A historic three-storey building South Osborne and one of three residential schools still standing in Manitoba have been added to a top 10 list of endangered places in Canada.
The Rubin Block, a three story mixed-use building in South Osborne and the Birtle Residential School are included in the National Trust for Canada’s 2019 Top 10 Endangered Places List.
According to the National Trust for Canada’s website, the list “shines a national spotlight on historic places at risk due to neglect, lack of funding, inappropriate development, or weak legislation.”
The Rubin Block was opened in 1914 and designed by the prominent Winnipeg architect Max Zev Blankstein, said the NTC.
“Currently the building is unoccupied, boarded up, and on the city’s vacant building list. It appears on track for demolition by neglect,” it says on the website. “The Rubin Block needs building ownership that recognizes the historic, social and streetscape value of the building and will again make it an integral part of the community.”
The Birtle Residential School, which is located in Birtle, Man., about 300 kilometres west of Winnipeg, is an imposing three-storey brick building with a dark past.
According to the NTC, the school operated from 1889 to 1972. It was sold by the federal government in 1975, but the second owner began demolishing the interior of the building.
The owner abandoned the project about 15 years ago, and it’s since been open to the elements and heavily vandalized.
“Consensus has not yet emerged in the local Indigenous community about whether the former school should be preserved as a site of memory and conscience. Until that happens, the site needs to be secured and stabilized to ensure the historic fabric is not further eroded,” the website says.
Other historic spots in Manitoba easier to restore: historian
The Top 10 Endangered Places List aims to give a shot in the arm for local groups involved in challenging campaigns to save places that matter.
However, according to a Winnipeg historian, other remarkable places have a better shot of being protected.
Gordon Goldsborough, the head researcher for the Manitoba Historical Society visited the Birtle Residential School not long ago.
“It’s in really bad shape. I don’t think it’s salvageable. I think it’s too far gone,” he told CTV News.
However, there are two other residential schools still standing in the province that could be protected if the aim is to keep the schools standing, Goldsborough said.
He added that the oldest grain elevator in Canada is in Elva, Man. and is need of refurbishing.
“Given the iconic role that grain elevators have played, it surprises me it hasn’t made the list,” Goldsborough said. “In my view, this is the most threatened, historically-significant building in Manitoba.”
