End of an era

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This article was published 20/03/2017 (3094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The keepers of Fort Garry’s formative history have decided to bring an end to an important venture in the community.

In late February, the Fort Garry Historical Society made the difficult decision to dissolve after more than 45 years of work and involvement in the neighbourhood.

Kathy Stokes, former acting president of the Fort Garry Historical Society, said agreeing to dissolve, while unanimous among the executive, was not a simple choice for the non-profit organization’s membership.

“It was not an easy decision for any of us,” Stokes said. “We didn’t do it because we got fed up or anything, we did it because we couldn’t continue.”

Since 2015, participation in the historical society had been in decline while the group’s active members continued to age well into their senior years. With dissolution on the horizon, the historical society made one last effort to find people to take on leadership roles but was unsuccessful. At the end of 2016, there were about 15 members involved in the society.

“There was no future,” Stokes said. “We were not prepared to run (the society) after the end December, except to tidy up the dissolution.

“It seems a shame and it really seems as though there’s a little hole left in Fort Garry society,” she said.

Gary McEwen, president of the Manitoba Historical Society, said many grassroots organizations are struggling to find people to help keep local history alive.

It seems a shame and it really seems as though there’s a little hole left in Fort Garry society.

“We’re very saddened to see the Fort Garry Historical Society dissolve,” McEwen said. “They’re suffering the same things we’re suffering — aging membership, difficulty to get younger members to join, and a lot of folks are re-examining our own programs to attract more young people.”

“I don’t know whether it’s a sign of the times,” McEwen said.

The Fort Garry Historical Society was founded in the 1970s in conjunction with the province’s 100th anniversary of joining confederation and mandated to preserve and protect the heritage of the Fort Garry area. Members, including Barre Hall, Bill Fraser, Doug Hutchings, Corinne Tellier, Bonnie Stovel and others, were instrumental over the years in the restoration and preservation of a number of heritage houses, including the Bohémier House and the Turenne House located at the St. Norbert Provincial Heritage Park.

The society also published three volumes of local history called Fort Garry Remembered (available in the library) which preserved such stories of Mama Trossi’s Restaurant, which was in operation in the 1950s, the early days of the Cottage Bakery near the Cambridge Hotel, the flood of 1950, and what Stokes affectionately described as the “Pointe Road bus.”

“It was very famous to those of us who lived in Wildwood Park because it broke down all the time,” she said.

The society was also responsible for the many artifacts and furnishings that populated the homes in the St. Norbert Provincial Heritage Park. Members provided manuals and reference materials for the tour guides at the park and helped with the upkeep of the historical pieces connected to French-Canadian pioneers Benjamin Bohémier, his wife Marie-Louise, and others.

“It’s been a wonderful program out there but at the same time it’s also taken up a lot of the energy of the members who were active, just running that one program,” Stokes said.

Artifacts belonging to the historical society have either been given back to the people who first donated them, given to other museums in Manitoba, or signed over to the care of the province. Documents and photographs representing the work of the society over the years have been given to the City of Winnipeg Archives for safekeeping.

“We, under their direction of one of their archivists, sorted everything ourselves,” Stokes said. “It took two or three years of going every Thursday morning because otherwise it would have taken five to 10 years for them to get around to sorting them so people could look at them.

“We’ve done our best to leave the record there for as long as we’ve been in existence, and leave it accessible.”

The society’s remaining funds, including a significant bequest from lifelong Fort Garry resident Geraldine Hamilton, have been designated for scholarships for students at Vincent Massey Collegiate, Fort Richmond Collegiate, and St. Norbert Collegiate.

The money will be awarded to students who put a focus on local Fort Garry and St. Norbert history or on Canadian history in their studies. Each school has received $5,000 and will administer the funds, set the criteria for projects, and decide on the winners.

“That’s fantastic,” McEwen remarked. “If there’s a great way to dissolve, that was it.”

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