In past years St. Charles was a sleepy little village. It rarely made the news, and most clips were brief.
- In 1935 Patrick Hedges shot a snowy owl that was hunting his chickens on Isbister Street.
- Two teenagers escaped seriously injury when they crashed and rolled their car on Saskatchewan Avenue near Isbister Street in 1936.
- A well was erected on St. Charles Street one block north of 400 St. Charles in 1912. It cost $250.
- Streetcars served St. Charles between 1904 and 1941, when buses took over.
- In 1959 Andrew Hamel, Joseph Bernier and Edward Barron were each fined $50 for breaking a $5 window and lying about it.
- Bruno Magne picked a carrot in 1959 that had “no less than five carrots on one stalk, shaped something like a monster’s hand.”
- In 1960 several streets in the village got concrete sidewalks.
- Keith Watson was handed a $50 fine and licence suspension in 1961 for impaired driving.
But sometimes news from St. Charles was worthy of mention, like a house flipping upside down:
 |
The Jacksons were lucky to survive. The wind storm that swept across Manitoba on June 23, 1922 killed three and caused millions of dollars of damage.1
🔥🔥🔥 |
St. Charles Roman Catholic church fire, 1928–29
St. Charles mission was established in 1855, when the Hudson Bay Company granted land to the Catholic Church. Originally, a small log chapel was built on the riverbank, followed by a frame church in 1866 that was destroyed in a wind storm 18 years later. A rectory (1897) and school (opened in 1906) followed, further defining this French enclave.
In 1905, the Winnipeg Free Press announced plans for a sturdy, more ornate church.
 |
| The new edifice will have a width of 45 feet and a depth of 108 feet, with a sacristy at the rear 20x45 feet. The architectural design is gothic throughout, the interior columns having ornamental caps and bases. It will be a brick veneer structure, with metal lath and plaster ceilings. There will be a high easement which is intended to be used for school purposes and church entertainments. The furnace room is also located in the basement. The steeple will be 105 feet high. The cost of the church, including furnishings, is estimated at about $15,000.2 |
The beautiful Gothic church lived up to the promise that “the residents of St. Charles will be able to point to the structure with pride.”3
 |
| Designed by Hooper and Walker, the St. Charles Roman Catholic church of 1905 was built on the same site as the simpler frame one destroyed in 1884.4 |
The new brick church was built to last, but didn’t. Disaster struck on New Year’s Eve, 1928.
 |
| The fire started on New Year's Eve, 1928.5 |
Rumors claim that the basement was full of coal, and an argument over whose jurisdiction it was delayed firefighting efforts. The church was a total loss, and the coal continued to burn for days and days.6
A more modest church was soon erected in its place.
 |
| The church was re-built in 1929 on the old foundation.7 |
 |
| The St. Charles Roman Catholic Church today. [Google maps] An addition designed by Giovanni Geremia of GW Architecture in 1988 doubled its size and received a preservation award from Heritage Winnipeg.8 |
🔥🔥🔥
Barron fire, 1947
Winnipeg winters can be cruel. It takes a roaring furnace to counter bitter cold, but over-heated stove pipes can create chaos.
 |
| The large Barron family dealt with a lot of misfortune. The fire on Tuesday, March 18, 1947 that left them homeless would not be the end of it.9 |
Neighbours, the local councillor, and the Red Cross responded to the family’s sorry predicament.
The Barron family made homeless when fire destroyed their two-storey dwelling on Isbister street Tuesday, is split up and living with various friends and neighbors.
An Assiniboine welfare committee, under the chairmanship of Mrs. Elizabeth Good, 3100 Portage avenue, assisted by Mrs. J. B. Johnson, 183 Greenacre street, is making every effort to supply clothing, furniture, bedding and financial aid.
Efforts are being made by the committee to obtain another home on Isbister street and contributions are being collected to furnish a home.
Clothing for the children has been collected and also two bed frames with springs and one mattress. An oil stove has been offered. Leonard McMillan, 3100 Portage avenue, has been donated his time and car to picking up contributions.
Only financial received up until Thursday noon was a promise of a $50 cheque. Mrs. Good explained that money would be kept to pay rent for a home when found.
Bedding will be supplied by the Red Cross.10
Fate would deal the struggling family an even worse hand in 1955.
🔥🔥🔥
Bloomfield fire, 1950
An even bigger fire struck homes and businesses on the same street three years after the Barron fire.
On Sunday, January 15, 1950 the Bloomfield family had to flee their home on Isbister Street at Portage Avenue in a hurry. They owed their escape to Timmy, their Chesapeake Bay retriever, a breed of intelligent watch dogs. Those protective traits were valuable when Timmy alerted the Bloomfields to the fire that broke out in their store at about 8 a.m.
The roaring fire completely destroyed the Bloomfields’ building that contained the family’s second-floor residence above their store and post office. A local bucket brigade could not save a thing.
The Morris Bakery, five feet away, also burned to the ground. Three people living in that building were lucky to get out, but some of the bakery’s contents were saved.
 |
| “When fire threatened Bloomfield’s general store at Isbister St. and Portage Ave. family dog, Timmy, aroused Mr. and Mrs. Bloomfield and five-year-old Tommy by barking and pulling on bed clothes with his teeth. Family fled the fire in night clothes. Young Tommy poses above with canine hero.”11 |
 |
| The fire destroyed Bloomfield’s general store and post office, the Morris bakery, and living quarters in the two buildings.12 |
 |
| “Only a desolate, ash-covered space remains where the Bloomfield store once stood. Damage to the building and its contents, described as a total loss, is estimated at $25,000.”13 |
Florence Bloomfield was the St. Charles postmistress between November 20, 1947 and May 10, 1950. After the St. Charles fire, she and her husband Edward (Ted) purchased and ran a general store in St. James between 1951 and 1955.
 |
| Civic-minded entrepreneurs Ted and Florence Bloomfield in the 1950s.14 |
Ted retired as a postal supervisor in 1955. That year the family moved to Dauphin, where they operated the Elna Sewing Centre and Fabric Shop and two more locations in Flin Flon and Brandon. In 1966 Florence ran a furniture store and apartment complex in The Pas, returning to Dauphin in 1975 where she began an antiques and collectibles business. The couple owned a retirement property in Phoenix, Arizona, where Florence became an ordained minister and hosted a gospel radio show. She passed away in 2001 and was predeceased by her husband in 1999.15 Their only child, son Tommy, born in 1944, passed away in 2006.
 |
| The Bloomfield fire also destroyed the Morris Bakery & Lunch (shown here c1943), about five feet away.16 |
Widowed in 1939, Mary Morris was the proprietor of the bakery and lunch counter next door to the Bloomfield store. Her reaction to the fire went unreported. The two people living with her (Cecil Sweet and eight-year-old Albert Gihon) in the building also escaped unscathed. Their building was totally destroyed, but Mary remained in the neighbourhood and later lived at 628 St. Charles Street.
Mary must have been quite a character. In 1940 she cared for a lost bear cub that showed up at her door.
 |
| “When Mrs. Mary Morris, of the Morris Bakery, St. Charles, heard a scratching noise at her back door Saturday at 7 a.m., she opened the door and got a shock. It was a bear cub doing the scratching. She slammed the door and ran out of the front door to her brother’s house nearby for aid. Her brother, Joe Pelletier, slipped a dog collar over the bear’s head and chained him in the yard. The little refugee from the wide open spaces soon made friends with Mrs. Morris and is now thriving on a diet of milk, berries, lettuce and bread. Picture shows Mrs. Morris giving her pet its daily bath.”17 |
Tribune readers were left wondering where the bear came from and what became of it. Charleswood, south of the Assiniboine River, was often confused with St. Charles, but how was a bear cub roaming in either neighbourhood? Hopefully it was safely handed over to the Assiniboine Park zoo.
Born on December 23 in 1885, Mary Pelletier married Peter Morris (1871-1939) in 1923. Mary was the eldest child of St. Charles pioneers William Pelletier and Sarah (née Caplette) Isbister, (later Pelletier after a second marriage). Mary had seven siblings: Marie, John, Sarah, Joseph, Charles, Josephine, and John. She died at age 83 on February 10, 1969.18
🔥🔥🔥
Sources (retrieved January 21, 2026)
- “Death and Desolation in Wake of Storm on Portage Plains,” Winnipeg Free Press, June 24, 1922, pp.1, 6
- “Church Progress in St. Charles,” Winnipeg Free Press, April 29, 1905, p. 17
- “Will Rush New Club House,” Winnipeg Tribune, March 21, 1905, p. 1
- “Église de St. Charles, Man.” The Rob McInnes Postcard Collection, Past Forward: Winnipeg’s Digital Public History, https://pastforward.winnipeg.ca/digital/collection/robmcinnes/id/4834/rec/1
- “St. Charles Parish Church Destroyed,” Winnipeg Free Press, January 1, 1929, p. 1 [re-typeset from original news clip]
- “The History of St. Charles Parish,” https://www.saintcharleswpg.com/church-historical-roots
- Ibid.
- “St. Charles Church at 320 St. Charles Street,” Heritage Winnipeg’s Annual Preservation Awards: A Retrospective [blog], February 24, 2021, https://heritagewinnipeg.com/blogs/heritage-winnipegs-annual-preservation-awards-a-retrospective/
- “Family Of 10 Left Homeless As Fire Razes St. Charles House,” Winnipeg Free Press, March 19, 1947, p. 1
- “Barrons Staying With Neighbors,” Winnipeg Free Press, March 20, 1947, p. 3
- “Dog Alerts Family to Flames,” Winnipeg Tribune, January 16, 1950, p. 1
- “Dog Warns Mother of Blaze; $30,000 Buildings Destroyed,” Winnipeg Tribune, January 16, 1950, p. 13
- “Dog Saves 3 As Fire Razes Home,” Winnipeg Free Press, January 16, 1950, p. 1
- Husqvarna Sweden advertisement, Dauphin Herald and Press, December 4, 1958, p. 27
- “Florence May Bloomfield March 3, 1913–July 17, 2001,” obituary, Dauphin Herald and Press, July 7, 2001, p. 21
- Morris Bakery & Lunch, circa 1943 photo, Jerry Olenko, Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/9513047@N05/with/53278709191
- “Bear Cub Strays But Finds Home In Charleswood,” Winnipeg Tribune, July 16, 1940.
- Mary Christine Peltier/Pelletier Morris, Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148332758/mary-christine-morris
⇧ BACK TO TOP
