Neepawa of yesteryear – Mountain Ave. north

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Published on Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Photo courtesy of the Neepawa archives. The Hamilton Hotel (pictured in 1992) was located on Mountain Ave., as well as the Plate and Platter Restaurant and Long’s Shoes. 

By Rick Sparling

The Neepawa Press

Last week, we finished up with the west side of Mountain Avenue from Commerce Street to just past Hamilton Street, so we went from the CPR Station, picked up a couple of places west on Merriman’s Road then onto Johnny Roco Station south all the way to the North Star Garage. Today’s column takes us from the Salt Plant on the east side of Mountain Ave. south to the Hamilton Hotel. 

 So we begin at the Salt Plant. We recalled some of the workers there were Phil and Bob Crabbe, George Smith, Norm Chapman, Norm Cheetham, John Hearn, Mike Kasmerik, Merv Buchanan, Bruce Pilkey, Jack McCallum, Merv Wareham, George Holod and Bob Allen. 

When the plant closed in 1970, several employees transferred to the new plant in Regina. The McCallums and the Allens (Bob and Yvonne) were among those who moved.  Mr. Ayers and Martin O'Day were managers at the Salt Plant. Lou Anne was Mr. Ayer's daughter and Susan was O'Day's daughter. Terry Kulbacki, Barry Deveson and Ron Kleven all worked at the plant during their summer school break one year. 

Watson's Mink Ranch was just east of the Salt Plant. The Yellowhead Centre now stands in its place. Viscount School, which earlier was NCI, Neepawa Collegiate Institute (not to be confused with NACI  Neepawa Area Collegiate Institute), was on the next property along Mountain Avenue located at the corner of Hospital Street.  This was Homer Gill’s first principal job and was the first school placement for Jim Schmall. Cliff Campbell, Mike Shewchuck and Mrs. Hildebrand were other teachers on staff. Further east along Hospital Street was NACI. My grade 9 had John Voth as the principal with his staff of Mildred Musgrove, Peter Isaac, Barney McIntyre, Nancy Small, Beatrice Berry, Mrs. Edith Dodds, Mrs. Nugent, Bill Fraser, Mrs. Turner, Verna Brown, Greta Cook, Mel Chambers and Harry Middlemass. Then the Hospital. Molly McKee was a nurse there and Myrtle McKenzie was the administrator. 

I remember spending evenings at the hospital as Larry Novak was working there and had a room.  Larry did odd jobs for the hospital and in return made some spending money plus free room and board throughout his high school years. This was circa 1958 and some of us would go there to listen to Larry sing and play some of his own songs he wrote. Also tunes like “Sink the Bismark.” Barry (Tab) Hunter jammed there as well and played a mean lead guitar. Larry (lead singer/guitar) went on in 1963 to play with ‘The Cascades’ along with Gerry Suski (rhythm guitar), Darwin Crabbe (drums), Teddy Greenhalgh (sax/keyboard) and Barry Hunter (lead guitar/bass). The Cascades played for many of the high school “hops” and some dances at the Arcade as well. Larry has had many of his songs recorded by Nashville artists and is still actively playing for local dances with a different group, “Larry and the Boys.” The Cascades had a 50th anniversary jam session in Winnipeg in 2013.

White’s Funeral Home, operated by Jack White was next. The Whites had two children, Doug and Lyle. Doug went on to run the business later. The Baptist Church remained where it was since the 60s and Brymont Apartments were just south of that. My mother was a long term tenant there since selling her home in the 70s. Ed and Wilma Fleger were also tenants there. At one time, the Flegers had a small grocery store around 5th and Main Street, across from Cleland’s Implements. This was close to Scotty Bennett’s Bulk Imperial Oil Station. Scotty and Marge had twin boys, Dargie and David. David later went on to be vice principal at N.A.C.I.  

Getting back on track on Mountain Avenue, we came to the Post Office. George Blackwell was the Post Master and Oni Jackson was an employee. Mrs. Middleton, Bruce and Glenn’s mother also worked at the post office.

Then came Murray’s Garage (Phone number: 162).  Earl Murray was the founder and Gerald, his son, became President. Vic Murray was an accountant there. The Forsmans; Stu, Ron and Doug, all worked in the back. Peter Cottingham and Jack Johnstone were a couple of the salesmen. Bill Dimmery worked the front end and Marjorie Sparling was secretary there after leaving Bell Lumber. Alec Kruzer’s father spent many years at Murray’s.

In the days prior to anyone having a television set (circa 1956) we anxiously awaited the end of September or early October when the new cars arrived. Since there were no TV commercials, you had to see them in person. Those were exciting events, going to Murray’s to check out the changes from year to year. Of course we checked all of the dealerships and all of us knew what year and model every one of them  were. Now I couldn’t tell you what any of the new cars are! They all look the same to me. 

Every weekend for a month or so, more new cars would arrive at the other dealers like McDougalls, Rutledges, Gillespies and Atkins, so it was a real treat to see them all arrive. Usually there was pop, coffee and donuts and the places were all packed.

The Dempsey Block had a store within that sold furniture and shoes. In behind was Doc Bolton’s barn where he kept his horses. 

Just past Mill Street sat the mighty Hotel Hamilton. The Witko brothers, Roy and Pete, owned the hotel and sold it to Stan Gromek. The Gromeks had four children; Eddie, Richard, Doreen and Lovey. I think about the times when I “made the rounds” with Richard Gromek as he was the ‘night watchman’ on occasion. There were time clocks located throughout the hotel and to prove that the watchman was on duty and inspecting the entire building, he would have to punch the clocks throughout the building every hour. We played cribbage in between and sometimes I would stay the whole night to keep him company. Ervine Lumber was in behind the Hotel. 

Elsie Poole opened up the Lamp Post Café right next to the hotel. This was originally Baroni’s and later the Golden Grill before the Lamp Post came to be. Shoemaker McGillvray Agencies (126) was just south of that. Nelson Shoemaker and Jack McGillvray sold insurance and real estate. Nelson and Edith had two girls, Erin and Penny ,while Jack and Lottie had one daughter, Lorraine.