Mager House

1914 - February 23, 2006

WFP October 9, 1997 Development proposed near flood-prone Seine WFP October 17, 2005 History slipping away WFP November 21, 2005 Time running out to save old house The Lance January 11, 2006 Last chance for Mager House The Lance January 25, 2006 Mager house saviour has to pull out

Without its local history  is South St. Vital a soulless suburbia?

AFTER

BEFORE

I was privileged to document one of the last sunsets that ever fell upon Mager House. Although teenagers had graffitied the unsecured building it was still salvageable. After a careful  renovation it could have lasted for another hundred years. This home should have been saved. As citizens we all should have done better. Did Eatons teach us nothing?

Insensitive remodelling two generations ago had removed most of the interior character elements of Mager House, thereby disqualifying it as a historic building. These bedroom door transoms had somehow missed renovators, teenagers and salvagers attention. While downtown Winnipeg has thousands of similiar brick residences the rural garden market community that was First World War South St. Vital had one, this one. An historic exemption should obviously have been made in this case. What similiar buildings are falling between the cracks, and to the indignity of heavy equipment, in Charleswood and Transcona as we speak? Is our history truly slipping away?

This corner stone will be preserved in the new 80-bed personal care home in a memorial wall. Mager House was miraculously saved in 1997 when a development deal fell through. Sadly, no one took advantage of that miracle.