History of Portage and Main wide open

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/11/2017 (2901 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s hard to know if Henry McKenney would be laughing, crying, or merely shrugging at the contentious debate to remove the pedestrian barriers at the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street. Like Mayor Brian Bowman, who has obsessively championed the removal of the barriers, McKenney also was perceived — at least by his friends and supporters — as a stubborn visionary.

Born in Upper Canada in about 1826, McKenney came to the Red River Settlement with his family in 1859 after a few years in the Minnesota Territory where he had operated a trading store. For a time, McKenney owned the Royal Hotel, the first one in the area, located at the bottom of present-day Bannatyne Avenue close to the river where he could take advantage of the steamboat traffic. Business boomed and he soon opened an adjacent general store.

By early 1862, McKenney, seeking new commercial opportunities, had what he believed to be an astute, if novel, idea. He wanted to build a new store at the intersection of Main Road (Street) with the western trail used by the ever-increasing number of Red River ox carts. In time, this wide path would become Portage Avenue. Other settlers who centred in and near Upper Fort Garry (Main and Broadway) thought he was crazy, however, because the Portage and Main property he eventually purchased for a low price was too far from the river, the only source of water in those days, and situated in a low swampy area that frequently flooded in the spring.

McKenney ignored the taunts, built his store and got the last laugh. As other businesses opened near him, the price of the land in the vicinity began to rise. By the time, McKenney sold his store in 1876, three years after the City of Winnipeg was incorporated, he pocketed a sizable profit.

In this period, crossing Portage and Main made sense. You could have visited McKenney’s store and the other shops and businesses that sprang up. In January 1874, the first meeting of Winnipeg’s city council was held on the second floor of a building at the northeast corner. As Winnipeg grew, the intersection became the home to banks, trust companies, law offices, grain trade offices and, in later years, the Canadian Pacific Railway building.

The stately Bank of Montreal was opened in 1913. Near 201 Portage Ave., where the TD Building was constructed in the late 1980s, there was the McArthur Building that eventually became the Childs Building and home to the popular Childs Restaurant.

This building and the adjacent Nanton Building, the headquarters of the large property and mortgage firm, Osler, Hammond and Nanton, were torn down when the TD Building was erected. The 34-storey Richardson Building was opened in 1969 and on the other side of Main Street, the Trizec Building, now the Commodity Exchange Tower, and Winnipeg Square, was completed in 1979. This coincided with the erection of the infamous barriers.

Ever since, the barriers have been decried by many Winnipeggers, Mayor Brian Bowman included. They have viewed the closing of the corner to pedestrians, and still do, as “one of the most destructive things Winnipeg has done to its downtown,” in the words of local historian David Loftson.

Yet, while the corner has been the city’s most recognizable intersection, it never quite has been the great people-gathering spot its supporters have christened it — and rarely, if ever, during the winter months. During the 1919 General Strike, the Mounties began their charge to clear the crowds from Portage and Main. More than five decades later, on June 27, 1972, a huge throng stood and cheered as Ben Hatskin presented hockey superstar Bobby Hull with a cheque for $1 million to play for the inaugural WHA Winnipeg Jets. I was among that cheering mob — and while I must have crossed Portage and Main, I don’t recall any wondrous feeling doing so. This past summer, more than 3,600 people halted traffic to form a maple leaf in honour of Canada’s 150th.

In the current debate, one question that has not been satisfactorily answered by the mayor and his ‘“anti-barrierites” is: why would anyone want to cross Portage and Main?

For a good four to five months during the winter, the various office buildings can be more easily accessed through parking structures or underground walkways. There are few restaurants or quaint shops that will attract the many people who work downtown. It’s hard to imagine a patio bar at the frequently windy corner. Will walking across a busy intersection really make Winnipeggers feel warm and fuzzy? Or, bring people back downtown?

Historically, it wasn’t Portage and Main where Winnipeggers congregated, but rather nearby Market Square, down the street across from which once stood old city hall. Opened in 1889, the square was lively with food stalls, all sorts of goods for sale, and vibrant businesses nearby. There were lots of large gatherings of soldiers during the First World War and protests such as during the 1919 strike and in the 1930s. Though the spirit of the square has been resurrected nearby the original location at Old Market Square, it is now The Forks which is the city’s true gathering place. And, that is not going to change if pedestrians can cross Portage and Main.

Even Henry McKenney would understand that.

Now & Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context.