The House on Beaverbrook Street

With my mother and siblings in front of our house on Beaverbrook Street in 1960.

I lived on Beaverbrook Street in Winnipeg for one year. My father finished his medical internship at the St. Boniface Hospital and decided to do a surgical residency for a year with Dr. Jacob Isaac who worked at the Winnipeg Clinic. We had to move out of the apartment building for interns at the St. Boniface Hospital where we had been living. My parents found a house we could rent at 278 Beaverbrook Street. We lived there from 1960-1961.

Last week I went to find our Beaverbrook Home. It is still there but looks a little different. The front part of the house which was a sunroom when we lived there, has been stuccoed and most of its windows have been removed.

Outside our house on Beaverbrook Street in Winnipeg, ready to go to the beach with my Auntie Millie and her children.

Hanging stockings on our fireplace in the house on Beaverbrook Street

Mom reading Jack and Jill magazine to us, in the living room of our Beaverbrook house. Check out the leafy wallpaper behind us.

Mom took in foster children, two little babies, during the year we lived on Beaverbrook Street. Barry and Linda each lived with us for about six months until permanent adoptive homes were found for them. My parents didn’t take any photos of Barry and Linda but I remember them and how sad we were when they had to leave. I so admire how well Mom managed to look after her own three children and also take in foster children and give them loving care.

The house next door to us at 280 Beaverbrook still looks much as it did in 1960. One thing I remember about this house is that one day when I came home from school for lunch a car had driven into the living room of the house, right through that front window. Half the car was actually inside the house. I remember the next day there was a photo of the house and car in the newspaper.

Grade Two Class Sir John Franklin School – 1960-1961- Teacher Miss Ushay- I’m in the back row right beside the principal

I went to Sir John Franklin School for grade two and my teacher was Miss Ushay. She was young and very pretty but I don’t remember much about my school year except I once got 7+7 wrong on a math test. I had two best friends April and Catherine who were both in my class and also both lived on Beaverbrook Street.

My sister and I on the playground at Sir John Franklin

My sister was in kindergarten at St. John Franklin. The school was closed in 1989 due to dwindling enrolment and was torn down in 1991.

This is what the site of Sir John Franklin School looks like now

278 Beaverbrook in 2021

I am glad my old house on Beaverbrook Street is still there although I wonder how long it might last since many of the older homes in the neighbourhood have been torn down and replaced by new modern homes.

Spring in the backyard of the Beaverbrook house with my siblings.

Summer of 1961 in the backyard of the Beaverbrook house with my siblings

With my family in the backyard of our Beaverbrook House

With my Aunt Viola on the yard on Beaverbrook

278 Beaverbrook was my fourth home in Winnipeg. I have visited the other three as well in the past year. You can read about them here.

My House on Home Street

My House on Dundurn Place

I Lived in a Hospital