Commercial Buildings on Westminster Avenue

A middle-class enclave for a hundred years, Wolseley is located just south of Portage Avenue, between Omand Creek and Maryland Street. It’s rather unfortunately named after a British army officer who came to Manitoba to suppress Louis Riel and his Red River Rebellion. The Manitoba Métis federation has declared that the name can stay – for now. Much of the neighborhood was constructed in the 1900-1915 period as an early suburb.

Wolseley boasts a collection of small commercial buildings, a wonderful remnant of a neighborhood centre, still serving that purpose today. Among these structures is the Lothian Building, a three-storey brick and stone building at the northwest corner of Evanson Street and Westminster Avenue in Winnipeg, measuring 80 feet by 100 feet, which was designed by local architect William Fingland and built in 1911 by owner Peter MacKissock at a cost of about $100,000. There were five commercial spaces on the main floor facing Westminster with the remainder, and the upper two floors, containing 20 residential apartments. A very similar building (with a comparable footprint, and a similar division of commercial and residential space) is right next door, at 889 Westminster.

Also among these structures is the former Colish Grocery at 898 Westminster Avenue, a 22-by-28 feet building erected in 1932 at a cost of $2,000. It is flanked by two other commercial buildings of a similar size and vintage.

The former Imperial Bank Building at 869 Westminster Avenue (circa 1920), and the small grocery store at 866 Westminster Avenue, both also belong to this cluster of heritage commercial buildings.