Saturday, August 30, 2008

Lower Fort Garry

For the first time, I went to Lower Fort Garry. Suzanne and the boy went on Canada Day (for free!), but I was occupied with Orff Level II. Since it was the last weekend of the season, they had a few activities going, but they were also getting ready to shut down for the season. The pictures here are from the East Gate, facing the Red River.

The Warehouse (which later became Manitoba's first jail, first national jail, and first mental asylum).
the fur loft and trading building. The white one beside it was HBC's retail outlet until 1911.
the Big House (for the governor and his family/servants). After HBC left the Fort (except for the retail outlet), this became the officer's quarters for the RCMP.

The HBC's flag.


One of the interesting things was that from 1914 to 1964 (50 years, anyways), the fort was leased to the Manitoba Motor Club as a club house - and the buidings were altered quite a bit. When the Federal govm't got it from the club, they had to remove quite a few items and construction updates to bring it back to the period of 1851.

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