Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Above: A landaulet parked on the city hall stand in 1894. The tall column is the Volunteer's Monument, commemorating soldiers killed in the 1885 Rebellion. It is now (2012) located across Main Street near the Manitoba Museum. Below: Another landaulet parked at the same spot on the stand about 1906.
Source:
Top: 1885 Monument in front of City Hall, Winnipeg, 1894. Western Canada Pictorial Index, 412-13355. Photo courtesy Eric Wells. [One of a series of three Steele & Co. views of Main Street from City Hall with the same cab appearing in all three.] Bottom: City Hall, Winnipeg, Man. Winnipeg: Published for Russell Lang & Co., Winnipeg, Man, circa 1906. Prairie Postcard PC001949 from Peel's Prairie Provinces (University of Alberta Libraries), peel.library.ualberta.ca/postcards/PC001949.htm.
Winnipeg Cab History / 25
Cab Stands (3)
The city hall cab stand clearly attracted cabs but it did not prevent them from congregating at Portage and Main, especially at night when hotel barrooms provided the most reliable customer traffic. John Brownlee penned this sarcastic complaint to city council in 1887:
Gentlemen, as it seems that you cannot successfully induce the Hack men of Winnipeg to vacate their old stand on Portage Avenue av. to occuppy [sic] other quarters, Could you please try and make them either sit on their Hacks or stay by them the same as they do in other towns.During the day time they occuppy [sic] the south side of Portage av. and at night time they draw up in a line on the north Side from the Merchants Hotel to the Queens insulting and jesting and passing remarks at everyone passing by.
Not only that, but they monopolise the whole side walk and well they know when their [sic] is no policemen niegh [sic].
The cab in the top photo seems to be a landaulet, but with a hood that has separate side curtains or flaps. The day was obviously warm and the side curtains have been opened. The near horse is tethered to an iron weight visible on the plank sidewalk.
Contrary to the cab bylaw, the driver is not in his seat maintaining control of his horses. Perhaps he is having lunch across the street at the X-10-U-8 cafe, or maybe he is inside the cab taking a short nap in the shade.
The piles of what seem to be little kegs may be cedar paving blocks, dumped there for impending street repairs. An electric streetcar is entering the photo at right.