WINNIPEG – A mansion fire that could be seen across the city Sunday destroyed a piece of Winnipeg history.
“It’s really history in the city,” said Cheryl Sharfe, who’s lived in the Wellington Crescent area for more than 30 years.
The fire destroyed 1021 Wellington Cres., a 1930s home that has housed many prominent Winnipeggers, said Winnipeg history blogger Christian Cassidy.
“It had families of grain barons, it had the first president of Investors Group … one of the first women pathologists in Canada called it home and right up to modern-day families like the Aspers.”
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Cassidy said he was surprised by just how much the house has seen. At 9,000 square feet, it paved the way for large homes in the city.
“A lot of these mansions were going cheap during the depression,” Cassidy said.
Celebrities have also called the mansion home, though only temporarily. Richard Gere stayed in it in 2003, when he was in Winnipeg shooting the movie Shall We Dance with Jennifer Lopez. Dan Akroyd stayed at it in the 1990s while shooting the made-for-TV-movie The Arrow.
Demolition crews were on scene Monday tearing parts of the home down.
The homeowners rushed home from a family trip Sunday but said they were too distraught to speak to Global News about the loss. Karl Dornetshuber told Global News his family is in shock and just trying to figure out their next steps.
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