The present location of Greater Winnipeg's residential, commercial and industrial districts reflects primarily the outward spread of the build-up area from its first beginnings around present day Main Street, between the Assiniboine River and Point Douglas. The first group of Selkirk settlers located in 1812 at Point Douglas, on the west bank of the Red River about a mile east of the present C.P.R. station. From this beginning rural settlement spread slowly during the course of the next half century, with new settlers generally taking up land along the river banks — along the Red River to the north and south, and along the Assiniboine to the West.
The Hudson's Bay Company built its first Fort Garry post just north of the Assiniboine River in 1822, near the present C.N.R. station. The post was intended primarily to serve the fur trade, but also carried supplies and provisions required by local settlers. Shortly after the Hudson's Bay post was erected, private traders set up small stores north of it, along the trail which led to the settlements further down the Red River. These first traders, like the Hudson's Bay Company post dealt in furs, and supplied the needs of local settlers. Their stores, together with the Company post, located approximately along present day Main Street, between the sites of the present C.P.R. and C.N.R. stations, constituted Winnipeg's, and Western Canada's, first business district.
Its growth was for many years extremely slow. Until the 1870's, only a trickle of immigrants moved in to the territory to take up land on the rim of the original settlements and there was no need for elaborate commercial facilities. By 1869, more than half a century after the founding of the settlement, the business district consisted of only the Hudson's Bay post and two dozen small private stores clustered nearby, involving a total population of less than one hundred persons.
Across the Red River from Winnipeg lay the even smaller community of St. Boniface, a settlement which originated in a Roman Catholic mission established in 1818. During the following half century were built educational and religious institutions which served the Catholic population of the settlement, including a cathedral and bishop's palace, a college, a boys' school, a girls' school and a convent. These institutions, with their staffs and students, comprised virtually the entire community.
The dramatic developments of 1870 produced an abrupt transformation of the size and character of the local community. The Government of Canada had arranged to take over the administration of the West from the Hudson's Bay Company, as of December 1, 1869. Louis Riel led a local uprising, however, and the Federal Government sent in regular troops to quell the disturbance; volunteers from Ontario accompanied the regulars. The arrival of a large body of troops keenly stimulated local business activity; the fact that many of the soldiers elected to remain in the territory following their discharge, and wrote to friends and relatives in Ontario urging them to come out, brought a marked expansion of the agricultural settlements within a few years.
By 1873 the business community had become many times larger than it had been just four years before. To equip newcomers to the settlements, and to serve the already established population, there were now hotels, boarding houses, livery stables, blacksmith shops, carriage makers, gun makers, watchmakers, saw mills, planing mills, paint shops, hardware, dry goods, grocery and general stores. Winnipeg had now become a town of some 900 buildings, with a population estimated at between 2,000 and 3,700 persons.
The new business establishments were concentrated in and around the original business community along Main Street from the Assiniboine River to Point Douglas. Stores and shops tended to locate on Main Street itself, while other businesses tended to locate on side streets such as Portage, Notre Dame, McDermott and Logan Avenues. Because the Red River was at this time the main channel of communication with the outside world, those business firms which imported large quantities of goods were concentrated on the streets which led down to the wharves and docks, located at the foot of present day Alexander, Lombard and Higgins Avenues.
The main residential district of the time was the area between Main Street and the Red River, in Point Douglas. Some housing had already been built west of Main Street, just beyond the business district, while many of the business buildings had living quarters above the commercial premises on the ground floor.
The new city (incorporated in 1873) grew rapidly during the later 1870's, as continuing immigration brought an expansion of agricultural settlement and a corresponding increase in demand for the services of the Winnipeg business community. In 1878 a railway was completed from East Selkirk to Pembina, where it made connections with an American line coming up from St. Paul; the Red River settlement thereby gained an all rail connection with the outside world. Being built on the east side of the Red River, the railway, known as the Pembina Branch, did not actually pass through Winnipeg; it did, however, pass through St. Boniface. Winnipeg merchants were able therefore to import goods by rail, bringing the merchandise across the Red River by boat or ferry during the summer, and over the ice in winter, from the freight shed in St. Boniface. (No bridge existed as yet across the Red River; the first was completed in 1880.)
A small commercial and industrial district developed in St. Boniface, in the vicinity of the railway freight shed. What with these new business buildings, the long established Catholic religious and educational institutions, and the associated dwellings and population, the urban community on the east bank of the Red River reached substantial proportions. In 1883 the community became incorporated as the Town of St. Boniface, thereby separating out from the Municipality of St. Boniface of which it had been a part. The Municipality of St. Boniface itself had only been organized in 1880, when the provincial government had divided the settled area of the province into municipalities, for the purpose of local self-government.
A new era opened for Winnipeg in 1881. In that year the C.P.R. built a station, shops, freight sheds and yards in the City, thereby ensuring that it would be the railway centre of Western Canada. The prospect that the West would soon be opened to settlement by the completion of the transcontinental railway, and that Winnipeg would play a key role in the development of the West, gave rise to a spectacular real estate boom. The population of the City doubled within a year, rising to more than twenty thousand in 1882. the boom collapsed in 1882, but after a short relapse, growth resumed, at a slower steadier rate. By 1900 the population of Winnipeg had risen to some forty thousand persons, and the City was the key distribution centre of the growing West.
Within the City were now located major facilities and enterprises which served the entire West. Through the middle of the City ran the main line of the C.P.R., together with the marshalling yards in which cars of Western grain were received and sorted for onward shipment. The Weston shops of the C.P.R. were built at the Western edge of the City, just south of the yards. On Princess Street, just across the market square, the Grain Exchange Building was erected in 1886, and became headquarters for the Winnipeg firms which dominated the Western grain trade, Banks, hotels, and other business establishments were built around the traditional business district on Main Street, many of the buildings being located on the Avenues leading down to the Red River. On Main Street itself were located the City's leading retail stores and shops.
While the bulk of the industrial and commercial development of this period was carried out in what is now central Winnipeg, i.e. between the Assiniboine River and the C.P.R. tracks, some development occurred elsewhere as well. The C.P.R. built its local stockyards on Jarvis Avenue, just north of its yards, where Western cattle were received and sorted before onward shipment to Eastern Canada and Europe. A few stores and other commercial establishments had come into being on Main Street north of the C.P.R. tracks. In St. Boniface, across the Red River, and since 1880 linked with Winnipeg by a bridge, additional industrial and commercial development took place during the 1880's and 1890's.
The substantial growth of population required a corresponding increase in housing. The great bulk of new residential construction was carried out between the Assiniboine River on the south and the C.P.R. tracks on the north, spreading out westward from the Main Street business area. During the 1880's and 1890's practically all lots in the Hudson's Bay Reserve had been built upon, with large fine houses on spacious lots predominating in the southerly part near the Assiniboine River. (1) Further north houses tended to be smaller, and built on narrow lots; a broad belt of housing along the C.P.R. tracks consisted of cheap, flimsy shacks and cottages, together with poor quality tenements
While the great proportion of housing was built between the Assiniboine Rive and the C.P.R. tracks, some residential construction was carried out south of the Assiniboine, and north of the tracks. South of the River, on Mayfair, River and Stradbrook Avenues and on Wellington Crescent, a number of mansion type homes were built on ample grounds. Just north of the C.P.R. tracks were built cheap cottages and tenements akin to those immediately south of the tracks.
The years from 1900 to 1914 constituted a boom era for Winnipeg and Western Canada. Settlers poured into the prairies by the scores of thousands each year, and the population of the West rose from about four hundred thousand in 1901 to one and three quarter millions in 1916. Winnipeg, strategically located in relation to the booming West, expanded mightily. Its population rose four fold during the period, reaching over a hundred and fifty thousand in 1914.
The city's business community expanded in due proportion; major new industries were established and industries already existing increased many fold. The original business district between Main Street and the Red River, and just west of Main, was developed more intensively, as giant wholesale buildings were erected, many on lots formerly occupied by smaller buildings or residences. The C.P.R. built the Princess Spur in 1904, running from its yards south to Notre Dame, in the lane west of Princess Street; the availability of trackage induced the construction of numerous wholesale buildings and warehouses along both sides of the line.
The financial district, hitherto concentrated around the Grain Exchange on Princess Street, shifted to a new locality. The Grain Exchange built its new building on Lombard Avenue in 1906, just east of Main and north of Portage. Banks and grain firms during the next several years erected in its vicinity new office buildings, far larger and more imposing than those of the original financial district on Princess Street. The latter area relapsed to inferior uses, as the area around Portage and Main became the financial centre of the City.
Major railway facilities were added. South of the Assiniboine River, in the Fort Rouge area, the Canadian Northern Railway built large repair shops, handling yards and a freight terminal. Just north of the Assiniboine River, grouped around Main Street, were built the Union Terminal, freight sheds and Fort Garry Hotel, all designed to serve jointly the government built National Transcontinental Railway from Moncton to Winnipeg, and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway from Winnipeg to the Pacific Coast. The Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railways laid out yards along Ross Avenue, built a freight terminal, and acquired land for a proposed passenger terminal (which was never built).
The west end of the City, on both sides of the C.P.R. tracks, became a major industrial area, with the location here of iron and steel plants, flour mills, fuel yards and construction material yards. Following the construction of new stockyards here, just south of the C.P.R. yards, the area became the main centre of the local packing house trade, with most of the large firms located in the vicinity.
Portage Avenue came to be the City's premier shopping district, following the construction in 1905 of the Eaton department store on the Avenue, four blocks west of Main Street. During the decade following completion of the mammoth store, dozens of office buildings were built on and near the Avenue, usually with stores and other retail establishments on the ground floor, and offices on the upper floors.
The four fold increase in population between 1900 and 1914 required a corresponding increase in housing accommodation. Existing residential districts were developed more intensively and new districts emerged. In the established residential area between the Assiniboine River and the C.P.R. tracks, extending westward from the business district, vacant lots were built upon, apartment blocks erected, and large homes converted to boardinghouse and rooming house use. A tide of new housing poured westward between the Assiniboine River and the C.P.R. tracks, reaching nearly to the City limits by 1914. As in the older district near Main Street, large well built homes predominated in the southerly section, near the Assiniboine River. The quality of housing tended to become progressively inferior, further from the River and nearer to the C.P.R. tracks.
A housing tide flowed northward over the C.P.R. tracks, over the newly built Salter and Arlington bridges and the Main Street subway; another tide of new housing flowed southward as well, across the Assiniboine River, over the Main Street, Osborne and Maryland bridges. Only sparsely settled hitherto, these areas became thickly populated, with each district possessed of distinctive characteristics. The North End came into being as a predominantly working class district, characterized by large numbers of persons and families recently arrived from continental Europe. South of the Assiniboine, the Crescentwood and River Heights districts were developed as residential areas, with many streets characterized by large and handsome homes on spacious grounds. The Fort Rouge district came into being, occupied chiefly by employees of the Canadian Northern Railway, which had here its shops yards and freight sheds. Between the Red River and Osborne Street, the Riverview district was built up as a middle class residential area.
A considerable amount of industrial and residential development was carried out in adjoining municipalities outside the limits of Winnipeg. The Federal Government completed railway shops in 1912 in the newly incorporated Town of Transcona, which were designed to serve both the National Transcontinental and Grand Trunk Pacific Railways. Just north of the shops a residential community was developed, with several hundred houses, stores and other facilities. In St. Boniface, already the home of several industries, new firms established themselves, including flour mills, grain elevators, metal fabricators and a paint factory. Here as well were completed in 1912 the Union Stockyards, largest in the British Empire when built, financed jointly by the Manitoba Government and the local railways. In the Town of Tuxedo, incorporated in 1911, the Canada Cement Company built in 1912 a large plant which utilized local clay, and served markets in Ontario and Saskatchewan, as well as Manitoba.
To provide necessary facilities for its citizens, the City of Winnipeg acquired and developed substantial tracts of land in adjoining municipalities. In 1904, the City acquired, from the Municipality of Assiniboia, a 300 acre tract on the south bank of the Assiniboine River, which it developed as a major park. A 195 acre tract on the west bank of the Red River was acquired from the Municipality of Kildonan in 1910; half was developed as a park, and the other half reserved for an Exhibition site. The Exhibition failed to materialize, and the property was developed into a public golf course. The City had already acquired, years before, land for a municipal cemetery in the adjoining Municipality of Rosser.
While a good deal of land suitable for residential use was still vacant within the City, in the north, west, and south, enterprising promoters developed residential subdivisions in adjoining municipalities, beyond the City limits. By now the street railway's lines were radiating out from the City in half a dozen different directions, providing cheap and speedy communication to the centre of Winnipeg, and enabling home owners outside the City to commute to their place of work in the City.
The street railway was extended beyond the city limits as follows:
The majority of the residential subdivisions developed outside the City limits were designed for working class people, and featured narrow, cheap building lots, low municipal taxes, and virtually no provisions in regard to minimum standards of construction. Such working class districts were developed in East and West Kildonan, in St. James and in St. Vital.
Two additional working class districts emerged just outside the City Limits, each occupied chiefly by persons employed in large Winnipeg establishments located close by. In the Municipality of Rosser, there emerged the Brooklands district, just west of the City limits characterized by lower cost homes, and occupied largely by employees of the C.P.R.'s Weston shops, located nearby, just within Winnipeg's limits. Across the Red River there emerged the Elmwood district, (2) in the Municipality of Kildonan, characterized by small, cheaply built cottages on narrow lots, with many of its residents employed in the J. Y. Griffin packing plant on the east bank of the Red River, and the Ogilvie flour mill in Winnipeg, just over the Louise Bridge.
Middle and upper income residential subdivisions were developed as well in adjoining municipalities. Following the construction of the Main Street bridge over the Assiniboine River and the Norwood bridge over the Red River, the Norwood district of St. Boniface was built up as a middle class residential district. Its proximity to downtown Winnipeg rendered it particularly attractive to persons employed in the downtown commercial and financial district. A group of real estate promoters secured the incorporation of the Town of Tuxedo in 1911, composed of land hitherto in the Municipality of Assiniboia, and planned to develop the Town as an exclusive residential suburb.
Thus by 1914, when World War I broke out, the present Greater Winnipeg area was occupied in the following fashion: Within the City itself, the central area was quite fully developed, but a good deal of land lay vacant in the North, West and South. Across the Red River in St. Boniface, with an industrial district that was essentially part of the Winnipeg business district, and connected to down-town Winnipeg by bridges across the Red River; two distinct residential areas in St. Boniface, the older being occupied mainly by French-speaking persons who were descendants of original settlers; the newer Norwood district being inhabited primarily by English-speaking persons who worked in down-town Winnipeg, from which Norwood was conveniently accessible.
Immediately north of Winnipeg were newly developed residential subdivisions in East and West Kildonan; to the west, along Logan Avenue, within the municipality of Rosser, was the Brooklands district, occupied mainly by persons employed C.P.R.'s Weston yards and shops; to the west along Portage Avenue lay the residential subdivisions of St. James (at that time in the municipality of Assiniboia); to the south, the sparsely populated municipality of Fort Garry; to the south-east, across the Red River, a substantial subdivision in St. Vital; to the southwest, the Town of Tuxedo, incorporated in 1911 with a view to its being developed as a high class residential district, and containing, on its southern limit, a large cement plant which served much of Western Canada.
To the east, beyond St. Boniface, and separated from the built-up areas of Greater Winnipeg by half a dozen miles of vacant land, lay the Town of Transcona, where in 1912, the Federal Government had completed huge railway shops designed to serve the national Transcontinental and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways (both of which subsequently became part of the Canadian National Railways system). A town site had been developed adjacent to the shops, and numerous homes built there by shop employees. (Many of the latter lived in Winnipeg, however, commuting - free - to and from Transcona by special trains.)
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought the expansion of Winnipeg virtually to a halt. Settlement and construction activity throughout the West practically ended, although farm prosperity and war orders enabled Winnipeg to enjoy prosperity during the war years. Owing to enlistments and departures from the City on other grounds, the population of the City actually declined however, and a large number of houses stood empty, with windows boarded up, for the duration of the war.
The end of the war brought the return of the troops and a renewal of the chronic pre-war housing shortage. For the first two years after the war, however, the prevailing inflation, coupled with the difficulty experienced in securing finance capital, limited new construction. the Federal Government introduced a national housing scheme in 1919, under which it advanced money to the provincial governments, to be made available to the municipal governments. The latter in turn would lend the money to ex-soldiers and working men to assist in the construction of low cost homes, or the installation of major improvements such as modern plumbing. Under this scheme, hundreds of low cost homes were built in Winnipeg and the suburbs, with a particularly large development being carried out in the Woodhaven district of Assiniboia (a district which is now part of the City of St. James).
Economic conditions were generally adverse in Winnipeg (and the West) between 1921 and 1925 and negligible growth occurred during the period. Prosperity returned during the later 1920's, however, thanks to improved conditions in the West, and the substantial developmental activity proceeding in Northern Manitoba and Western Ontario. The return of good times brought a renewal of housing construction in Winnipeg and the suburbs, though on a far smaller scale than during the period preceding the outbreak of war.
The substantial increase in automobile ownership which occurred during the later 1920's contributed to the development, for residential purposes, of riverside drives and their vicinity, in Winnipeg, St. James, St. Vital, Fort Garry, East and West Kildonan and Tuxedo. Such districts, while their location was most agreeable in regard to natural surroundings, were relatively distant from the down-town area and from street car lines; their development was only feasible when more general ownership of automobiles reduced these locational disadvantages. Since these districts became occupied to a large extent by families in the automobile-owning class, the homes built were generally of better than average quality, reflecting the higher incomes of their occupants.
The construction carried out in the suburbs during the 1920's was almost exclusively residential in character. There were, however, two notable developments of a non-residential character. Stevenson's Airfield was inaugurated in St. James, serving in its early years as a base for the aircraft which provided communication with the north country, and later, with the introduction of regular airline services, becoming the municipal airport for Greater Winnipeg, as well as a major R.C.A.F. base and centre for aircraft overhaul and repair. The local packing house industry, hitherto concentrated in Winnipeg just south of the C.P.R. tracks, shifted in large part to St. Boniface, taking advantage of the stockyards and public meat market which had been built there in 1912, as well as offers by the St. Boniface Council of specially low municipal taxation.
Construction activity virtually ceased throughout Greater Winnipeg during the bleak years of the Great Depression. The population of the metropolitan area increased only slightly; in several suburban municipalities population actually declined. Within the City of Winnipeg more old houses were demolished during the years 1931 to 1939 than new ones constructed. Among the homes torn down were some of the most handsome in the City, located in fashionable River Heights, and demolished to avoid the crushing burden of municipal taxation. Construction was of negligible proportions throughout the suburbs as well. One notable industrial development of the period was the construction of the new Swift Canadian packing plant in St. Boniface, replacing the firm's ancient abattoir in Elmwood. (3)
The outbreak of World War II was followed by a renewal of prosperity, but the drain on population caused by enlistments, and the wartime shortage of labor and materials precluded renewal of private construction activity. During the decade after the end of the war, construction activity was carried out in both Winnipeg and the suburbs on a scale unparalleled since the early 1900's, thanks to the easing of shortages, a greatly increased rate of family formation, and substantial Federal assistance toward home building.
Residential construction was carried out simultaneously in Winnipeg and suburban municipalities. Between 1946 and 1956 the population of the City rose from 229,045 to 255,093 or by eleven per cent: by the latter year relatively little vacant land remained within City limits. Among the suburban municipalities, construction activity was particularly heavy in St. James, St. Vital, Fort Garry, East and West Kildonan; by 1956 the population of each of the latter three was more than double that it had been ten years earlier. The total suburban population was in 1956 now about 160,000, or over 60 per cent of that of the City of Winnipeg.
The economic structure of Greater Winnipeg enlarged during the post-war decade, as large American and Canadian organizations established branches or enlarged existing branches, and local men set up new firms or expanded their operations. Of this post-war industrial and commercial expansion, a substantial portion was carried out in the suburban municipalities. Prior to 1946 the suburbs, with the exception of St. Boniface, had been almost exclusively residential in character; practically the only business establishments located in them had been retail stores and shops which served the local community, and typically, such local shops served only part of the community's needs, suburban residents relying heavily upon the stores, offices and service establishments of downtown Winnipeg. (4)
During the post-war decade a significant number of industrial firms located plants and warehouses in suburban municipalities, particularly in St. Boniface, St. James and Fort Garry. St. Boniface, already an established industrial centre, gained important additions with the marked expansion of a local oil refinery, enlarged operations on the part of the packing plants, and the establishment of a score of new manufacturing firms.
In St. James, manufacturing and wholesale firms hitherto located in Winnipeg's original business district centred on Main Street, built handsome new plants and warehouses, to house their enlarged operations, and to avoid the traffic congestion of downtown Winnipeg. The Winnipeg airfield, intensively used during the war by R.C.A.F.was further developed in peacetime. The R.C.A.F. station was built up into one of the service's largest training establishments; the rapidly growing importance of civil aviation brought a very great increase in airline operations, and in the overhaul, repair and other facilities required by civilian air traffic.
In Fort Garry, where the sole industrial enterprise had hitherto been the Manitoba Sugar Company, established in 1940, a dozen firms located manufacturing plants between 1950 and1956.
While St. Boniface, St. James and Fort Garry received the largest numbers of industrial firms during the post war decade, some industrial development occurred in other suburban municipalities as well. In Tuxedo, the cement plant was greatly enlarged. In East St. Paul a major oil refinery was constructed, designed to serve the entire Manitoba market. Other firms located plants in East Kildonan, already the home of a small refinery, a box factory and several industrial establishments. In North Kildonan, several small woodworking plants came into being, established and staffed by local men.
A notable post war development was the construction of supermarkets throughout the metropolitan area. Featuring ample parking space these new stores tended to attract customers from well beyond their immediate vicinity, including residents of other municipalities.
Some industrial expansion occurred within the City of Winnipeg itself, together with a pronounced shift of major enterprise to new locations within the City. The area between Broadway and Portage Avenue, and east of Osborne Street, originally built up as a residential district during the 1880's and 1890's, and subsequently degenerating into a rooming house district, was regenerated by to construction of large modern office buildings, built both by governments and private firms. Both the Federal and Provincial governments constructed, and are constructing, large administrative buildings on sites formerly occupied by private houses. Two large insurance firms recently built new homes for themselves on Broadway Avenue, vacating premises in the old business district centred on Main Street. The City's largest insurance firm, now located just off Main Street, is currently building a magnificent new building on Osborne Street at Broadway. Warehouse buildings in the latter area which were vacated by reason of the movement of occupants to new locations in the City, or to the suburbs, have been taken over by light industry.
Vacant land in the western part of the City, north of Portage Avenue, became the site of a new commercial district, and a centre for sports activities. The Provincial Government and private firms built large warehouse buildings here; a substantial tract fronting on Portage Avenue is currently (in 1958) being developed as a suburban type shopping centre, to contain a large department store, dozens of specialty shops, and parking space for hundreds of cars. Just within the City limits sports facilities have been built which serve the metropolitan area, including a football and baseball stadium, a hockey arena, and soccer park.
The growth of Winnipeg has been characterized by the spread of the urban area outward from the first settlements on the banks of the Red River. The City's first business district emerged along Main Street, featuring mainly warehouse and wholesale buildings, office buildings and stores. A limited "heavy industry" district developed early in the Point Douglas area.
During the1900's Portage Avenue, near Main Street, became the City's main shopping and professional service centre. Heavy industry, such as iron works and packing plants hitherto located only in the Point Douglas area, emerged in the westerly part of the City. The residential area spread outward from the original business district; until 1900 the bulk of the population was contained between the C.P.R. tracks on the north and the Assiniboine River to form the districts of Fort Rouge, Riverview, Crescentwood and River Heights.
Small suburban subdivisions came into being, following the construction of street car lines which radiated outward from the City in all directions. Such developments were almost exclusively residential in character, and with the quality of housing for the most part inferior, they involved a kind of leap-frogging, since vacant land still existed within the limits of Winnipeg: - all the suburban developments carried out during the 1900-14 period could have been accommodated in vacant portions of the City itself. Suburban industrial development occurred in St. Boniface, long an industrial centre by virtue of its proximity to downtown Winnipeg across the Red River, and in Tuxedo where a large cement plant was built.
The three decades which followed the outbreak of World War I were characterized chiefly by depression and war, and metropolitan Winnipeg grew hardly at all during the entire period. Following the end of World War I, construction resumed on a scale which, though substantial, was much smaller than that which had been carried out during the pre 1914 era. Vacant land within the City was built up, primarily with housing, so that by 1956 practically no vacant land remained within the city limits. Large scale housing construction was carried out in the suburbs at the same time. The leap-frogging was again in evidence; most of the suburban development was carried out in the suburbs nearest the City, but some was carried out in more distant municipalities, despite the fact that vacant land was available closer in.
Whereas most of the homes originally built in the suburbs, around the time of the First World War, were generally of inferior quality, homes built in the same suburbs after World War II were generally of good quality. In further contrast to suburban growth of a generation before, the recent suburban expansion was not exclusively residential. In St. Boniface, and St. James particularly, a considerable influx occurred of wholesale and industrial firms - some of which had previously been located in the original and main business district of downtown Winnipeg. Within Winnipeg itself, a shift began during the 1950's of financial firms from the old established district around Portage and Main, to a new district developing around Broadway. Wholesale and warehouse buildings vacated by firms which moved to new premises in West Winnipeg or St. James, were taken over by the City's enlarging light manufacturing industries.
THE PROSPECTIVE SPREAD OF THE BUILT-UP AREA
A preliminary survey, conducted by the Metropolitan Planning Commission, offers a number of suggestions as to how the metropolitan community will spread out in the future.
The greater part of additional housing is likely to consist of single family dwellings built in suburban municipalities on land unoccupied today. The remainder of the additional housing required by population growth will consist of apartment blocks built in or near central Winnipeg, on land now occupied by older buildings - houses chiefly. Where the additional suburban dwellings are to be built will depend upon what land is serviced with street pavement, water and sewer services. This in turn will be decided by the developers - the private firms or the public authorities which undertake to transform raw land into building lots. The direction of such development will - or at least should - be subject to the guidance and control of an overall planning authority, to ensure that new developments are carried out in the optimum locations will depend upon the wisdom of the planning authority, its power to impose its will, and the financial capacity of developers to carry out projects in the locations and in the manner which best conform to the community's interests.
A considerable portion of the future growth of the local industrial and commercial community is likely to occur in suburban municipalities, where land has been appropriately serviced. In addition some of the firms now located within the City of Winnipeg are likely to move out to the suburbs.
The Metropolitan Planning Commission survey indicates, not surprisingly, that the shift in locational patterns which has so far occurred, and is likely to continue, is attributable primarily to the effects of the automobile and truck. The great majority of the business buildings standing in Greater Winnipeg today were built prior to 1914, before the modern automobile age began. They were located with reference to the means of transportation then available; the railway by which firms received goods from the East and distributed to the West; the horse-drawn wagon by which goods were moved about within the City, and the street car which conveyed workers and shoppers along fixed routes.
The truck now supplements the railway to an
important extent
in the long range haulage of goods, and has completely
supplanted the horse drawn vehicle in locale cartage. The
automobile supplements the street car and bus in the
conveyance of workers and shoppers. The greater flexibility
and mobility conferred by automotive transport has enabled
suburban sites to be brought into use which previously could
not be effectively reached. At the same time the great
requirements of automotive transport for road and parking
space has tended to reduce the value of downtown locations
where such space is limited.
The Metropolitan Planning Commission survey
suggests that,
for some types of firms particularly, a location in the
suburbs has become clearly preferable to one in the central
city. Firms which distribute or manufacture bulky goods, and
whose operations involve large space requirements are likely
to prefer a suburban location, where land is a good deal
cheaper than in the central city. Recent advances in goods
handling technique have emphasized the advantages of single
storey operations which require a large land area, as opposed
to multi-storey operations which require a smaller land area.
Firms which foresee the possibility of future expansion also
find it desirable to acquire a large site. Firms find that
the ability to provide parking space for their employees
helps to attract and retain personnel. For these reasons many
firms require a good deal more land than formerly, and have
been strongly attracted to the suburbs where land is
available at lower prices.
For firms which market a large proportion of their product
outside of the metropolitan area, a suburban location is
preferable as the main market can be reached without the need
of proceeding through the heavy traffic of the downtown area.
Suburban locations are attractive, too, for retail
shopping
centres, as ample parking space can be acquired relatively
cheaply. A suburban shopping centre is conveniently close to
the residents of the local community, and readily accessible
to other people in the metropolitan area.
Despite the departure to the suburbs of some firms, Winnipeg still contains the main elements of the local economy. Its attractions are powerful. The centre of the City, with the main public transit routes converging upon it, can be reached easily by workers and shoppers from the entire metropolitan area.
The size and diversity of the business community are themselves powerful attractive forces. With so many people employed in the area, retail stores and service establishments possess a large immediate market to which is added the substantial population housed in downtown Winnipeg. The nearby shopping facilities, the hustle and bustle of downtown streets, is attractive to many people, particularly to female employees, and firms located downtown have less difficulty in recruiting female staff. Advertising agencies, distributors of office equipment and supplies, wholesale distributors, accounting firms all find it convenient to locate near the firms they serve. At the same time the proximity of these service firms makes a downtown location more convenient for the firms which depend upon their services.
Certain sectors of the downtown area have become the
recognized centres for particular types of business and
professions. The special character of a business
neighbourhood has been in many cases established by the
location there by one or two eminent firms. The construction
of the Grain Exchange on its present site was followed by the
building of bank head offices in its vicinity, making the
area the financial centre of the city. Construction of the T.
Eaton Co. store on Portage Avenue turned the Avenue into
Winnipeg�s premier retail shopping district. Construction of
the Medical Arts Building established the vicinity as the
local centre of the medical profession.
The wholesale trade centred around Main Street, from Notre
Dame Avenue to the C.P.R. tracks, was drawn by the proximity
of the railway stations, the availability of spur line
trackage, and proximity to the main local retail outlets. In
the course of time many of the wholesale buildings were given
over to the needle trades and light industry, causing the
neighbourhood to become the centre for local light industry.
The fact that a certain district has become the
centre for a
particular industry or profession deters those already
located there from moving away, and induces newcomers to move
in. Location in the district confers prestige. Helpful
contact with competitors and associates can be readily
maintained. Supplementary firms and services are close at
hand. Buyers know that this area is the best place to obtain
the particular product or service. Space can be rented in
building already in existence, whereas another location would
require the construction of a new building, involving heavy
cash investment and probably higher costs for the same amount
of space.
If recent trends continue, the business community
is likely
to expand both in the suburbs and in downtown Winnipeg.
Expansion of the Prairie market is likely to promote an
increase in wholesale and industrial activity in Winnipeg, as
has been suggested elsewhere in this Report; a high
proportion of this expansion is likely to occur in suburban
industrial areas. On the other hand, expansion of the local
financial community is also probable, and this will likely
occur in the downtown area. The new government buildings now
under construction, the new City Hall when completed will add
to the number of persons employed downtown and therefore
contribute to the immediate market of nearby retail trade and
service establishments. The better class apartment blocks
constructed in the downtown section in recent years, and
those which no doubt will be constructed, will add to the
market for these retail establishments. The attractive
buildings recently constructed, and those projected, confer
prestige on their neighbourhoods, and render them desirable
locations for firms and professional personnel. Growth of the
metropolitan population will require a corresponding increase
in the number of local professional and service personnel; it
may be expected that a considerable proportion of this
increase will establish in downtown locations.
Increase of the metropolitan population and business
community will require a corresponding increase in the number
of firms which supply goods and services to persons and firms
throughout the entire metropolitan area. Whether, in fact,
such firms do establish, or expand their operations in
central Winnipeg, will of course depend upon whether they are
able to acquire suitable sites, in suitable surroundings. If
such are not to be had, they might be forced to establish in
the suburbs, despite their preference for more central
locations.