Lögberg-Heimskringla - 25.06.1982, Blaðsíða 6

6-WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 25. JÚNÍ 1982
Take the Pulse of the City
One of the best places to grasp the
rhythm and style of a city is in the
marketplace, where a cross section
of humanity can be found browsing,
buying, selling, sometimes haggling,
and always thriving on the sheer
energy created by the universal law
of supply and demand. For those
who are just passing through and
soaking up the local atmosphere,
there is always the added anticipa-
tion of turning one more corner and
discovering something they'd never
find at home.
A hundred years ago, in the dusty
frontier town of Winnipeg, en-
trepreneurs filled — and sometimes
created — a demand for goods their
new customers had never dreamed
of ever needing in their home coun-
tries. Handy profits were turned by
outfitting settlers with everything
from Red River carts to buffalo
robes. Even greater fortunes were
made when the prairie yielded up
its rich harvest of grain to a hungry
world, making Winnipeg the
"Chicago of the North" and the
"Gateway to the West."
Today, poised as always between
eastern sophistication and western
feistiness, Winnípeg is still a centre
of trade, commerce and manufac-
turing. And its varied shopping
areas, although they are no longer
the noisy, crowded open markets of
a century ago, still measure the
pulse of the city.
Commodity Exchange
The 95-year old Winnipeg Com-
modity Exchange, which deals in
future trading for Canadian grains
and oilseeds, is a solid reminder of
the city's roots. It is now found in a
striking building complex at the cor-
ner of Portage and Main. And locat-
ed beneath the streets of this, the
heart of the city's financial district,
are the modern underground shop-
ping complexes of Winnipeg Square
and the Lombard Concourse.
Office workers, business ex-
ecutives, stockbrokers and visitors
staying in the nearby Westin Hotel
(conveniently linked to the
underground corridors and to near-
by office buildings) shop and dine in
temperature-controlled comfort.
At the centre of the pedestrian
corridor system is a giant concrete
hub featuring a unique sculptured
mural design. Wide walkways and
soft lighting also provide a pleasant
setting for browsing through Indian
artwork, fine china and crystal,
jewellery, quality Scottish imports,
camera equipment or designer furs,
to mention just a handful of the
goods available. Services range from
travel agencies and flower shops to
hair salons and TV banking.
Shoppers can dine in one of
several restaurants in the Lombard
Concourse or sample a variety of
ethnic specialties at the Food Fair in
Winnipeg Square. This cheerful and
casual eating area is ringed with
stalls featuring Chinese, Greek,
Ukrainian and Italian cuisine as
well as delicatessen favourites and
special treats such as French pastry.
Shoppers and visitors may choose
to "surface” and join the midday
hubbub of downtown Winnipeg.
They will be in for a pleasant treat,
for just a stone's throw from the
rarified world of high finance is a
jumble of little streets that once
comprised the wholesaling and
warehousing centre of the prairies.
Today this 15-block area is known
as the Old Market Square Heritage
District and it still boasts the largest
concentration of turn-of-the-century
architecture remaining in western
Canada. Heritage Canada and con-
cerned local citizens are working to
preserve the ornate facades of the
buildings and the overall character
of the neighbourhood.
Old Market Square
It has also been rejuvenated by
the imaginative integrating of old
and new, with speciality shops, art
galleries, restaurants and nightspots
inhabiting warehouses and garages
that have outlived their original
uses. Every summer weekend, the
square regains some of its original
exuberant spirit by blossoming into
an open-air market. Under red-and-
yellow canopies, craftsmen, ven-
dors, market gardeners and local
entertainers offer Winnipeggers and
their guests a variety of antiques,
crafts, fresh fish and honey, pro-
duce in season, music and magic in
a heady celebration of summer. It is
the best possible place to discover
where the traditions of the city
originated.
Nearby, tucked away on the se-
cond floor of 275 Portage Avenue,
shoppers can find the Indian Crafts
and Arts Manitoba Inc. This shop of-
fers top-quality beaded jewellery,
sweetgrass baskets, dolls, mukluks,
slippers, gauntlets, sculptures and
prints to those who value the rich vi-
sions and legends of Manitoba's
earliest citizens. As you step out the
door you meet another Winnipeg
tradition head on — Portage Avenue
— with its two ''grand old ladies,”
Eaton's and The Bay. A surprising
number of Winnipeggers have rare-
ly shopped elsewhere in the city,
preferring to depend on these tried
and true department stores for
everything from groceries to the
amenities of gracious living.
American visitors in particular
know they will find quality goods
ranging from English bone china,
Irish linen and Inuit carvings to the
famous Hudson’s Bay point
blankets and coats.
The newly-built, multilevelled
Eaton Place complex, with more
than 80 shops and services, is now
joined to the main store by an over-
pass. Airy \yalkways and lots of
greenery create pleasant surroun-
dings as customers shop for quality
fashions, shoes, books, records,
toys, giftware and even pets. Ser-
vices such as hair salons, a
drugstore, a travel agency, and a
variety of fast food outlets, plus a
casually elegant restaurant and bar,
make Eaton Place a convenient
shopping area.
Little else has changed at Eaton's
and The Bay over the years,
however, and they and a string of
durable smaller stores along Portage
Avenue continue to hold the affec-
tion of their many loyal customers.
Other aspects of downtown Win-
nipeg are changing rapidly,
however. The crowning touch is the
highly-rated Winnipeg^Convention
Centre that sprawls over a city
block and attracts thousands of con-
ventioneers every year. Joined by
overpasses to an office tower and
the Holiday Inn, it invites delegates
and Winnipeggers alike to dine in
either of two popular restaurants.
As they browse through antiques,
quality men’s wear, books, lingerie
and bone china in the concourse
shopping area, they may well get
the idea that this is a city that ap-
preciates the finer things in life.
Manitoba Crafts Guild
A short stroll away, at 183 Ken-
nedy Street, is the Manitoba Crafts
Guild, specializing in Canadiana
with an emphasis on Manitoban
crafts. The spirit of many patient
pioneer women hovers over the
knitted baby sweaters and finely-
stitched quilts that their great-
granddaughters still proudly pro-
duce. Wood carvings, handcrafted
jewellery, weavings, soapstone car-
vings and gravestone rubbings from
historic St. Andrews-on-the-Red are
just some of the other items that fill
the shelves of this inviting shop.
It is such small-scale, quality pro-
ducts that are likely to leave a
lasting memory with visitors who
venture into Winnipeg's
marketplaces, for the city is home to
many talented artists and crafts-
men, as well as enterprising
shopkeepers.
Osborne Village
One of the best ways to sample
the true style of Winnipeg is to stroll
past the Legislative Building and
over the Osborne Bridge to Osborne
Village. This friendly, two-block
neighbourhood is crammed with
more than 50 boutiques and
restaurants. Trees, street lamps, col-
ourful awnings and imaginative
display windows lure shoppers to
look at waterbeds and wickerware,
gourmet kitchen accessories, health
food, plants, Canadian art, custom-
made jewellery, weaving yarn, ex-
otic coffees and teas and unusual
stationery. Many artisans have set
up work areas on their premises so
that visitors can observe hand-
blown glass, pottery, jewellery and
weavings actually being made. And
there is always a restaurant or tea
room offering a quiche, a continen-
tal dinner or a quiet cup of tea.
Not long ago, Winnipeg was a har-
dy little settlement at the forks of
the Red and Assiniboine Rivers,
pulsing with the energy of free
trade. A hundred years later, much
to everyone's delight, nothing much
has changed.
WANTED
Portable Icelandic language
typewriter in good condi-
tion. Reasonable price.
Freeport
Scandinavian Society
Box 376 Freeport
New York
11520
MESSUBOÐ
Fyrsta Lúterska
Kirkja
JOHN V. ARVIDSON
PASTOR
10:30 a.m. The Service followed
by Sunday School & coffee hour.
Þjóðræknisfélag íslendinga í Vesturheimi
FORSETI: JOHANN S. SIGURDSON
Lundar, Manitoba
Styrkið félagið og deildir þess, með því að gerast meðlimir.
Ársgjald: EINSTAKLINGAR $5.00 - HJÓN $10.0l)
Sendið ársgjöld til gjaldkera ykkar eigin deilda, eða til
Lilju Arnason, Box 1 - 1871 Portagc Ave. Winnipcg R3J OHO