Exhibition at Gwen Fox Gallery, Selkirk

Would I be interested in showing my church photographs in their gallery next month, the caller wanted to know. Would I? Of course I would.

The telephone call came from the Selkirk Community Arts Council, housed in the former Post Office, a designated historical building with an interesting history.

The land was bought in 1905 for $50.00. But in 1906 the Board of Trade expressed concern the location was too far from Selkirk’s commercial centre. Notwithstanding, construction began in 1907. The completed building became the Post Office and customs house, with offices for the police and the Indian Agent. In later years the Fisheries Department occupied the second floor.

In 1957, when a new Post Office was built further south on Main Street, the building was bought by a local developer who converted it to a rooming house. In 1979 it was condemned as unfit for human habitation and destined for demolition. However, in 1984 a local group got about $450,000 from the three levels of government to return some of the building’s former glory. It was officially reopened in 1991 by the Hon. Bonnie Mitchelson, Minister of Culture, Heritage and Recreation.

But, as government funding decreased, and debts accrued, the Old Post Office was scheduled for a tax sale in September 1998. Its saviours this time were another group of citizens and the City of Selkirk.

One of the new tenants was the Gwen Fox Gallery.

This was the first venue outside Winnipeg for Testaments of Faith, Manitoba’s Pioneer Churches. The exhibition was hosted at 12 locations over the next four years, and intermittently at other locations since.