  #941  
Old Posted Oct 29, 2009, 8:10 PM
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ooo i now own this
WOW! that's an amazing find!
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  #942  
Old Posted Nov 3, 2009, 5:53 PM
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txs


this is a neat find
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  #943  
Old Posted Nov 8, 2009, 5:08 AM
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Winnipeg 1912

Here's an excerpt from a speech by the retiring president of the Winnipeg Real Estate Exchange, as reported in the Free Press for April 6, 1912, p. 7:

The coming year, 1912, promises quite as important developments as the past one, and we, as members of this real estate exchange, can confidently look forward to another year of great activity in the real estate market. The extension of the provincial boundaries wil include a very large amount of new territory in this province, and add greatly to its prestige. A large amount of new railway work is also projected for 1912, including work on the Hudson Bay railway. Construction work on the new parliament buildings will be started. A large number of up-to-date first-class modern office buildings will be completed or started during the coming year, including the Bank of Montreal, the Canadian Bank of Commerce, the Union Trust company building, the Confederation Life building, the extension to the Sterling bank building the Boyd building, the Free Press building and the Lindsay building. A street-car line will be laid on Donald street to complete the downtown loop. The Osborne street bridge, the palatial new Grand Trunk Pacific hotel [i.e. the Fort Garry], the new Agricultural College buildings, and a new armory building, are among the permanent improvements projected for the coming year.

Every one of those buildings still stands 97 years later, so "permanent" was the right word.

Another item on the page was that the legislature had decided on the name "Fort Garry" for the new municipality south of Winnipeg, formerly the part of St. Vital parish west of the Red River. "It also serves to perpetuate a name that is dear to every westerner", the Free Press noted approvingly.
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  #944  
Old Posted Nov 8, 2009, 2:14 PM
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Here's an excerpt from a speech by the retiring president of the Winnipeg Real Estate Exchange, as reported in the Free Press for April 6, 1912, p. 7:
Didn't quite see the recession of 1913 coming. Nevermind the Great War, the collapse of grain prices, the half-century of extraordinarily good growing conditions in the prairies, and the rise of collectivism in Manitoba. It is easy to picture to imagine what migth have been...
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  #945  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2009, 4:31 AM
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a pre union tower look up mainst from portagr and main




and a realy rare view looking north from the royal alex up main




pre royal alex

Last edited by 1ajs; Nov 16, 2009 at 5:15 AM.
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  #946  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2009, 3:40 PM
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Just FYI, there is a display in the lobby of the Richardson Building right now with many photos of the construction of the Richardson Building. (In celebration of its 40th anniversary)

I didn't look today (I enter on the other side of the building) but I would imagine it is still there, they just put it up on Thursday, I believe.
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  #947  
Old Posted Nov 17, 2009, 12:21 AM
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All four of those images are incredible, Adrian.
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  #948  
Old Posted Nov 17, 2009, 1:54 AM
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indeed also i notice the porogy church has a different roof on it lol
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  #949  
Old Posted Nov 17, 2009, 3:23 AM
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  #950  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2009, 1:33 AM
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Can somebody translate the handwriting on the postcard?
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  #951  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2009, 4:23 AM
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translated more or less from french, the writing on the postcard says that the person did indeed get a post card from may 1st and he/she is not forgetting to put them in a journal each week to make a collection. it also says "you can see winnipeg isn't as small as you thought."
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  #952  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2009, 4:55 AM
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translated more or less from french, the writing on the postcard says that the person did indeed get a post card from may 1st and he/she is not forgetting to put them in a journal each week to make a collection. it also says "you can see winnipeg isn't as small as you thought."
Interesting, as there are numerous postcards that appear to be from the same person for sale on the same website. Possibly the collection from the journal he speaks of (or, more accurately, one that the French recipient is assembling in reciprocation).
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  #953  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2009, 5:44 AM
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it apears to be that albert st one i piced up btw








1914







Last edited by 1ajs; Nov 18, 2009 at 6:05 AM.
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  #954  
Old Posted Nov 18, 2009, 11:28 PM
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Oh look, there's that ugly little box of a building that was thankfully torn down for that lovely architectural treasure that is the 23rd greatest arena in the world.

Who needs Chicago of the North when you can have MONSTER TRUCK MAAADNESS... live at the... MTS CENTRRRRE.
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  #955  
Old Posted Nov 19, 2009, 1:10 AM
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Sounding just a little bitter rgalston...

How was that ugly little box of a building doing before it was sold?
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  #956  
Old Posted Nov 19, 2009, 1:22 AM
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^ it was a ugly BIG dark empty box. Sort of like a depressing black hole on Portage Avenue.

If the history of large hard to renovate 100 year old buildings in Winnipeg has taught us anything, I think it's safe to assume tha if the Eaton's building had been saved, it would probably be just as big, just as dark and just as empty today.
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  #957  
Old Posted Nov 19, 2009, 1:42 AM
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imagine if eatons was converted into condo/apartments?? daaamnnnn that'd be nuts. so many people!
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  #958  
Old Posted Nov 19, 2009, 2:00 AM
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imagine if eatons was converted into condo/apartments?? daaamnnnn that'd be nuts. so many people!
So many people without windows in their home. Would that not be an issue? There is a whole lot of space in the interior of a building of that size that has to be filled with something.
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  #959  
Old Posted Nov 19, 2009, 2:33 AM
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^ it was a ugly BIG dark empty box. Sort of like a depressing black hole on Portage Avenue.

If the history of large hard to renovate 100 year old buildings in Winnipeg has taught us anything, I think it's safe to assume tha if the Eaton's building had been saved, it would probably be just as big, just as dark and just as empty today.
If the history of knocking down buildings in Winnipeg has taught us anything, it is that it never seems like a good idea in retrospect. I well remember when exactly the same arguments were being made for other buildings, when in reality time proved that in fact there was a use for them if we were patient. We would have had a huge parking structure or gravel lot on the east side of Main Street where the Bank of Hamilton and Bank of Commerce buildings sit if this sort of confident defeatism had been listened to. Same with the Union Tower. With its renovation, it will be an ornament for the city, but 10 or 20 years ago it was something whose demise we allegedly all had to accept. I remember on this very forum a few years ago someone going on and on about how the John Atchison-designed Cadomin Building (Wilson's) at Main and Graham absolutely had to be demolished because there could never possibly be another use for it. You could say the same for the Childs-TD-Nanton corner at P&M...why did that have to go to be replaced by a nondescript generic office tower that the market doesn't need?

Eaton's was something on a world-class scale that Winnipeg had and should have hung onto -- the psychological heart of the city for generations, sacrificed for a cheap, plasticky arena that is squished unexpandably into the lot. MTS is mostly a big dead spot on Portage anyway and offers nothing on any other of the frontages it has. Why Glen Murray gave up so fast on Eaton's I have never quite understood.
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  #960  
Old Posted Nov 19, 2009, 4:40 AM
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imagine if eatons was converted into condo/apartments?? daaamnnnn that'd be nuts. so many people!
Alas reality struct those fantasies a deathblow. There was no demand to live there and no developer who wanted to lose hundreds of millions on such a project. Winnipeg has had no luck finding a developer for the Avenue Building either after so many years and it is a small fraction the size. If condos on Portage Avenue was viable it would have long been converted.

Could anyone imagine how hopelessly dark Portage would still be today if the decaying old Eaton's building was still standing. I am fairly confident even if Eaton's were still around as a department store, that location would have be closed. Being a centre of nastelga for the blue hairs, just didn't generate much revenue.

Today Winnipeg has the 3rd busiest arena in Canada. New reastaurants have opened up in the area and thousands of people who have ignored downtown for years are now making regular visits. IMO, the real potencial of it has not been fully realized, as of yet.
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