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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Making room for history

Building at site of Upper Fort Garry is demolished

By: Carol Sanders

18/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 6

MIKE.DEAL@FREEPRESS.MB.CA 091117 - Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 The Friends of Upper Fort Garry (FUFG) began the demolition of the building at 100 Main Street writing the next chapter in Upper Fort Garry�s long, rich history tomorrow with the swing of a crane. FUFG took ownership of 100 Main Street on June 1, 2009, along with the Gate property. FUFG are working on the plans for the development of the site and plan to have public open houses in early 2010. TODAY, the 100 Main Street building will come down and open up the site for the first time in many years. WINNIPEG

Like a ravenous Godzilla, the jaws of a gigantic crane devoured a bland brick building on Main Street Tuesday, making room for a rich slice of Winnipeg history."This is a great day," said Jerry Gray, chairman of the Friends of Upper Fort Garry, watching the crumbs of 100 Main St. bite the dust.

"The Friends of Upper Fort Garry have been working for close to seven years to demolish this building," said Gray, as another demolition crew levelled the former Petro-Canada station next door.

Now, it's out with the new and in with the old on the stretch of Main Street from Broadway to Assiniboine Avenue, which used to be the gateway to the West.

In 1835, Upper Fort Garry, near the junction of the Assiniboine and Red rivers, became a major hub of the fur trade.

Hudson's Bay Co. governor George Simpson ordered construction of the square, stone-walled fort with walls nearly 80 metres long and five metres high.

The Friends have raised more than $10 million in pledges to reclaim the site of the original Upper Fort Garry for an interpretive centre and heritage park.

Tearing down the modern structures this week will make way for archeologists to look for traces of the old fort. Already, ground-penetrating radar has found some treasures -- under the parking lot's pavement.

"We didn't know how well it would work," said senior archeologist Terry Gibson.

The radar device on wheels has picked up what Quaternary Consultants thinks may be the remains of the governor's house, some of the bastion footings and a stone-lined well.

"I'm surprised that remains were still there," said Gibson. The site of the old fort has been built up and over many times.

All that remains today is the gate and the chunk of land on which it sits. The Hudson's Bay Co. gave it to the city in 1897.

In January, the Friends of Upper Fort Garry will unveil plans for the Main Street site at public open houses.

They took possession of the property in June and once the demolition permits were in place, the wrecking began next to the busy thoroughfare.

"The machine is a controlled method of demolition," said Bob Molter, general manager with Winnipeg's Rakowski Cartage and Wrecking. Rather than a wrecking ball, the enormous jaws of the UHD (Ultra High Demolition) machine take precise bites out of the building, said Molter.

The steel will be recycled and the concrete and bricks will be chewed up on site and spit back into the excavated site as fill, he said.

The interior of the building had already been gutted, with its materials salvaged, said Molter.

For more information on the site, or to donate, you can go to the organization's website (upperfortgarry.com).

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 18, 2009 B1

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6 Comments

Posted by: JimAlex

November 19, 2009 at 10:07 PM

My late father worked in this building for many years before his retirement from the City of Winnipeg when the Planning Department was there. The City of Winnipeg Streets and Transportation Dept. occupied the building after next. I remember as a teenager meeting Dad at the office to catch a ride home when downtown for the afternoon during spring break.

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Posted by: Randy Plouffe

November 19, 2009 at 11:19 AM

I'm always amazed at the love affair some in Winnipeg have with old structures. They would rather let it sit empty than be torn down.
It's prohibitively expensive to upgrade these rotten hulks(the Met, anyone). Why not compromise and save the interesting facades and build a modern building around it like Montreal does?

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Posted by: georgian

November 18, 2009 at 10:22 PM

Nice, but it's a little strange that the article would describe the realtively well-known former Metro Winnipeg headquarters building as just "a bland brick building", as though readers are unlikely to be unfamiliar with it. Maybe some context as to the age of the building and its own history would have helped. It seems a bit disrespectful not to say a word about the deceased at its own funeral.

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Posted by:

November 18, 2009 at 5:49 PM

Krobax, when i see comments like yours, I can only you're joking. Funny stuff!

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Posted by: Krobax

November 18, 2009 at 9:56 AM

Although this was a non-descript, bland looking building, it was far from being a decrepit eyesore. It is a shame that this building was taken down when there are so many other buildings that really need to be demolished in that area of the city. I empathize with what this "Friends" groups ambitions are for this site, but it is still sad to see a perfectly good building meet an early demise. It still had many, many years of life in it! 100 Main had no "friends"...