Making room for history

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This article was published 18/11/2009 (6117 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like a ravenous Godzilla, the jaws of a gigantic crane devoured a bland brick building on Main Street Tuesday, making room for a rich slice of Winnipeg history.

“This is a great day,” said Jerry Gray, chairman of the Friends of Upper Fort Garry, watching the crumbs of 100 Main St. bite the dust.

“The Friends of Upper Fort Garry have been working for close to seven years to demolish this building,” said Gray, as another demolition crew levelled the former Petro-Canada station next door.

Now, it’s out with the new and in with the old on the stretch of Main Street from Broadway to Assiniboine Avenue, which used to be the gateway to the West.

In 1835, Upper Fort Garry, near the junction of the Assiniboine and Red rivers, became a major hub of the fur trade.

Hudson’s Bay Co. governor George Simpson ordered construction of the square, stone-walled fort with walls nearly 80 metres long and five metres high.

The Friends have raised more than $10 million in pledges to reclaim the site of the original Upper Fort Garry for an interpretive centre and heritage park.

Tearing down the modern structures this week will make way for archeologists to look for traces of the old fort. Already, ground-penetrating radar has found some treasures — under the parking lot’s pavement.

“We didn’t know how well it would work,” said senior archeologist Terry Gibson.

The radar device on wheels has picked up what Quaternary Consultants thinks may be the remains of the governor’s house, some of the bastion footings and a stone-lined well.

“I’m surprised that remains were still there,” said Gibson. The site of the old fort has been built up and over many times.

All that remains today is the gate and the chunk of land on which it sits. The Hudson’s Bay Co. gave it to the city in 1897.

In January, the Friends of Upper Fort Garry will unveil plans for the Main Street site at public open houses.

They took possession of the property in June and once the demolition permits were in place, the wrecking began next to the busy thoroughfare.

“The machine is a controlled method of demolition,” said Bob Molter, general manager with Winnipeg’s Rakowski Cartage and Wrecking. Rather than a wrecking ball, the enormous jaws of the UHD (Ultra High Demolition) machine take precise bites out of the building, said Molter.

The steel will be recycled and the concrete and bricks will be chewed up on site and spit back into the excavated site as fill, he said.

The interior of the building had already been gutted, with its materials salvaged, said Molter.

For more information on the site, or to donate, you can go to the organization’s website (upperfortgarry.com).

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca