Where it Began A typical day at the Transcona Museum as their Collections Assistant looks like going through our archival collection and correcting any discrepancies in our database. I have seen a lot of photographs during my time here. Sometimes I go through an entire family’s photograph album and by the end, I feel personally involved, almost as if I know them. This was the case for the Matheson family. Ellen and John (J.D.) Matheson moved to Transcona from Ontario in Transcona’s early days, c. 1910. Ellen Matheson’s great-niece brought the photos of the Matheson family into the museum and r ..read more

KASIJAN, MICHAEL Private H/6631 B Company, 1st Battalion, The Winnipeg Grenadiers, R.C.I.C. Date of Death: 22/12/1941 Biographical Information Michael Kasijan (also, Mike Kasian) was born on 5 October 1916 (or, 1917) in Pleasant Home, Manitoba. He was the son of Peter and Mary Kasijan. He had one sister, Anne. The family moved to Transcona sometime before 1936, as Michael was attending Grade 11 at Central School at the time. He married Mary Anderson in October 1938 and they had two sons, Allan and Kenneth. The family lived at 176 Carlton Street in Winnipeg (until Mary moved with her sons to Po ..read more

Transcona Street Name Changes Between 1959 and 1963, several streets in Transcona were renamed as part of a larger effort to eliminate duplicate street names in Greater Winnipeg. Overseen by the Greater Winnipeg Duplicate Street Name Committee of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, the commission had been investigating the number of duplicate street names as early as 1952. In 1958, Transcona Town Council actually debated changing all its street and avenue names to numbers. This idea would not go through, but many of the streets would be renamed anyway over the next few years. Renamed Streets ..read more

Editor's Note: As of February 2020, the majority of the urgent and high-priority repairs (as outlined in the CN 2747 was the first locomotive built in Western Canada at the Transcona Shops, which makes it unique and special to this community. The locomotive was built in 1926 when most people in town were employed by the shops or knew someone who was. It was a train that was built through the efforts of a community. For close to 60 years, CN 2747 the locomotive has sat on permanent display in Rotary Heritage Park. Unfortunately, it has been heavily weathered and vandalized. No covering over th ..read more

Chapter 1 - The Robbery Thursday, 16 October 1930, at 10:15 AM just after the Transcona Bank of Toronto had opened for the day. A blue sedan parked on Bond Street beside the bank, three men got out leaving a fourth at the driver's wheel of the car. The three men entered the bank. Inside, bank manager J.B. Simpson was in his office going through the mail, and four customers were already at the teller counter. Two men entered the bank with handkerchiefs over their faces, while the third did not bother to cover his face. Two of the men approached the customers, while the third entered the bank ma ..read more

The Assistant Curator of the Transcona Museum talks with our two Summer Program Assistants, Cassandra and Jeremiah, on their experiences at the museum, program highlights, and thoughts about the community of Transcona. The big question at the top of the discussion, why the Transcona Museum? What motivated you to apply to the museum for the summer? Cassandra: The Transcona Museum is close by [to my home] and I thought it would be a good idea to continue my experiences in child care and teaching. The idea of running a drop-in program was also very exciting. Jeremiah: I worked at the museum last ..read more

From 1926 to 1931, the Transcona Shops built an estimated 33 steam locomotives for the Canadian National Railway. By 1960 the steam era ended, and hundreds of old steam locomotives were retired from service and waiting to be demolished in the Transcona Yards. Only one locomotive of the original 33 was saved from demolition, the Transcona Museum's own CN 2747. This blog is the short history of those 33 steam locomotives. 2-8-0 "Consolidation" | CN 2747 to 2758 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-8-0 is the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle ..read more

The community of Transcona has not been around forever - only 107 years in fact. Before Transcona was even a dot on the map, other communities and villages existed in the Springfield area with their own histories and identities. You may even know some of them by name: Suthwyn, Montavista, and North Transcona. Time and circumstance are not always kind to these settler communities, and only small vestiges of them remain today - if you know where to look. Join us as we remember the communities that time forgot. SOUTH TRANSCONA Origins of South Transcona There has been considerable discussion as t ..read more

Originally published on 11 November 2018. Updated on 26 August 2021. To commemorate the First World War Centenary on this Remembrance Day - November 11, 2018 - we are honouring those 80 known men from Transcona who died during the Great War of 1914-1918 and its aftermath. Their names appear on the Transcona Cenotaph at Memorial Circle Park. Provided below is the complete listing of their names along with a date of death, the cemetery or memorial, grave reference number for each individual, and page commemorations within the First World War Book of Remembrance. Individual reference links have ..read more

The History of the School As with all communities, the need for schools arose almost immediately. Before Central School came Montavista School No. 39, Suthwyn School No. 530, North Springfield School No. 38, and Springfield School No. 1569 also known as South Springfield School or South Transcona School. Central School itself was built in 1912. A brick building designed by Winnipeg Architect E.D Tuttle, the cornerstone was laid in place during a ceremony by the Minister of Education George R. Coldwell, on April 23, 1913. The school officially opened its doors to students on September 8, 1913 ..read more