Audio Transcript

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Welcome to Winnipeg’s “famous Manitoba Club,” as it was once known throughout North America. Built in 1905, the “gentleman’s club” that founded it actually formed in 1874, and is western Canada’s oldest operating private club.

Many interesting and well-known guests have enjoyed this beautiful venue over the years, including Mark Twain and every Canadian Prime Minister.

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One of the building's prettiest features, a breath-taking stained-glass Jubilee Window, memorializes the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, or 50 years on the throne. And that’s quite glance back in history, actually, considering it celebrates Queen Victoria’s reign, not Queen Elizabeth’s!

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Dedicated in the late 1800’s, the window was part of an earlier clubhouse and later moved here.

This is a heritage building and so mostly original, but there have been a few additions to The Manitoba Club since 1905. Renovations started early, actually. In 1910 a sunroom was added and then, in 1930 “The Ladies Annex”.

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The most recent addition, though was in 2017. The city’s first cigar lounge opened here, making The Manitoba Club Canada’s only private club offering anything like it.