Tory Row

Winnipeg's North End is famously known as the fountainhead of Western Canadian social democracy that, by the second half of the 20th century had become a national force. It is interesting, then, that for a brief moment in the 1880s, soon after Point Douglas had become established as a neighborhood defined by industry, railways, and Eastern European immigration, that a short stretch of Hallet Street would be home to three dominant Manitoba Conservatives.

Colin H. Campbell (1859-1914) was Manitoba's Attorney-General from 1900-'11, Premier John Norquay (1841-1889) was Premier of Manitoba from 1878-'86, and Nathaniel Boyd (1853-1941) became a young star of Robert Borden's federal Conservatives, and was an M.P. from 1891-1904.

Winnipeg Fire Insurance Map showing part of Hallet Street in 1905

Colin and his wife Minnie were newlywed twentysomethings--he a lawyer and she active in many social and church-related causes--who lived at 79 Hallet, a brick duplex. The Hon. and Mrs. Norquay lived in a large duplex two doors down, at 73. Their neighbors, the lumber merchant Nathaniel and his wife Eliza Boyd, were at 71, in a frame house Boyd constructed in 1882. Letters between Colin and Minnie Campbell from the summer of 1886 speak of evening visits among these families, as well as others including Boyd's partner in the lumber business, George Crowe and his wife who lived at number 67.

By 1890, these three men were gone from Hallet Street. In 1888, the Campbells moved to 149 James Ave. (and eventually to Roslyn Road), while Nathaniel Boyd moved to Carberry, MB to raise cattle. In July of '89, John Norquay died at the Hallet St. residence. His wife and children remained at that address for several more years.

Residence of John Norquay, c.1938. The Norquays occupied the right half of this building

In 1941, the Norquay residence was demolished, with part of its foundation and bricks used to construct two smaller houses on the site. The Campbell and Boyd residences are both standing today. Boyd's house was occupied by a series of long-term residents; while the Campbell duplex served as a boarding house through most of the 20th century, until 2005, when it was extensively renovated as four separate apartment units and occupied by new Ukrainian and Russian immigrants. It reportedly sold this month for $200,000.