This three-storey brick building on Higgins Avenue in Winnipeg was designed by local architect Henry S. Griffith and built in 1904 for hotelier brothers Benjamin Gomez Fonseca and Alfonso Gomez Fonseca. It was known originally as the Wolseley Hotel.
Other owners through the years included Barney Aaron (1915-1918), Peter Moyer (1918-1920), Robert T. McKeen (1920), Joshua B. Gray (1921-1924), William Robertson (1925), John J. McCarroll (1926-1931), William McCord (1932), Richard Lindholm (1941-1947), Henry Dougloski and Sons (1948-1952), and Joseph and Leopold Menard (1952-1955). In 1952, the Menards changed its name to the Menard Hotel. It was renamed the Mount Royal Hotel in 1956.
During the 1950s and 1960s, the hotel was a popular meeting spot for the city’s working-class gay and lesbian communities although it had a reputation for being “grubby and sleazy” and prone to fighting and violence. Police surveillance, raids, and arrests were frequent.
The hotel was closed at the time of a 2023 site visit.
Mount Royal Hotel (May 2017)
Source: George Penner
Mount Royal Hotel (June 2017)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Mount Royal Hotel (October 2023)
Source: George PennerSite Location (lat/long): N49.90432, W97.13317
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: Henry Sandham Griffith (1865-1943)
Memorable Manitobans: Benjamin Gomez Fonseca (1867-1915)
Memorable Manitobans: Alfonso Gomez Fonseca (1876-1937)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Mount Royal Hotel / Wellington Hotel / Garrick Hotel (287 Garry Street, Winnipeg)
Prairie Fairies: A History of Queer Communities and People in Western Canada, 1930-1985 by Valerie J. Korinek, 2018, University of Toronto Press, page 61.
Wolseley (Mount Royal) Hotel, 186 Higgins Avenue by Murray Peterson, Peterson Projects, February 2007.
We thank Maggie Tarr for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by George Penner, Jim Astwood, and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 3 May 2026
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