The history of Wallasey Street

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/03/2022 (1401 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Residents of Wallasey Street, which is two blocks west of Moray Street in St. James, are first mentioned in the 1910 Henderson Directory. Between 1916 and 1974, residents north of Ness Avenue are listed.

Wallasey was once book-ended by animal facilities. Between 1954 and 1974, the Crozier Kennel was located at 743 Wallasey St. Hugh Crozier was well-known as a breeder of Labrador retrievers and was an honorary governor of the Delta Marsh Retriever Club. On July 11, 1959, Dr. Elmer (Al) Clark, and Dr. Frank Grant (changed from Gulyas) opened the Birchwood Animal Hospital at 2595 Portage Ave. Our family adopted our dog, Cindy, from Birchwood and it remains in operation to this day.

In 1911, Bannatyne School opened at 360 Wallasey St., named after William Bannatyne, a long-serving police magistrate in the St. James area. Additions were added to the school in 1962 and 1970, which have replaced the original building . The school’s current address is 363 Thompson Dr. The school has been the meeting place for the 28th Brownie Pack, which was founded in 1924 by Kathleen Thomson of 257 Wallasey St. Several generations of Kathleen’s’ family, including her daughters Nancy, Billy, and Betty, served in various roles with the pack.

Many Wallasey residents have been involved in education in St. James. Eugene Guilbert was the custodian of Bannatyne School between 1913 and 1950. Al Mayer and Al Wischnewski were St. James-Assiniboia School Division teachers and Nicole Bowering was elected to the St. James-Assiniboia school board in 2018.

John Bunting a market gardener, lived on Wallasey north of Ness. As a gardener, John won many prizes, and specialized in peonies. After serving on Assiniboia council, John was reeve of the municipality between 1925 and 1932. Gardening excellence seems to be a Wallasey trait. In 1954, A.E. Macklin won three prizes at the Red River Exhibition flower show and, in 1956 and 1957, William Dawson won Winnipeg Free Press prizes for his vegetable gardens.

Other notable Wallasey resident include Jim Palmer, who played on the Manitoba team that won the Western Canadian lacrosse championship team (Jim, individually, and the team are in the Manitoba Lacrosse Hall of Fame); while Don Deacon served as president of the Wartime Pilots & Observers Association.

Family pets will be mentioned more often in this series of historical profiles of St. James streets. Please send me the pet’s name as well as that of its owner and the street they lived on.