This three-storey, brick block on Assiniboine Avenue in Winnipeg, measuring 70 feet by 218 feet, was designed by local architect James William Hawker and constructed in 1931 by the Benjaminson Construction Company at a cost of about $125,000. The building contained 44 apartments in its original configuration, containing two, three, four, or five rooms.
Firms that participated in the building’s construction were the Dominion Stucco Company (plaster, stucco, fireplaces, tile), Winnipeg Paint and Glass (lumber, doors, windows, finishing hardware), entrance door grills, tile, folding beds), Vulcan Iron Works (boilers, stairs, ornamental iron), John Davidson Company (plastering contractors), Gypsum Lime and Alabastine Canada (gypsum roof, gypsum floors, gyproc ceilings), Zephyr Washed Air Systems (air conditioning), Kummen-Shipman Electric Company (ranges, grates, electric fixtures, wiring), and Arctic Ice and Fuel Company (electric refrigerators).
Bessborough Apartments (November 2020)
Source: George PennerSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.88434, W97.14060
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: James William Hawker (1870-1941)
Manitoba Business: Benjaminson Construction Company
City of Winnipeg Building Permit 134/1931, City of Winnipeg Archives.
“Bessborough Apartments,” Manitoba Free Press, 31 August 1931, page 7.
“Early Icelandic builders in Winnipeg” by S. Aleck Thorarinson, Logberg-Heimskringla, 30 March 1967, page 7.
Find a Postal Code, Canada Post.
Preparation of this page was supported, in part, by the Gail Parvin Hammerquist Fund of the City of Winnipeg.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer, George Penner, and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 5 July 2024
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