July 5, 2022

Winnipeg
19° C, Partly cloudy

Full Forecast

Contact Us Subscribe Manage Subscription Chat with us
Log in Create Free Account Help Chat with us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertising Contact
    • Submit a News Tip
    • Subscribe to Newsletters

    • Finding your
      information

    • My Account
    • Manage my Subscription
    • Change Password

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate

    • Log Out
    • Log in
    • Create Free Account
    • Help

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate
  • Coronavirus Coverage
  • Replica E-Edition
    • About the E-Edition
    • Winnipeg Free Press
    • Community Review East
    • Community Review West
  • Above the Fold
  • Front page
  • Arts & Life
    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Book Club
    • Cannabis
    • Celebrities
    • Diversions
    • Puzzles
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Your Health
    • Life & Style
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Science & Technology
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Business
    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
    • Manitoba's Top Employers
  • Canada
  • Local
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
  • Sports
    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Auto Racing
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • Golf
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Horse Racing
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Olympics
    • Soccer
  • World
  • Reader BridgeNEW
  • WFP EventsNEW
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Us
    • Carrier Positions & Retailer Requests
    • FP Newspapers Inc.
    • History
    • Internships
    • Job Opportunities
    • News Café
    • Privacy Policy
    • Retail Locations
    • Staff Biographies
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Archives
  • Free Press Community Review
    • All Free Press Community Review News
    • East Edition
    • West Edition
    • Sports
    • Events
    • Contact Us
    • E-Editions
  • Classifieds
  • Contests
  • Coupons
    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print Coupons
    • Ripley's Aquariums Coupons
    • The Bay Coupons
    • Staples Canada Coupons
    • Altitude Sports Coupons
    • Nike Coupons
    • Tuango Coupons
    • Ebay Canada Coupons
    • Sport Chek Coupons
    • Roots Coupons
  • LifestylesNEW
    • All Lifestyles
    • Business Hub
    • Community
    • Drink & Dine
    • Life
    • Wellness
    • Whiskers & Wings
    • Sponsored Articles
  • Homes
    • Property Listings
    • Featured News
    • Renovation and design
    • New homes
    • Resale homes
  • Newsletters
  • Obituaries
  • Puzzles
  • Photo and Book store
  • More

©2022 FP Newspaper Inc.

Close
  • Quick Links

    • Coronavirus Coverage
    • Federal Election
    • Above the Fold
    • Home
    • Local
    • Canada
    • World
    • Classifieds
    • Special Coverage
    • Newsletters
    • Obituaries
    • Photo and Book store
    • Archives
    • Contests
    • Publications
    • Sponsored Content
    • Privacy Policy

    Ways to support us

    • Pay it Forward program
    • Subscribe
    • Support Faith coverage
    • Support Arts coverage
  • Replica E-Edition

    • About the E-Edition
    • Winnipeg Free Press
    • Community Review East
    • Community Review West

    Business

    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
  • Arts & Life

    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Cannabis
    • Celebrities
    • Diversions
    • Puzzles
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Your Health
    • Life & Style
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Science & Technology
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Sports

    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Auto Racing
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • Golf
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Horse Racing
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Olympics
    • Soccer
  • Opinion

    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor

    Media

    • All Media
    • Photo Galleries
    • Videos

    Homes

    • Property Listings
    • Featured News
    • Renovation and design
    • New homes
    • Resale homes
  • Canstar Community News

    • All Free Press Community Review News
    • East Edition
    • West Edition
    • Sports
    • Events
    • Contact Us
    • E-Editions
  • Coupons

    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print Coupons
    • Ripley's Aquariums Coupons
    • The Bay Coupons
    • Staples Canada Coupons
    • Altitude Sports Coupons
    • Nike Coupons
    • Tuango Coupons
    • Ebay Canada Coupons
    • Sport Chek Coupons
    • Roots Coupons
  • About Us

    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Us
    • Carrier Positions & Retailer Requests
    • FP Newspapers Inc.
    • History
    • Internships
    • Job Opportunities
    • News Café
    • Privacy Policy
    • Retail Locations
    • Staff Biographies
    • Terms and Conditions
The Free Press
Articles Read
Your Balance +tax
Day Pass Till
Day Pass
    • Contact Us
    • Advertising Contact
    • Report an Error
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
    • Staff Biographies
    • Submit a News Tip
    • Subscribe to Newsletters

    • Finding your
      information

    • Log in
    • Create Account
    • Help
    • Chat with us

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate
    • My Account
    • Manage My Subscription
    • Change Password
    • Chat with us

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate

    • Log Out
Log in Create Account Contact Us
Contact Us Manage Subscription
  • Sections
  • Local
  • Arts & Life
    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Diversions
    • Environment
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Health
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Business
    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
    • Manitoba's Top Employers
  • Sports
    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Soccer
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
  • E-Edition
  • Homes
  • Classifieds
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Automotive
    • Careers
    • Garage Sales
    • Merchandise
    • Pets
    • Real Estate
    • Rentals
    • Services
  • Lifestyles
    • Business Hub
    • Community
    • Drink & Dine
    • Life
    • Manitoba’s Top Employers
    • Wellness
    • Whiskers & Wings
    • Sponsored Articles
  • Coupons
    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print
    • Ripley's Aquariums
    • The Bay
    • Staples Canada
    • Altitude Sports
    • Nike
    • Tuango
    • Ebay Canada
    • Sport Chek
    • Roots
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe$1.50 for 5 months
Home Opinion Columnists

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

City has a penchant for bending the rules

By: Bartley Kives
Posted: 1:00 AM CST Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014
Last Modified: 6:35 AM CST Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014 | Updates

  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Print
  • Email
  • Save to Read Later

About 109 years ago, a massive fire broke out in the Main Street hardware store owned by James Ashdown, one of the most powerful people in boomtown-era Winnipeg.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 7/1/2014 (3100 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

About 109 years ago, a massive fire broke out in the Main Street hardware store owned by James Ashdown, one of the most powerful people in boomtown-era Winnipeg.

Incredibly, this city is still dealing with the consequences today.

A city committee OK'd this 24-storey tower.

ARTIST'S RENDERING / SUPPLIED IMAGE

A city committee OK'd this 24-storey tower.

Back in the fall of 1904, when Ashdown's business was on fire, there wasn't enough water flowing through the fast-growing city's undersized network of pipes to put out the blaze. In an effort to save the hardware store, water from the heavily polluted Red River was pumped into a system of pipes fed by artesian wells.

As a result, more than 1,000 people who had access to clean well water wound up with typhoid fever from the river. Thanks to the Ashdown Hardware fire, wealthy Winnipeggers got a taste of what it was like to be the poor Slavic-speaking North Enders who were forced to draw filthy water from the Red.

This heart-warming tale of socio-economic disparity was a big moment in this city's history. The brief suffering of the wealthy anglos inspired Winnipeg to build two of the most important pieces of public infrastructure of the 20th century.

One was the Winnipeg Aqueduct, a 155-kilometre engineering marvel that supplies the city with water from Shoal Lake's Indian Bay. It was completed in 1919 and still meets all of Winnipeg's drinking-water needs.

The other was the James Avenue High Pressure Pumping Station, built in 1906 to douse fires in large downtown Winnipeg buildings. It wound up operating for 80 years but now sits idle on Waterfront Drive, its brick facade enshrouding massive gears and engines that look like apparitions from the mind of a steampunk novelist.

Preserving this unusual structure and the unique machinery inside has proven to be a massive headache for the city. Downtown development agency CentreVenture once sold the pumping station to a would-be restaurant developer, only to suffer the twin indignities of losing a piece of the machinery inside and then buying back the building at a loss.

Since then, the station has been floated as the site of a brew pub, an indoor farmers market and now an apartment tower. This latest proposal, tentatively approved by the city, would preserve the machinery inside the station at the base of a 24-storey structure.

Some heritage advocates see this tower as the last, best hope for preserving the pumping station. Some city planners believe only a tall tower, with hundreds of apartments, can provide the revenue necessary to justify the upfront expense of preserving century-old machinery.

Some developers and arts groups also see this plan as the last, best hope to get a parkade built in the east side of the Exchange District.

But a different assortment of heritage advocates, developers and existing Waterfront Drive residents see a 24-storey tower as an abomination, especially since zoning rules restrict the height of a building in this area to eight storeys.

When any big development is proposed, it's common to see competing interests disagree. While residents who argue a tower will ruin their view are being silly -- no jurisdiction on the planet guarantees a property owner's right to retain a view -- there are legitimate concerns the city is setting a precedent by once again bending rules to accommodate a specific development.

The Free Press | Newsletter

Want to get a head start on your day?

Get the day’s breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning.

Sign up for Head Start
Sign Up

Compared with several other North American cities, Winnipeg has a spotty record when it comes to heritage preservation. Despite an official policy forbidding downtown demolition, the city continues to allow owners of empty or derelict buildings to take down their properties. In the past three years alone, the Shanghai Restaurant, Orpheum, Grain Exchange Annex and the Smart Bag Company Warehouse have all been toppled.

There's also no political will to force property owners to rejuvenate buildings or build up on surface lots, either within the Exchange National Historic District or in the broader warehouse district.

The James Avenue Pumping Station sits outside the actual Exchange. Allowing a developer to build on top of it to preserve part of it was an agonizing decision, said Fort Rouge Coun. Jenny Gerbasi, arguably council's staunchest heritage advocate.

The next decision of this kind would be easier if Winnipeg did a more consistent job of enforcing rules and regulations. If there's one set of rules, developers and residents alike would know what to expect from this city.

But as the Ashdown Hardware fire illustrated, a single set of rules has never been a big priority in this city, where a semblance of a frontier boomtown mentality remains.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

History

Updated on Wednesday, January 8, 2014 at 6:35 AM CST: Replaces photo

  • Report Error
  • Submit a Tip
  • Refund
  • The Free Press is certified by

The Winnipeg Free Press invites you to share your opinion on this story in a letter to the editor. A selection of letters to the editor are published daily.

To submit a letter:
• fill out the form on this page, or
• email letters@freepress.mb.ca, or
• mail Letters to the Editor, 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2X 3B6.

Letters must include the writer’s full name, address, and a daytime phone number. Letters are edited for length and clarity.

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

Top