Heritage Winnipeg

Heritage Winnipeg We are a non-profit charitable organization advocating for and celebrating Winnipeg’s built heritage!

Did you know Winnipeg has one of the best-documented architectural archives in the world, and it’s run by a Dubliner? Pa...
08/26/2026

Did you know Winnipeg has one of the best-documented architectural archives in the world, and it’s run by a Dubliner?

Paul Clerkin started Archiseek in 1996 to document Irish architecture. Thirty years later, it’s grown into a massive archive covering Ireland, the UK, Europe... and a whole lot of Winnipeg.

He’s especially drawn to Winnipeg’s postwar boom; the Centennial-era optimism that gave us the Centennial Concert Hall at 555 Main Street (opened 1968), the Manitoba Museum at 190 Rupert Avenue (1970), the Planetarium (1968), and dreams that never quite got built (imagine city hall facing the Legislature on Memorial Blvd 👀).

Clerkin’s take is that Winnipeg used to swing big. Now, the city is more reactionary, more cautious. Even though bold swings like The Cube at Old Market Square, controversial at first, went on to become an icon of the city.

As Clerkin puts it, architects tend to be optimists who believe they can imagine a better world, you aim high, and sometimes you actually land it.

Explore 30 years of archive at archiseek.com 🏛️

📸 1. The Centennial Concert Hall, August 26, 2026. Source: Heritage Winnipeg

📸 2. The Manitoba Museum and Planetarium, August 26, 2026. Source: Heritage Winnipeg

📸 3. The Cube at Old Market Square, August 26, 2026. Source: Heritage Winnipeg.

Support Heritage Winnipeg this fall! 🍂 Join us on October 1 at the former Glasgow House in Armstrong’s Point for our 202...
08/25/2026

Support Heritage Winnipeg this fall! 🍂 Join us on October 1 at the former Glasgow House in Armstrong’s Point for our 2026 Fall Fundraiser.

🎟️ Save 20% on tickets with our Early Bird Discount when you purchase by September 2 at 5 p.m.

Visit https://heritagewinnipeg.com/2026-fall-fundraiser/ to purchase tickets!

The Winnipeg Railway Museum at VIA Rail Union Station (123 Main Street) is currently in talks with Parks Canada regardin...
08/21/2026

The Winnipeg Railway Museum at VIA Rail Union Station (123 Main Street) is currently in talks with Parks Canada regarding its planned reopening. The museum has been closed to the public since December 2021 due to safety concerns and required building upgrades. In June 2024, the Midwestern Rail Association announced a 25-year agreement with VIA Rail Canada, ensuring that the museum remains at Union Station.

Since then, work toward the museum’s reopening has continued. Recent improvements include new skylights through the former smokestack channels (courtesy of VIA Rail) as well as new windows along Track 1. The windows feature replica painted chicken wire, restoring the historic appearance of the originals, which contained the actual wire.

The museum had previously hoped to reopen in 2025, with further work dependent on funding and approval from Parks Canada.

Heritage Winnipeg’s Streetcar 356, Winnipeg’s last known wooden streetcar, has also received new boxcar wheels as rehabilitation work continues.

A new reopening date has yet to be determined. In the meantime, Winnipeg will continue to wait for the Railway Museum’s opening.

📸 1. The Countess of Dufferin at the Winnipeg Railway Museum (the new skylights are visible above), August 2026. Source: Heritage Winnipeg

📸 2. The newly installed windows alongside Track 1 in the museum, August 2026. Source: Heritage Winnipeg

📸 3. The replica painted chicken wire can be seen on the window glass, August 2026. Source: Heritage Winnipeg

📸 4. Streetcar 356 with boxcar wheels underneath, August 2026. Source: Heritage Winnipeg

📸 5. The Winnipeg Railway Museum sign in the Union Station passenger concourse, August 2026. Source: Heritage Winnipeg.

🏛️ Mini Museum ThursdayWe still have many artifacts and memorabilia at our office that are too good not to be shared. Th...
08/20/2026

🏛️ Mini Museum Thursday

We still have many artifacts and memorabilia at our office that are too good not to be shared. This “Heritage Panoramas – City of Winnipeg” display brings together panoramic views of the city from the early 20th century, capturing Winnipeg during a period of vast growth and change.

Featured are views of Main Street’s East Side in 1906, Market Square in 1906, Main Street’s West Side in 1911, and Portage Avenue and Main Street in 1913. These photographs offer a unique look at the streets, buildings, and cityscape that helped shape the Winnipeg we know today.

It is remarkable to think that panoramic photographs were first produced as early as the 1840s, making the technique itself an important part of photographic history.

08/18/2026

MCO's fifth annual Concert on the Veranda is almost here! ☀️🏡

Join the MCO this Saturday, August 22, at 11am at Seven Oaks House Museum, National Historic Site, for a free, family-friendly outdoor concert! Don't forget a picnic blanket or lawn chair for this morning of music at one of Winnipeg's most distinctive historic sites.

The program features orchestral favourites by Beethoven and Holst alongside lively fiddle and folk tunes, with a few musical surprises along the way. Anchored by connections to Manitoba's diverse landscape and spanning a variety of genres, the performance moves between the familiar and the unexpected in a program made for a summer morning outdoors 🎻

Concert attendees are also welcome to visit the museum following the performance! Seven Oaks House Museum is open until 4pm, with admission by donation (suggested donation $5) and guided tours available.

See you Saturday!👋

The City of Winnipeg will look at proposals to manage, program, and lease the Carré Civique de Saint-Boniface, including...
08/13/2026

The City of Winnipeg will look at proposals to manage, program, and lease the Carré Civique de Saint-Boniface, including the former St. Boniface City Hall at 219 Provencher Boulevard, the former Fire Hall at 212 Dumoulin Street, and the former Health Unit at 233 Provencher Boulevard. The City will continue to own all three buildings.

After years of discussion about the future of the site, the new process places a strong emphasis on public access and the preservation of St. Boniface’s francophone identity. According to the Winnipeg Free Press, 60 percent of the evaluation points are dedicated to proposals that maintain public access and promote francophone art, language, culture and history. All three buildings have heritage protection, and whoever receives the contract is also expected to outline repairs and maintenance for the next 10 years.

The Carré Civique remains home to important cultural organizations, including La Maison des Artistes, Entreprises Riel, the Saint-Boniface Museum and Festival du Voyageur. As the Winnipeg Free Press reports, community voices have emphasized the importance of ensuring that the square remains a vibrant and publicly accessible centre of francophone culture.

The discussion comes as another landmark of St. Boniface heritage, the former Grey Nuns’ convent, now the Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum, undergoes an extensive restoration. Its history demonstrates how the conservation and continued use of historic buildings can preserve architecture and the stories and communities connected to these places.

Proposals for the Carré Civique will be accepted by the City until October 23, 2026.

The future of these buildings offers an opportunity to ensure that St. Boniface’s built heritage continues to serve the community while preserving the francophone history and culture that give the neighbourhood its distinctive character.

📸1. Hôtel de Ville / St. Boniface City Hall, looking north from Provencher Blvd, ca. not before 1911. Source: Rob McInnes Postcard Collection (cropped, public domain)

📸 2. St. Boniface City Hall, May 31, 2026. Source: Heritage Winnipeg.

Address

509-63 Albert Street
Winnipeg, MB
R3B1G4

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+12049422663

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