Historic Sites of Manitoba: Daly House / The Maples Orphanage / Daly House Museum (122 Eighteenth Street, Brandon)

This two-storey brick building on Eighteenth Street in Brandon, one of the oldest structures in the city and a municipally-designated heritage site (2000), was designed by architect Edward McCoskrie and built in 1882 for Thomas Mayne Daly. When Daly moved to British Columbia in 1896, he sold it to his law partner, George Robson Coldwell whose family resided here until the early 1930s. The house served as a children’s shelter called “The Maples”, operated by the Children’s Aid Society of Western Manitoba, from 1932 to around 1972. In the mid-1950s, a verandah was removed from the house, and a porch, fire escape, and rear extension were added.

In 1976, the building was taken over by a non-profit organization that renovated and reopened it two years later as a museum. On the grounds of the museum is a plaque, erected by the Historic Sites Advisory Board of Manitoba, that commemorates Thomas Mayne Daly.

Daly House Museum

Daly House Museum (September 2012)
Source: Eileen Trott

Gardens beside the museum

Gardens beside the museum (2015)
Source: Eileen Trott

Daly House Museum

Daly House Museum (May 2018)
Source: George Penner

Daly commemorative plaque beside the museum

Daly commemorative plaque beside the museum (July 2023)
Source: George Penner

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.84805, W99.96196
denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Cool Things in the Collection: Gowen’s Brandon, Then & Now by Christy M. Henry and Eileen Trott
Manitoba History, Number 77, Winter 2015

Memorable Manitobans: Thomas Mayne Daly (1852-1911)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: LaPlont Block (924 Rosser Avenue, Brandon)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Brandon General Museum and Archives (19 Ninth Street, Brandon)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Municipally Designated Historic Sites

Daly House Museum

Doors Open Brandon

Sources:

“The Maples home away from home for deserving kiddies,” Brandon Sun, 4 August 1955.

Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950 by Robert G. Hill, Toronto.

We thank Eileen Trott, Tom Mitchell, and George Penner for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page updated: 14 February 2024

Historic Sites of Manitoba

This is a collection of historic sites in Manitoba compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. The information is offered for historical interest only.

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