Heritage Winnipeg launches website on heritage architecture By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 6:00 AM CST Monday, Dec. 9, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2024 (649 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Learning more about Winnipeg and Manitoba’s heritage architecture is now just a few clicks away with a mouse.

Thanks to grant funding from Digital Museums Canada, Heritage Winnipeg has launched its new DiscoverIT architecture website separate from the organization’s own site.

The fully bilingual website, now at mydiscoverit.ca, is free for users to access and features more than 100 buildings located in the city and across the province.

Cindy Tugwell, Heritage Winnipeg’s executive director, said the website can be used as a learning tool for Grades 4 to 8, but the general public will also find much to engage them.

“Education is power,” said Tugwell. “Did you know The Bay building wasn’t designated heritage until 2019? That the province’s Vaughan Street jail is still not designated?

“(This) will be a powerful tool for anyone interested in expanding their knowledge about their community’s architecture, while celebrating Winnipeg’s magnificent built heritage… To me, there is still a lot of work we need to do in the future and this website will help.”

Digital Museums Canada is managed by the Canadian Museum of History with funding from the federal government.

It offers grants between $25,000 to $250,000 to create fully complete digital projects created by Canadian museums as well as by heritage, cultural and Indigenous organizations.

To date, it has spent almost $20 million to help create 240 projects.

Tugwell said she didn’t know if she could say how much her organization received in funding to create the website.

In Winnipeg, the buildings include the Hotel Fort Garry, Manitoba Legislative Building, Bank of Commerce (Millennium Centre) and the Union Tower and Annex.

Across the province, the featured buildings include the Roxy Theatre in Neepawa, McKenzie Building in Brandon, Immaculate Conception Church in Cooks Creek, and the Court House in The Pas.

Each individual building on the site comes with maps, history, images and architectural information.

One section, called Building Styles and Types, allows users to learn more about the styles and types of historic architecture featured on buildings.

Another area allows teachers across the province to download education resources for their individual community.

Tugwell said the website also allows individual users to upload their own photographs of the buildings featured.

She said the website was scheduled to be completed in 2021, and became delayed because of the outbreak of COVID-19 and the shutdowns that became part of the height of the pandemic.

But Tugwell said that gave them more time to make sure the website had everything that was needed.

“There are 50,000 words on the site and it is fully bilingual,” she said.

“We always wanted to continue to do digital projects. A big audience is online now. We wanted to have a website on its own for this for people to learn why we do what we do.

“To our knowledge, there is nothing like this in the country.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca