Elmwood’s annexation cost it street names

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This article was published 01/06/2022 (1228 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the community of Elmwood was annexed by the City of Winnipeg in 1906 it gained access to many of the city services it desperately wanted. What it lost in the union were many of its oldest street names.

Elmwood was a largely rural enclave located northeast of Winnipeg and part of the sprawling Municipality of Kildonan. It drew closer to its big-city neighbour in 1881 after the Louise Bridge opened.

The bridge was shared by trains, pedestrians, and carts until it was abandoned by the CPR in 1904. It then became a main thoroughfare that increased the amount of commercial development on Nairn Avenue and attracted homeowners looking to escape the confines of Point Douglas.

This development pressure put Elmwood at odds with the rest of its municipality. While Elmwoodians wanted water mains, electric streetlights, and professional fire and police forces, their rural counterparts scoffed at the expense.

Elmwood’s options were to incorporate as a town, join Winnipeg, or stay part of Kildonan. In November 1905 an Elmwood Union Committee was formed see what terms it could reach with the city.

Winnipeg wanted Elmwood for its large tracts of undeveloped land, so it promised to build a police station, fire hall, new bridge (the Redwood) and to extend electric lights across the river. It would also pay Kildonan $18,500 to cover Elmwood’s portion of its municipal debt.

A plebiscite was held in Elmwood on Saturday, Feb. 17, 1906, and annexation passed by a vote of 400 to 28. Within weeks, the community became Ward 7 of the City of Winnipeg.

An unexpected issue that soon arose was the need to eradicate duplicate street names. The city did not have to negotiate with Elmwood about which names to change, as it did with surrounding municipalities. Instead, in August 1906, Winnipeg’s assessment commissioner, J. W. Harris, presented to city council 18 Elmwood street names that had to go, as well as his suggested replacements.

The new names sounded like the old ones but that was meaningless, as it still meant hundreds of people had to change their addresses and any historic significance of the original names was erased.

If there was opposition from Elmwood residents about the changes, the Winnipeg papers did not report it.

One change that was objected to was Robert Street to Rodent Street, as it was back before city council in March 1907 to be renamed again. (Nobody from the city was asked at the meeting to explain why they thought Rodent was a good name for a street in the first place.)

The proposed new name was Brazier Street. It may have been Albert and Bessie Brazier themselves who brought the issue to council in the first place. They were a prominent family who owned a four-acre hobby farm at the end of Rodent Street and Martin Avenue and were stuck with a Rodent Street address.

City council voted unanimously to change the name to Brazier.