Platial | Who and What's Nearby
Platial | Who and What's Nearby
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This was the first business house at the intersection of Portage and Main. It's construction in 1862 is by many, considered the symbollic beginning of the future city of Winnipeg.
Henry McKenney was an American merchant who came to the Red River Settlement in 1859. He opened the first hotel in Manitoba, The Royal Hotel, in a building near the foot of present-day Bannatyne Ave which he purchased from Andrew McDermot.
At the time, Main St was a trail that linked Upper Fort Garry and the Pembina landing at The Forks, to Lower Fort Garry near the present-day town of Selkirk. Portage Ave was a trail that to present-day Portage la Prarie and points further west. Coming to the settlement, the Portage trail forked into two at around today's Portage and Carlton intersection: one bending to the east to The Forks, the second continuing to jog north-easterly to private enterprises of Mc Dermot, Bannatyne, Ross, Logan, etc.
Where the latter met the Main road, McKenney realized potential for commercial viability; selling the Royal Hotel and building a new house where the two trails met.
Few others saw what McKenney saw, and could not understand why he wanted to build what was a swampy plain removed from current commercial activity. However, property values around McKenney's shot up, and within two years, several other estableshments had opened up around him, forming the nucleus of the village of called Winnipeg.
McKenney sold the in the late 1860's, and it operated as a hardware store under various proprieters until 1887, when it was demolished.
McKenney's store is on the left of this photo, taken in 1870, with the "L.R. Hentley Hardware" sign.
This was the first business house at the intersection of Portage and Main. It's construction in 1862 is by many, considered the symbollic beginning of the future city of Winnipeg.
Henry McKenney was an American merchant who came to the Red River Settlement in 1859. He opened the first hotel in Manitoba, The Royal Hotel, in a building near the foot of present-day Bannatyne Ave which he purchased from Andrew McDermot.
At the time, Main St was a trail that linked Upper Fort Garry and the Pembina landing at The Forks, to Lower Fort Garry near the present-day town of Selkirk. Portage Ave was a trail that to present-day Portage la Prarie and points further west. Coming to the settlement, the Portage trail forked into two at around today's Portage and Carlton intersection: one bending to the east to The Forks, the second continuing to jog north-easterly to private enterprises of Mc Dermot, Bannatyne, Ross, Logan, etc.
Where the latter met the Main road, McKenney realized potential for commercial viability; selling the Royal Hotel and building a new house where the two trails met.
Few others saw what McKenney saw, and could not understand why he wanted to build what was a swampy plain removed from current commercial activity. However, property values around McKenney's shot up, and within two years, several other estableshments had opened up around him, forming the nucleus of the village of called Winnipeg.
McKenney sold the in the late 1860's, and it operated as a hardware store under various proprieters until 1887, when it was demolished.
McKenney's store is on the left of this photo, taken in 1870, with the "L.R. Hentley Hardware" sign.
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