City of Winnipeg announces celebrations for 150th anniversary

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham used the historic Carnegie Library, the once and future home of the City of Winnipeg Archives, to announce plans for celebrations marking 150 years since the city's founding.

The plans include grants up to $5,000 to organizations for commemorative projects, and a new time capsule that will be sealed at the end of 2024 and opened on the city's 200th anniversary.

"I know I'm going to be penning a letter. I've invited many other leaders in our community including Premier Wab Kinew, President David Chartrand of the Manitoba Mtis Federation, [and] our Treaty One chiefs, as well," Gillingham told reporters after a news conference at the library on William Avenue on Wednesday.

Council has allotted up to $50,000 for the community grants, with plans for other events over the next year. City spokesperson Kalen Qually said the final budget for the celebrations has not been set, and will be part of next year's budget debates.

The City of Winnipeg was incorporated on Nov. 8, 1873.

At the time, the city had a population of around 2,000 people spread out over about five square kilometres.

Archival photos show mud streets, and one of the most common requests of the city from residents were wooden-plank sidewalks, according to senior archivist Sarah Ramsden.

By 1924, the population grew to 194,850.

"The city did grow rapidly, and even more so after the railway came," Ramsden told reporters.

"In addition to houses and dwellings, there's a lot of boarding rooms and hotels going up in Winnipeg, and you really see that in some of the maps and some of the material that you read from that time."

Artifacts on display included contents of two previous time capsules: one from 1875, embedded in the cornerstone of the first city hall, which opened in 1876; and another one from 1884 and placed inside Winnipeg's second city hall commonly to as the "Gingerbread City Hall" which opened in 1886.

They included a sealed jar containing dead grasshoppers and samples of damaged wheat.

"It's just one of the examples of some of the challenges Winnipeggers in 1875 were dealing with the grasshoppers, plagues and scourges on the Prairies at that time," Ramsden said.

The city is also preparing to mark the anniversary of the first Winnipeg council meeting, held on Jan. 19, 1874.

One item on the agenda was the matter of "illegal voters" in the city's first election, Ramsden said.

"There's a story around [first Winnipeg mayor] Francis Cornish, who took advantage of an election loophole, where if people had owned property in [multiple wards], they ended up voting twice," she said.

Bringing archives home

All of the archival photos, documents and artifacts on display were once housed in the Carnegie Library, opened in 1905.

It was undergoing renovations in 2013 when a massive rainstorm flooded it, forcing the archives to move to another location on Myrtle Street.

The move has hampered public access in the decade since.

"We do know that research visits are down and we miss that connection to users of archives, that connection to community," Ramsden said, adding the archives has tried to bolster its online presence.

In March, council approved $12.6 million to restore the archives building to its original home.

It will include a new temperature and humidity-controlled vault, a research room and multi-purpose room for community events.

"We want to be more of a hub for the community and we want to make sure that this is seen as a community source for their records, to both tell their stories and to share their stories with the future," said city archivist and records manager Konrad Krahn.

A consultant is preparing detailed designs for the archives renovation.

Work is set to start next year, with a reopening planned for 2026.

City of Winnipeg looks forward to a brighter past

10 months ago

Duration 1:52

On the 150th anniversary of the city's incorporation, Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham announced funding for a number of commemorative projects. The announcement took place in the Carnegie Library, the home of the city's archives, which are set for major renovations starting next year.