Historic Sites of Manitoba: Selkirk Telephone Exchange Building (321 Manitoba Avenue, Selkirk)

This one-storey brick building on Manitoba Avenue in Selkirk was designed by Winnipeg architect John Hamilton Gordon Russell and built in 1921 by contractor Thomas Alfred Bratton to house local circuitry for the Manitoba Government Telephones (later Manitoba Telephone System). In 1941, an addition to the building was designed by Alexander D. Melville.

In 1962, a one-storey addition to the building, measuring 41 feet by 104 feet, was designed by in-house architect Robert Bryan Ross. Today, only the east wall of the original building is still visible.

Manitoba Telephone Exchange Building at Selkirk (no date) Source: The Telephone Echo, Volume 2, Number 6, page 29, March 1923. The former Telephone Exchange Building at Selkirk (July 2022) Source: Jordan Makichuk Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.14493, W96.87168 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Memorable Manitobans: John Hamilton Gordon Russell (1863-1946)

Memorable Manitobans: Thomas Alfred Bratton (1868-1953)

Memorable Manitobans: Alexander D. Melville (1873-1949)

Memorable Manitobans: Robert Bryan Ross (1908-1983)

MHS Centennial Business: Manitoba Government Telephones / Manitoba Telephone System / MTS Allstream / Bell MTS

Sources:

“Tenders,” Winnipeg Tribune, 31 May 1921, page 2.

“Fine phones building at Selkirk,” Manitoba Free Press, 13 July 1921, page 15.

“Tenders,” Winnipeg Free Press, 31 May 1941, page 21.

“Deaths,” Winnipeg Free Press, 16 January 1953, page 28.

“Tenders, Manitoba Telephone System,” Winnipeg Free Press, 20 March 1962, page 39.

Selkirk - The First Hundred Years by Barry Potyondi, 1981, page 119.

This page was prepared by Jordan Makichuk.

Page revised: 23 October 2023

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