McLuhan’s childhood home to become hub for big ideas

Renowned media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s childhood home in Winnipeg will soon welcome visitors to “come for the message” but “stay for the medium.”

The play on McLuhan’s famous term is the tag line of Howard R. Engel, president Winnipeg non-profit Marshall McLuhan Initiative, who bought the home at 507 Gertrude Ave., where McLuhan lived between 1921 and 1934.

On Saturday afternoon Engel and his team unveiled a Manitoba Historical Society blue plaque at the Osborne Village address commemorating the site of where the memorable Manitoban spent his childhood.

“We are over the moon,” Engel said. “This will not only be a museum, but also include a public gathering space for lectures’ presentations who help extend the working ideas of McLuhan.”

The Canadian professor and philosopher was well-known for his work on media theory and the effects of mass media on thought and behaviour.

He coined the term “the medium is the message,” which is still widely used in the media and communications industry to explain the relationship between technology and informational content.

In 1915, when McLuhan was four years old, his family moved to Winnipeg from Edmonton. He attended Kelvin Technical School, before enrolling in the University of Manitoba in 1928, where he received a bachelor of arts degree. He then left Winnipeg to study at Cambridge University in England.

After finding out McLuhan lived at the Gertrude Avenue address, Engel tried to purchase the home for more than a decade. In January Engel’s real estate agent brokered a deal with the then-homeowners and the place was signed over to him and his wife, Esther Juce.

Engel plans transform the home to include a gathering and lecture room, a library and media centre and living and working quarters for a scholar in residence once the home is restored, at an expected cost of $500,000.

Area councillor Sherri Rollins attended Saturday’s plaque unveiling and underscored the importance of McLuhan’s philosophies.

“I have been held up by the work of Marshall McLuhan in my work, when I’ve wondered what’s going on. And I think it’s timeless,” she said. “It will stand the test of time.”

Engel says he wants the future space to probe McLuhan’s work and build on it for future generations.

“We want to create a lovely space to do that in and people want. One which people would like to come back to,” he said.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca