This three-storey brick and stone building on Ninth Street in Brandon, measuring 57 feet by 57 feet, was designed by Winnipeg architect William Fingland as a two-storey structure and built between 1916 and 1917 by the construction firm of Hazelton and Walin for Manitoba Government Telephones (later Manitoba Telephone System) at a cost of about $60,000.
In 1929, a one-storey addition along with other alterations were designed by Winnipeg architect Alexander D. Melville and built by contractor Edmund Fulcher at a cost of about $18,250.
In 1949, a three-storey brick addition, measuring 57 feet by 62 feet, designed by architect Robert Bryan Ross, was added to the rear of the building. Further alterations, also designed by Ross, were completed in 1964 and the building was occupied by the firm until around 1968 when it built a new building at the southeast corner of Victoria Avenue and Eighteenth Street.
In February 2009, the Brandon General Museum and Archives were incorporated which now occupies the former building. Among the museum’s collections are taxidermic specimens collected by Benjamin Jones Hales.
Manitoba Telephone System Building at Brandon (1928)
Source: The Telephone Echo, Volume 8, Number 1, page 1.
Interior of the Manitoba Telephone System Building at Brandon (1928)
Source: The Telephone Echo, Volume 8, Number 1, page 2.
The former Manitoba Telephone System Building (March 2014)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Brandon General Museum and Archives (May 2023)
Source: Jordan Makichuk
Brandon General Museum and Archives (August 2023)
Source: Eva JanssenSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.84905, W99.94991
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: William Fingland (1862-1946)
Manitoba Business: Hazelton and Walin
Memorable Manitobans: Alexander D. Melville (1873-1949)
Memorable Manitobans: Edmund Fulcher (c1885-1972)
Memorable Manitobans: Robert Bryan Ross (1908-1983)
MHS Centennial Business: Manitoba Government Telephones / Manitoba Telephone System / MTS Allstream / Bell MTS
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Daly House Museum (122 Eighteenth Street, Brandon)
“Phone exchange,” Manitoba Free Press, 17 May 1916, page 5.
“Notice to contractors,” Manitoba Free Press, 11 July 1916, page 2.
“Tenders,” Manitoba Free Press, 7 August 1929, page 15.
“Tenders,” Manitoba Free Press, 10 August 1929, page 17.
“Tenders,” Winnipeg Tribune, 12 August 1929, page 17.
“Tenders,” Manitoba Free Press, 14 August 1929, page 17.
“Tenders in for new Dauphin Post Office addition,” Winnipeg Tribune, 28 September 1929, page 30.
“Tenders, Manitoba Telephone System,” Winnipeg Free Press, 29 March 1949, page 20.
“Tenders, Manitoba Telephone System,” Winnipeg Free Press, 31 March 1949, page 25.
“Tenders, Manitoba Telephone System,” Winnipeg Free Press, 24 April 1964, page 21.
“Archives as a cornerstone of community growth: Developing community archives in Brandon, Manitoba,” Ian Richards, MA thesis, Department of History, University of Manitoba, 2009.
Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950 by Robert G. Hill, Toronto.
We thank Eva Janssen for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Jordan Makichuk.
Page revised: 10 September 2023
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