A Tour of Winnipeg's Ukrainian Enclaves

1890s-1920s

Orest T. Martynowych

Though there is some evidence that Ukrainians from the Austrian crownland of Galicia were present in Winnipeg prior to the 1890s, the first Ukrainians to take up permanent residence in the city arrived in 1892.  

The illustrated articles and essays on this web page - some of them quite brief, others more detailed and analytical - provide an overview of Ukrainian life in Winnipeg from the 1890s through the mid-1920s.  They focus on Ukrainian-Canadian community-building in the city, particularly on the emergence of several Ukrainian enclaves and on the immigrant institutions - churches, reading clubs, community halls, drama circles, choral societies, schools and political organizations  -  established by the first, pre-1914 wave of urban immigrants.

Most of the articles and essays deal with churches and secular organizations established in the North End, where the city's largest and most institutionally complete Ukrainian enclave emerged around a hub located at the intersection of Selkirk Avenue and McGregor Street, and then slowly expanded north toward Mountain Avenue and west toward McPhillips Street.  

A few short articles focus on the smaller Ukrainian enclaves that emerged beyond the North End - in nearby Point Douglas, in Elmwood and East Kildonan, in the Brooklands, in Transcona and in Fort Rouge.  

Arranged chronologically, the articles and essays  trace the origins and early activity of church parishes and congregations, cultural-educational societies, and political organizations established by the first wave of Ukrainian immigrants in Winnipeg.  Some delve into previously unexplored topics, including the first Ukrainian urban entrepreneurs and university students, and the Ukrainian immigrant theatre. Taken together, they offer both a bird's eye view of the city's Ukrainian-Canadian community during its formative years, and a street-level tour of immigrant institutions and an urban landscape that have almost completely disappeared.