Winnipeg City Hall

A point of interest on the Winnipeg in the Limelight GPS-guided audio walking tour.

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Audio Transcript
 

If you look to your left you will see the more modern Winnipeg City Hall.

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I say more modern, as it underwent a radical transformation in the 1960s. The once eclectic "Gingerbread City Hall'', was demolished to make way for this newer, more starkly modern structure. It's actually tradition. Many years before, Winnipeg's original city hall was torn down to make way for the, at the time, more modern, massive and fantastic gingerbread building. we have a picture of the Gingerbread City Hall in the stop description, you should definitely take a look at this one!

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Though much has changed, from the surroundings, streets & building itself, City Hall has barely moved since the first one was completed in 1876.

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So what does this all have to do with theatre?

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Well, our first city hall held something the others lacked: an auditorium. Few permanent theatres had been constructed in Winnipeg in the early 1870s, leaving performers to put together shows in a variety of unusual spaces. These various venues included: military barracks, warehouses, and even above a stable in the now-demolished Dufferin Hall. By this standard, City Hall's auditorium was a classy venue, even if it lacked emergency exits. The City Hall Theatre officially opened in March of 1876, with a fundraising performance for the Winnipeg General Hospital. Starring in the show was Cool Burgess, the first professional actor to appear in Winnipeg.

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The City Hall Theatre shut down when City Hall itself was declared structurally unsound, and demolished, in 1883.

As you approach the next stop, check out the "half-tilted over" streetcar sculpture created by artist Noam Gonick. The sculpture resurrects one of the most iconic images from the 1919 Winnipeg general strike.

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