Quote:
Originally Posted by 1ajs
logan and main public washroom
selkirk and main
there was one across from the ledge
another on at garry and portage infront of vital statistics
the other one i have no idea
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the one in Memorial Park (aka the ledge) was not a city washroom but owned by the Manitoba Govt as Memorial Park is a "provincial park".
From a 2012 Winnipeg Free Press article on hidden underground structures was a list of the comfort stations:
Market Avenue for men and woman (1907)
Fort Street for men only (1914)
Garry Street for women only (1914)
Selkirk Avenue for men and women
(1917)
Logan Avenue for men and women (1917)
The cost to build the Logan and Selkirk stations was $27,319.25.
The underground washrooms operated for about the next 50 years, but not without controversy.
During flood years, they filled with water and by 1948, there was a move to get rid of at least two of them for sanitary reasons.
There was also the specter that they could collapse under the weight of a heavy truck, according to a Free Press story at the time.
"Then," said Alderman Jack St. John to health committee meeting March 10, 1948, "it would not be the city engineer or medical health official who would be responsible for those deaths or injuries, but the health committee."
The stations stayed, but by the early 1960s, some were getting in the way as the city widened its downtown streets to handle more and more commuter traffic.
The last of the comfort stations, the one on Garry, closed April 30, 1979. Its closure saved the city $85,000, what it cost each year to operate -- about a $1 per flush.
Hume Young, civic properties director, told the works and operations committee Feb. 18, 1979 -- also reported by the Free Press -- that a survey indicated average daily use of the facility was 187 men and 60 women, 15 to 20 per cent of them bus drivers.
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