The Tuxedo Safeway became the primary Safeway for River Heights Tuxedo residents when the Safeway at Corydon and Lanark closed in the 1970s.
As mentioned in part 1, the Tuxedo Park Shopping Centre has been around since 1962.
Safeway and the Bank of Montreal have been mainstays of the shopping center from the beginning. In 2008, Safeway just finished renovating its interior to bring it to the standards of stores as seen in Charleswood, Osborne Village and their newest location at Madison Square (the second largest location in the province as announced by managers on their opening December 11).
A number of stores and restaurants have come and over the years but a few have stood the test of time. Rumors Comedy Club has been around since the 1980s. The bar that occupied the place in the early 1980s was called Kappy's. Many of the greatest comedians working in North America have worked at Rumor's. Every so often a comedian guesting on a talk show like Leno or Letterman will list where they are playing and you'll hear Rumor's listed. It is now the only comedy club standing in Winnipeg.
Shopper's Drugmart is another long term tenant. The sit cheek by jowl with Safeway cramped in a corner of the mall.
A Laura Secord store is a major tenant of the mall although I don't know the exact day they moved into the location.
Other major tenants include a Sal's and a Liquor Mart.
A Shell gas station and car wash has occupied the corner where Tuxedo connects with Corydon for decades.
The second floor of the mall has numerous professional offices but the majority seems to be occupied by dentists.
In 2008, renovations of the exterior of the mall began (including a redesign of the Safeway). Some old tenants such as the Mac's departed.
A new addition to Tuxedo was a Starbucks. Only months earlier, a Starbucks was built just down the street in Charleswood.
The Tuxedo Shopping Centre has been an important part of the commercial infrastructure of Tuxedo/River Heights for many years. As more of the local grocery stores, pharmacies and banks closed in River Heights, this area became one of the main spots for residents to come for those services. It continues to serve that need but a building that seems awkward for the space.
I just found your blog (via Bryan Scott's superb Winnipe Glove & Hate). Loved your slagging of the insufferable Black Rod. On Tuxedo Park Shopping Centre I remember going with my mother as a child to buy clothes at Fruman's. They sold school uniforms - definitely SJR, probably Convent of the Sacred Heart too. And I remember drinking underage in the bar in the old hotel, which I guess became Rumour's. And buying books at the McNally Robinson that used to be there. The nostalgia of an exiled Wpgger.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to remember when Fruman's closed. It is sometimes frustrating trying to get information like that since the collective memory of people has to be mined to get an answer.
ReplyDeleteI think that blogs on a variety of subjects will be of amazing historical significance if the data is saved forever.
I forgot to list how McNally used to occupy the mall.
Prior to Rumor's, the bar was called Kappy's in the 1980s.
I never did go to the Tuxedo Hotel. I wish I had a picture of it to post.
That should be Mary Scorer not McNally that occupied the Tuxdeo Mall.
ReplyDeleteWe the Smith families live at 550 & 510 park Blvd from the early 50's till the 70's. When I was of age to drink the tuxedo kids from the town pump days is Bergmans Taylor's Rutherford's whites Smith brothers,leopp ethans just a few to mention there we all went to the Tuxedo Inn early Friday nights that then was very new it was on the same parking lot as the shopping center just down from the bank of Montreal how I do remember it well
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