Canadian Pacific Railway Station (Winnipeg) · Photo: Amqui · CC BY-SA 3.0
38historic places on the registers
History of Winnipeg · Canada’s heritage registers
Winnipeg keeps a building from 1738: “Forts Rouge, Garry and Gibraltar”
Canada’s heritage registers list 38 historic places inside Winnipeg, 24 with the highest designation. The list takes in 12 provincial or municipal listings and 2 Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings. Of its homes, 31% were built before 1961, against 18% in the typical Canadian town. There are also 27 listings on provincial or municipal registers with no open description, so no pages.
provincial and municipal listings with an encyclopedia article
Oldest building
1738
the first construction date on its record
Homes built before 1961
31%
typical town: 18%
In pictures
Historic Winnipeg: 37 photos, 16 old pictures
Begin with Battle of Seven Oaks, then Canadian Pacific Railway Station (Winnipeg). Photos show 37 of the places Winnipeg’s registers name; the others show their record instead. For 12 of Winnipeg’s places, old views sit on the place’s own page.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the place’s page. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.
Through time
Pictures of Winnipeg from 1883 to 1917
9 old photographs of the town and the oldest views of 7 of its historic places, in date order. Scroll the strip and tap a picture to open it.
1875190019251950Confederation to 1900Boom yearsThe wars and betweenAfter the war
Public domain or CC0, made before 1950, from Wikimedia Commons; old views of places can be drawings, prints or maps of their time. Each credit opens the image’s page.
How old
For Winnipeg, most dated places belong to the decades after Confederation
Each place by the first construction date on its record.
New France before 17601
British North America 1760–18662
After Confederation 1867–191318
Wars and Depression 1914–19456
Since 1946 1946 on5
Before 1867: 3 of the 32 with a date.
How it began
Winnipeg on record since 1738
In Wikidata’s entry, the municipality of Winnipeg dates from 1738; that can mean a founding, a charter or a merger. The name of Winnipeg honours Lake Winnipeg, lake in Manitoba, Canada. Winnipeg took its legal form as a city in 1873.
Its oldest recorded station, Union Station, dates from 1911.
Every place on the registers inside the town, by its designation.
Highest designationsOther federal designationsProvincial and local listings400 m from Early Skyscrapers in Winnipeg
7 of 24within 400 m of Early Skyscrapers in Winnipeg, the heart of the town’s history
Names show on hover, and a tap takes you to the place’s page.
The 38, by tier
24 Highest designations2 Other federal designations12 Provincial and local listings
Most entries are federal, from Parks Canada’s Directory of Federal Heritage Designations; local listings outside Québec are known only through Wikidata items with an article.
Points from Wikidata (Parks Canada’s files carry none) and from Québec’s register, as mapped there.
Highest designations
The highest rank in Winnipeg: 24 places
The oldest, “Forts Rouge, Garry and Gibraltar”, dates from 1738; the newest from 1969. National Historic Sites and Classified Federal Heritage Buildings, Canada’s highest federal recognition. Their designations span 1920 to 2009. Each one opens its own page.
Start with McGregor Street Armoury and Minto Armoury. Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings, heritage railway stations and lighthouses. The first was designated in 1991, the latest in 1994. Each one opens its own page.
Two groups top Winnipeg’s list: theatres, museums and memorials and houses, 7 each
The first by rank are “Forts Rouge, Garry and Gibraltar” and Battle of Seven Oaks. Its places fall into 8 kinds.
Theatres, museums and memorials7
Houses7
Churches and religious buildings5
Public buildings5
Forts and military buildings4
Stations, lighthouses and bridges2
Mills, shops and works2
Other places6
Each place sits in one group, from its name first, then the uses its register lists.
Provincial and local listings
12 local listings in Winnipeg
Provincial and municipal listings that Wikidata records and an encyclopedia describes. The oldest, Granite Curling Club, dates from 1880; the newest from 1994. Each one opens its own page.
It began with Battle of Seven Oaks in 1920. In 1991 alone, 4 were designated. Nothing has been added since 2011.
Homes by age
New homes stand out in Winnipeg: 7% from 2016–21, where most towns have 4.1%
Count back from today and half of Winnipeg’s homes are older than 1981. 31% of Winnipeg’s homes were built from 1961 to 1980, close to the typical town’s 27%. Building from 1981 to 2000 gave Winnipeg 19% of its homes, near the usual 23%.
31%
Before 1961
31%
1961–80
19%
1981–2000
12%
2001–15
7%
2016–21
WinnipegTypical town
2021 Census, private dwellings by period of construction (Statistics Canada); the typical town is the middle Canadian town of 2,500 or more.
Born here
People of Winnipeg’s past, 2 of them designated by Canada
183 people on the record were born here before 1914. Maison Gabrielle-Roy, one of the town’s historic places, recalls Gabrielle Roy. Best known is Louis Riel, with articles in 50 Wikipedia languages. Of them all, Gerald Smedley Andrews lived longest: 102 years, until 2005. The timeline keeps to the 20 best known.
Louis Riel
Mary MacLane
Archibald Black
Walter Byron
Frank Fredrickson
Hamilton Jukes
Edward Pitblado
Magnus Goodman
Allan Woodman
Haldor Halderson
Frank Stack
Clifford Crowley
Hugh Sutherland
Bob Nolan
Gabrielle Roy
Walter Monson
Louis Slotin
Hack Simpson
George Woodcock
Malcolm Wiseman
1800182518501875190019251950
Louis Riel1844–1885 · National historic person, 1956 · Métis leader in Canada
Gabrielle Roy1909–1983 · On Canada’s list since 2009 · Linked to Maison Gabrielle-Roy
Louis Slotin1910–1946 · Canadian physicist and chemist
GW
George Woodcock1912–1995 · Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thin…
Walter Byron1894–1971 · Canadian ice hockey player
Frank Fredrickson1895–1979 · Ice hockey player
Haldor Halderson1900–1965 · Canadian ice hockey player
Frank Stack1906–1987 · Canadian speed skater
Everyone born in Winnipeg → Born before 1914, or named by one of the town’s historic places. Birthplaces from Wikidata, each checked against Wikipedia; national historic persons from Parks Canada’s Directory of Federal Heritage Designations, matched by name and life years.
Winnipeg holds 38 historic places on Canada’s registers, 24 with the highest designation, including “Forts Rouge, Garry and Gibraltar”. Before 1961: 31% of its homes, against 18% in the typical town. Early Skyscrapers in Winnipeg sits at the heart of it, with 7 of the town’s places of the highest designation within 400 m. Dates cluster in the decades after Confederation: 18 of 32. Louis Riel (1844), Gabrielle Roy (1909) and Louis Slotin (1910) are the best known of its historic lives.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Provincial and municipal lists. Only Wikidata gives open access to listings on provincial and municipal registers outside Québec; without an article such a place is counted but not paged.
•
Map points. Federal places get their map points from Wikidata, since Parks Canada’s files carry none; they are as mapped there.
•
The federal register. Every federal designation is in Parks Canada’s directory, and the Canadian Register of Historic Places gives most of them a bilingual statement of significance.
•
Protection. A National Historic Site designation recognises significance; it doesn’t by itself protect a building the federal government doesn’t own. Legal protection comes from provincial and municipal designations, whose own registers aren’t open data outside Québec.
•
The tiers. National Historic Sites and the most protected buildings form the top tier; recognized federal buildings, stations and lighthouses the second; provincial and municipal listings the third.
•
People and events. Parks Canada’s open file gives its national historic persons no place. A town’s page names one only when the person was born there (matched by name and both life years) or one of its own historic places carries the name and its record speaks of them; national historic events stay off.
•
The grade. History isn’t one of Canada’s graded pillars, so this page describes and compares without a letter.
Questions about Winnipeg’s history
What is the oldest building in Winnipeg?
Forts Rouge, Garry and Gibraltar (National Historic Site): the first construction date on its record is 1738.
Which places in Winnipeg have the highest designation?
They are Forts Rouge, Garry and Gibraltar, Battle of Seven Oaks, Grey Nuns' Convent, Exchange District, Riel House and Holy Trinity Anglican Church, and 18 more.
How old are the homes in Winnipeg?
31% predate 1961, where the typical town has 18%.
Why might a heritage building in Winnipeg be missing here?
Its province’s and council’s own lists can’t be reused here; 27 further listings in Winnipeg show up only as Wikidata numbers.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada (Parks Canada).
Sources: Parks Canada, Directory of Federal Heritage Designations · Canadian Register of Historic Places (federal extract) · Wikidata (CC0) for map points, other names and articles · Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (homes by period of construction). Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
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