Link to:
Occupants | Photos & Coordinates | Sources
This two-storey wooden residence on Gertrude Avenue in Winnipeg, built in 1904, was occupied between 1920 and 1934 by Herbert Marshall McLuhan and his family. For much of its history in the mid- to late-20th century, it appears to have been used as a boarding house.
In 2025, the building was purchased by the Marshall McLuhan Initiative with plans to convert it into the Marshall McLuhan Centre. The four goals of the project are to: 1) to help extend the work of this great Manitoban, 2) to showcase McLuhan as one of the creators of a new way of looking at the world through the lens of media ecology, 3) to celebrate his upbringing in Winnipeg, and 4) to observe the crucial role both his prairie roots and his devout Catholic faith had on McLuhan’s work.
Period
Occupant/Owner
1904-1906
Thaddeus A. Creamer
1907-1908
Henry Price Blackwood (1878-1963)
1909
?
1910
Vacant
1911-1913
Albert E. Warren (Div Supt, CNR)
1914-1915
James Bryans (real estate)
1916
Vacant
1917
?
1918-1919
John Hill (switchman, CNR)
1920
Vacant
1920-1934
Herbert Ernest McLuhan (1879-1966)
1934-1940
?
1941
Manuel Norman Lecker (1913-2007)
1942-1956
Marie Laura Clara Shaen Lecker (c1883-1979)
1957-1961
?
1961
Sydney Alexander “Syd” Lecker (1924-2005)
1962-1967
Francesco “Frank” Cianflone
1968-2000
?
2000
Rooming House
McLuhan House (May 2025)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.87560, W97.14579
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)
“Hall – Hume,” Winnipeg Tribune, 3 October 1921, page 7.
Birth registration [Sydney Alexander Lecker], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Property Assessment Details [507 Gertrude Avenue], Winnipeg Assessment and Taxation.
Henderson’s Winnipeg and Brandon Directories, Henderson Directories Limited, Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries.
Obituary [Sydney Lecker], Winnipeg Free Press, 3 September 2005.
We thank Howard Engel for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 10 May 2025
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