Le Musée de St. Boniface Museum

The Grey Nuns on the con­vent steps, about 1878. (ASGM Collection)

1847 – 1956 Under the aus­pices of the Grey Nuns, the con­vent served as West­ern Canada’s first hos­pi­tal, orphan­age and seniors’ home. It was also a school, ini­tially for both girls and boys; Louis Riel was a stu­dent here. Even­tu­ally, the Sis­ters oper­ated a board­ing school for girls.

1938 La Société his­torique de Saint-Boniface (SHSB, est. 1902) opened a museum in the base­ment of St. Boni­face Cathe­dral. The SHSB was even­tu­ally pro­vided with space in St. Boni­face City Hall for this purpose.

1950 Stu­dent nurses at St. Boni­face Gen­eral Hos­pi­tal School of Nurs­ing had to move to the con­vent dur­ing the 1950 flood.

1956 The Grey Nuns vacated the build­ing at 494 Taché; it had been their home since Decem­ber 1847.

Elderly res­i­dents enjoy the last pic­nic in front of the con­vent, then called The You­ville hos­pice, 1923. (ASGM Collection)

1957 – 1958 Amid rumours that the for­mer con­vent was to be demol­ished, the SHSB spear­headed efforts to des­ig­nate the build­ing as a his­toric build­ing for use as a museum.

Novem­ber 1958 The His­toric Sites and Mon­u­ments Board of Canada des­ig­nated the build­ing as a his­toric site, and rec­om­mended that it be pre­served for pos­si­ble use as a museum.

Novem­ber 1959 The City of St. Boni­face, tak­ing over the lead on the project, cre­ated the Saint-Boniface Museum Board, made up of both alder­men and cit­i­zen members.

March 5, 1963 The City of St. Boni­face and the fed­eral gov­ern­ment signed an agree­ment cost-sharing the expense of build­ing restora­tion. As a con­di­tion, the City had to con­clude a 99-year lease with the Grey Nuns and a museum man­age­ment agree­ment with the SHSB. Other con­trib­u­tors to the project were the Province of Man­i­toba and the then Met­ro­pol­i­tan Cor­po­ra­tion of Greater Winnipeg.

Inte­rior walls are uncov­ered dur­ing the restora­tions under­taken in the 1960s. (Photo: J. Vermander)

June 20, 1963 The City of St. Boni­face signed a 99-year lease agree­ment with the Grey Nuns. The City was to be “fully respon­si­ble for the main­te­nance of the buildings.…”

Sum­mer 1967 Fol­low­ing sev­eral years of retro­fitting, the Museum opened its doors for sev­eral weeks. Reg­u­lar oper­a­tions began the fol­low­ing sum­mer, and even­tu­ally the Museum would be open year-round.

May 25, 1970 Given that the ini­tial funds were insuf­fi­cient to meet the costs of the restora­tion and that the City of St. Boni­face was unable to con­clude a man­age­ment agree­ment with the SHSB, a new agree­ment was signed with the fed­eral gov­ern­ment in Ottawa, replac­ing the 1963 agree­ment. Again, the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Cor­po­ra­tion and the Province were con­trib­u­tors, and the City agreed to “main­tain the con­vent at its own expense.for a period of 30 years… “

Restora­tion work done on the exte­rior walls of the chapel, dur­ing the 1960s. (Photo: J. Vermander)

July 1971 The City of Win­nipeg Act was passed, amal­ga­mat­ing the numer­ous munic­i­pal­i­ties in the area. The new City of Win­nipeg assumed “all the respon­si­bil­i­ties of the for­mer city of St. Boni­face in con­nec­tion with the St. Boni­face Museum.”

June 1988 The His­toric Sites and Mon­u­ments Board reaf­firmed that the con­vent was of “excep­tional” national sig­nif­i­cance on both his­tor­i­cal and archi­tec­tural grounds. It asked the fed­eral min­is­ter respon­si­ble for the Board to enter into dis­cus­sions with the City of Win­nipeg and oth­ers, in order “to restore the his­toric fab­ric of the convent.”

Henri Létourneau, first cura­tor of the Saint-Boniface Museum, with his wife, Rose Létourneau, and Mrs. Irène Lane of the Société his­torique de Saint-Boniface, at the Museum’s offi­cial open­ing cer­e­mony in 1967. (Photo: J. Vermander)

May 1990 Win­nipeg City Coun­cil adopted a busi­ness plan pre­pared by the Museum, out­lin­ing the major struc­tural and restora­tive work on the build­ing that was needed. Of the total cost of $1,264,000, the City was to con­tribute $410,000 and the Fed­eral gov­ern­ment $580,000; the Museum was to secure $157,000 from the
St. Boni­face Museum Province and $117,000 from other sources, includ­ing its own reserve funds.

Feb­ru­ary 19, 1991 The City of Win­nipeg and the fed­eral gov­ern­ment entered into a cost-sharing agree­ment, which per­mit­ted the restora­tion and struc­tural sta­bi­liza­tion of the building.

Octo­ber 1993 – May 1995 The Museum was closed to allow for the major ren­o­va­tions. When it reopened, it intro­duced gen­eral admis­sion charges for the first time.

May 1995 The Museum received a Her­itage Canada Foun­da­tion award in recog­ni­tion of the vig­i­lance exer­cised through­out the restora­tion process; as a result, the his­toric integrity and fab­ric of the build­ing had been maintained.

Feb­ru­ary 19, 1996 The Museum and the City received awards from Her­itage Win­nipeg for the work done on the building.

Present The Museum is rec­og­nized by the Province as a Man­i­toba STAR Attrac­tion and enjoys a national rep­u­ta­tion for its col­lec­tion and for the build­ing itself. Staff mem­bers are also rec­og­nized for their pro­fes­sional exper­tise and expe­ri­ence. Their rep­u­ta­tion results in fre­quent requests for them to par­tic­i­pate in peer review pan­els and other con­sul­ta­tive forums.