Well, not really. This picture was taken across the street from what was the Mall Hotel and Centre which was complete in 1964. A British American Gas sign logo marks where one of their stations was once and a Perth's in the retail block ahead of it. Kitty corner is the University of Winnipeg. The 7 floor Mall office building housed the corporate headquarters of Winnipeg Supply. It was also where the 16 bay bus terminal was.
Sadly by the 1970s the Mall Hotel was one of the most dangerous hotels in the city and one of the seedier ones.
The Gaiety Theatre from Famous Players was later to become the Colony Theatre in the late 1970s. In 1964 it had the longest marquee of any movie house in the province as well as 700 seats in stadium style. A Red Rose Tea sign sat atop the theatre in the 1960s. For a time after 1973 and Gaiety was an adult movie house showing soft porn. It lasted maybe four years before becoming the Colony and showing regular fare again. In mid 1980s it was demolished in favour of Investor Group headquarters which moved from Broadway.
Winnipeg had a fairly lax billboard law in the 1960s and signs were everywhere. Looking way down to Portage and Main a Coca Cola clock sign can be seen. It would be a few years before the Richardson Building and Winnipeg Inn (Fairmont) would be built. The same corner had a Royal Dutch Shell clock sign on the buldings that eventually became the Trizec development (marked with TD logo today).
Overhead of the street are trolley bus wires. One final observation. Look at the awesome VW van parked on the north side of the street.
3 comments:
I think that BA sign was on top of the building that housed United Army Surplus Sales. That site may have been home to a BA station at one time, but not after the 1960's as far as I know. In later years (70's-80's), the metalwork supporting the BA sign was used for a giant Sony sign.
I think you're right. I've seen where a few gas stations were along the way such as Bay parking lot and maybe a decade earlier across from the bad. But in the 1970s it was likely ad signs which were abundant downtown.
Across from the Bay.
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