Reston’s Modern/Panda Cafe

As I write this post on New Year's Eve 2020, I think about an annual tradition for many rural Manitobans - ordering take-out Chinese Food from the local small town restaurant. This brief history of Reston's version comes from the Trails Along the Pipestone (1981) and The Sequel (2008).  As with any posts, I would welcome anything my readers can add - memories, details or pictures to my email ssimms at escape.ca. 

Screenshot from Google Street view taken 2014

It seems a man named Jack McCrindle first used the building to operate a Deering equipment agency and machine shop. It was located on Railroad Avenue east of Main Street. About 1910, it was moved to its current location on Main Street.  I've read this was not as difficult as you might think since there were not many buildings in between at that time! The franchise became McCormick-Deering in 1918 and Mr. McCrindle branched out to also sell Westinghouse products and gas. Thanks to Kelly Donald for this letter from 1928 - near the end of his selling days.

The equipment was all under the banner of IHC - International Harvester Co and the rights to sell it in Reston went to E. H. Berry across the street in 1928. I am not sure what the building was used for after that.   

Until 1934, when the owner of the Reston House Hotel, Richard V. Cusack, remodeled the machine shop to create a dance hall.  A side door made it convenient for his hotel guests to patronize the establishment until 1946 when the Memorial Theatre filled the dance hall void.

Picture from the collection of Verna and John Olenick

The building was remodeled by John and Florence Payne in 1946 who had moved from the general store and post office in Ewart with their children - Harvey, Bill and Marjorie. It metamorphized to a restaurant called the Modern Lunch Bar with living quarters above.  The business was sold in 1949 to Charlie Lee, Jim Sing and Henry Wong, who I can't find any more information about. Interesting articles here  and here tell about the early Chinese immigrants in rural Manitoba running restaurants and laundries in small towns if you are curious for more information. In the picture above, over the trunk of the car parked for this GoKart race, you can just see the Modern Cafe of the 1950's. 

October 1964 - from McKee archives at Brandon University

Jim and Sue Anne Eng came to Reston in 1961 and took over the Modern Cafe.  Aside from a sojourn to Winnipeg in 1974-75, they and their family (Jim Jr., Jeannie, Lisa and Garry and Sue Anne's mother - Sun Oi Chan) ran a successful and fondly remembered restaurant until they retired in 1989.  John and Daisy Lee then took over and completed some renovations during their time in Reston. Cindy Wong and her mother Annie, brother Billy and his wife Kam bought the business in 2001 and renamed it The Panda Cafe.  

Happy New Year 2021 to my readers!  I look forward to more research and writing. 😊  Thanks for sharing your memories and encouragement.  

Another Historic Corner

The northwest corner of Main Street and Second avenue has a long history of retail in Reston.  It is now home to Reston Drugs and other businesses in the mall but was lumber and hardware for much of its history.

The Manitoba Hardware and Lumber Company seems unique in Reston as it was not given the surname of the owner as most businesses were.  It began in 1893 in a location further south but the building below on this corner was built in 1906.  The first manager was Edwin A. McBain with assistance from bookkeeper Bert Brown.  Henry Manders, William Devenny and John E. Harvey also managed before it was destroyed by fire in 1921. 

Postcard from the collection of John and Verna Olenick

The Manitoba Hall was part of the 1906 building, an entrance to the south included a long set of stairs up to the hall that held 400 people.  Local and travelling actors, singers, bell ringers and other entertainers regularly performed for appreciative audiences. It is different to think of halls as commercial enterprises rather than community assets as we do now.  There must have been enough revenue from renting them and having entertainment to pay the bills.  Dances, musical and dramatic performances and even early moving pictures all entertained the people of Reston and area. The upstairs also contained living spaces and storage. The picture below clearly shows the lumber inventory stored to the north of the building and a fuel bowser in front of the store. 

  

Picture from the collection of John and Verna Olenick

Fire in 1921 ended the history for this building but a new one was begun in May of 1922 under the name Reston Hardware and Lumber.  It was a one storey building and the hall was on the north side with an entrance from Main Street. In 1924, it became E.H. Berry's Hardware. 

From Trails Along the Pipestone (1981) page 470

From Trails Along the Pipestone (1981) page 765

Edward Hanlan Berry had come west in 1898 to work in the harvest fields but he must have like what he found in Reston as he learned the trades of barbering and jewelry in the east and then returned with his wife Bertha in 1905.  In 1906, he built what is still referred to as The Berry Block where the growing family lived and ran a jewelry and watch business for 20 years. The brick veneer of two storey apartments stands to the this day, across from the post office. His father Anson and brothers Fred, Harcourt, Lewis D. and Lawrence also came to the area and were successful businessmen and farmers. 

Picture from McKee Archives collection at Brandon University

E. H. Berry had a hand in many things - selling fuel, International Harvester machinery and farming.  The 1956 bill for an 11 foot cultivator and 1958 bill for 10 foot deep tillage with beaver tails includes a trade in on a Massey One way with a seeding attachment. (I had to do some Googling to picture these purchases!)    

He sold wedding licenses and rings in Reston and beyond and operated Berry's Hall on the north side of the ground floor. Moving picture shows, dances and community entertainment continued here until the opening of the Memorial Theatre. It then was used as a furniture store and his son John took over the business shortly after WW2. It looks like the store had a large variety of merchandise for sale and two phone lines in the busy postwar years of the 1950's and 60's.

Berry's Hardware closed up for good in 1975 and the building was torn down with the lumber sold. In 1980, Grant and Nancy Schiltroth contracted the construction of a 40 X 60 foot steel structure with International Building of Brandon as a new modern home for Reston Drugs. An addition to the south in 1987 and renovations in 2002 saw the creation of a home for more businesses and services in Reston Place Mall.  Titled passed to current drugstore owners Jim and Jennifer Whyte on December 1, 2020.  They continue to meet the retail needs of Reston and its surrounding communities, expanding the availability of local goods in these COVID-19 days of essentials only in-person shopping.

The Building with Many Lives

 

Article and picture from Brandon Sun - September 28, 1976

I regretted when I was researching the schools of Reston for this blog that I didn't have a picture of Reston's first school. A chance finding of the above clipping online from 1976 is grainy but may stir the memory of some of my readers.  The building was constructed as a one room school in 1893 as well as a home for both the Methodist and Presbyterian churches to gather.  The large four room brick veneer school was built in 1904-5 and a man named James Cavanagh bought this first school for $1000, a princely sum in those days. It is not known what he used the building for but in her article above, Mrs. Helen (Manning) Ready writes about the next owner.  David Guthrie Dobbie arrived in Reston from the east in 1906 and used the building for his wagon making and undertaking business until 1932.  The second storey was added by Mr. Dobbie in 1913 and the Dobbie family, wife Hettie and children John and Alice lived in a small house in the back.  When wagonmaking was no longer a busy enterprise, he began painting cars. 

Joshua Kines Robertson started his career in Reston as a baker but when an electric generating plant was installed in the teens,  he became the operator.  Due to increasing demand, Manitoba Hydro took over in 1929 and Mr. Robertson was out of a municipal job. There was still a need for private electrical work so Joshua and his son Robbie Robertson bought the building to accommodate electrical sales and repair shop.  A beauty salon rented space in the building in the 1930's and 40's - Nu-Art Beauty.  

It sat empty for a few years before the municipal council agreed to buy the building in 1960 and use it as a ladies' rest room.  Previous public facilities had been provided in the basement of the old Manitoba Hardware and the Masonic Hall.  Attendants lived in the back part of the house in exchange for keeping the Rest Room tidy and ready for use.  Meetings were held and boxes were packed here for the Red Cross and other charities. 

 

Now we catch up to the time Mrs. Ready wrote the article above.  In the meantime,  the Municipalities of Pipestone and Albert received a government grant for a public library in 1975.  A board consisting of Gordon Forsyth, Frank Curtis, Ben Kroeker, Diane Fotheringham, Eileen Grieg and Teena Chester did the groundwork for The Reston and District Library.  Space was used in the former Rest Room in 1976 and 1977 with Mrs. Nancy Schiltroth and later Mrs. Debbie Smith as librarians.  A new space in the Aurora Building meant the library moved to the east side of it with Mrs. Emma St Pierre taking over librarian duties.  The Library moved again in 1987 to a spot in the Reston Place Mall.

In October of 1977, Mrs. Irene Kendrick set up her craft and ceramics shop in the Rest room building for the next 8 years until 1985.  She had two sizes of kilns and many different molds. Mrs. Kendrick had ceramic making classes for adults and children including school groups, 4-H and Girl Guides.  In 1991, Mrs. Kendrick sold the building to the municipality and it was determined to be past its usefulness.  After so many years of service to many, it was demolished on April 8, 1992.  

Later in 1992, the brand new Reston and District Library was built on the spot. Onagh Williamson took over librarian duties in 1993 and today Terri Vandenberghe is leading the way through Covid restrictions to keep books (both paper and digital) in the hands of housebound citizens. 

Picture from their Facebook page

A bronze plaque outside the building outlines this history.  A paper written by David Braddell in 1992 was another wonderful source as was the Trails Along the Pipestone (1981) history book and Mrs. Ready's article.    

What's a Snack Bar?

We’ve got a turkey supper with all the trimmings planned for Sunday supper at the Boulton house tonight but I have time to write a post since I’m not doing the cooking.  The Dennis County Cafe is making our supper so I have time to find out the history of their building! Having found it called a "Snack Bar" over its history, I was curious where that term came from and where it went. The Cambridge online dictionary says it is a small, informal restaurant where small meals can be eaten or bought to take away.  Counters with stools for customers were common and I have heard the "D.C" once had that set up. 

The original food service on the site was on the south side of McMurchy Garage  built in 1950 and operated by Colin and Helen McMurchy for a short time. I think it would have been right below the BA sign in the Go Kart race scene in the picture above from the Olenick collection.   The restaurant was bought by Lew and Helen (Curtis) Traill in 1951 who called it Lew's Snack Bar.  They successfully ran it until 1956 when the building was lost to fire.  Lew rebuilt it as a stand alone building that sucessfully survives and they ran it for the next 11 years.  The Trails Along the Pipestone (1981) history book describes it as a 25 X 90 foot restaurant with living quarters at the back and a fine impressive windowed front.  This new spot was renamed the Traill Inn. What a great name! The ad below appeared in the Kinloss Ladies Club Cookbook in 1959.  

Picture from 1964 - Online at McKee Archives in Brandon University

The next owners were George and Kay (Skelton) Walker in 1963 then Alvin and Florence (Winch) Birnie in 1971. The living quarters had 3 bedrooms and a large living room.  The restaurant kitchen was used by the families and there was a kitchen table at the end of the living room. Friday and especially Saturday nights were very busy with gatherings after the movie at the theatre.  Hard work, no doubt, but great memories for many.  Walker's Snack Bar was renamed Birnie's Snack Bar in 1971 with the change of owners. With the Birnies retirement in 1979, the business was taken on by Ben and Gerrie Kroeker and he went in search of a name to convey some local history. It became known as the Dennis County Cafe.

Thanks to Joanna Watt for sharing this souvenir of the past that is on the wall in their home. 

In the early days, the RM of Wallace, Wordsworth, Pipestone and Sifton were called the County of Dennis. You can read a neat little booklet online here at Peel's Prairie Provinces that was written in 1888 encouraging settlers to move to the County of Dennis. It includes a list of land in the area that is open for homesteading and purchase.  The southern part of the county was relatively undeveloped before the arrival of the railroad in 1892 but the booklet contains a map of every section in the county. I wonder how many of our ancestors were drawn to the area through this booklet. The Dennis County Planning District today is a group created to encourage investment and business in the exact same area as then.  

Barry and Donna Davis bought the restaurant in 1986 and ran it with their kids before Pat and Ross Taylor took over and did the same.  It was a first workplace for many of the young people of our community and the lessons learned in serving the public no doubt carried them well in their lives. Some will recall the green gingham aprons they wore during the Kroeker era many years later! Bert and Debbie Smith were the next and celebrated 25 years at the cafe in July of 2016.  They used the apartment in the back to market the business as a Bed and Breakfast during the days when oil was booming and rooms were scarce.  Former employee Amanda Gray and Braeden Gray took over in 2017 and have weathered the 2020 Covid-19 storm with their popular pizzas, chicken wings and special salads heading out the door in take-out meals. They use the living quarters area in the back for extra seating (when dine-in is an option) and small group gatherings.  Along with the ones in this house, over 100 other Restonites will appreciate having the cooking done for them tonight.  It's certainly more than a Snack Bar today!  

Just think of all the news that has been shared around those tables - good and bad, true and not.  It is the heart of our community and they need all our support until we can gather there again over a cup of coffee. 

Corrections, additions and memories are always welcome to ssimms@escape.ca or by the comments box below. 

Update: 6:00 pm - We just finished our delicious and very generous meals and are rolling to a spot on the couch for the evening.  Thanks Amanda and Braeden and their kids who are working hard tonight along with their parents.  Well done all! 

Horses to Horizontal Directional Drilling in One Post

This former Reston business selling BA gas and Ford vehicles looks so stylish with Art Deco details over the windows and door. It was located on the west side Main Street/Fourth Avenue around the site of the Dennis County Cafe today. Did you notice the cars peeking through the showroom windows? Thanks to the Olenicks for the photo that piqued my curiosity today! 

Archibald McMurchy Sr and his wife Mary (Morrison) moved to Reston from Elgin County, Ontario with a family of 6 sons and 3 daughters.  They took up farmland in the Crescent district, south of Sinclair, in 1901.  Their sons Colin (1879-1962) and Archie  Jr.(1875-1957) McMurchy operated a livery stable and carried out a draying business in Reston starting about 1907. “Draying” is the horse era equivalent of trucking today, to delivered coal, wood, ice, mail and other needed goods.  Their livery barn was along Fourth Avenue and may be the one in the street scene below (just right of the Harris Boarding house and post office, a three storey white building) from  Peel's Prairie Provinces website.  A fire in 1915 that destroyed several buildings on that side of Main Street including the post office, included McMurchy Brothers Livery.  They moved their business to a barn belonging to Colin Campbell facing Railway Avenue east of Main Street about where the lumberyard storage is today.  

By the mid teens, the future was looking bright for motorized vehicles over horses and the McMurchy brothers were keen to stay ahead of the trend.  They got out of the livery and draying business by selling this barn to Chester Bonniman in 1926.  

Trails Along the Pipestone (1981) says by 1918, the McMurchy Brothers  were selling Overlands and Maxwell cars, both of which have examples in the Manitoba Antique Auto Museum in Elkhorn.  In 1922, the brothers were awarded the Ford agency and in 1925 they sold 40 cars. The story now catches up to the picture at the top of this post.   

Arthur Bushby was hired to build the new dealership building and by the end of 1927, they were moved in and selling British American gas and Ford cars.  The history book tells they sold 125 cars in 1928 and were able to hire a young Sherman Dayton as mechanic and add stucco detail to the building. Prosperous days indeed until the lean days of the 1930's and as you may have guessed, another devastating fire. 

In 1938, a fire (which may have started from an electrical short from the bus plugged in) destroyed the dealership and bus depot that had been added inside.  They rebuilt and it was again burnt in 1950.  Colin and his son Elmer were partners by this time and rebuilt again with a little restaurant referred to as a “Snack Bar” on the south side of the dealership.  The dealership was sold to Walter Winch in 1953 and Lew and Helen Traill ran the Snack Bar.  Fire once again hit the business in 1956.  Mr. Winch rebuilt the garage but not at this spot.    

Max White and Robbie Robertson built Waddy's Auto Service further north up Fourth Avenue after a slough was filled in and ten foot willow trees removed.  It opened in 1957, selling BA products (taken over by Gulf starting in 1958), Case Implements, New Holland Haying Equipment and Mercury cars and trucks. 

The building was sold to Ken and Marj Jago in 1969 who operated it as K and M Auto.  Today, Dallas and Kerri Coulter own the building and rent it to Cros-Man to support their Horizontal Directional Drilling operation.  Horses to HDD in one post - delivered!

From Google Street View 2020

The Rich History of The Bank

Look down this view of Main Street's east side to where the horse and buggy is standing.  The two storey brick building in front of it with the round window at the top is Reston's first bank - a branch of the Bank of British North America.  Temporary accommodations  for a bank were secured in 1903 and this permanent impressive building was built about 1909.  The top rounded window reminds me of bank buildings in Rivers and Elkhorn so it may have been constructed using the same B. C. Mills kit as detailed in Christian Cassidy's blog here.  I'd be glad for any more details or pictures of this original bank.  

A fire in 1915 that destroyed the Reston Post Office among other businesses was a huge loss for the bank.  It was not the building lost to flames, but $5000 worth of bank bills that were in the Post Office. The Pinkerton Detectives (!) solved the case a year later after being hired by the insurance company. They discovered the bills did not burn in the fire but were taken to the home of the post office employee R. H. Howard the night of the fire for safekeeping and buried on what we know as the Walker farm, just east of Reston. The details of the case from this May 1916 clipping of the Reston Recorder make for interesting reading.  Fires were a huge danger in those day and in early 1916, several of the businesses in the postcard at the top of this page,  including the bank, were destroyed.  It started in a stable near the poolroom.  Bucket brigades from the cistern at the south end of Main Street were quickly organized but imagine throwing a bucket of water at a structure fire and expecting results.  Onlookers did have time to rescue most of the valuables out of the building like heavy pillars and storm windows, before it burnt.  An investigation into the fire was never able to pinpoint a cause but townspeople suspected a firebug was among them. 

 This clipping from the August 1916 Reston Recorder shows reconstruction got started promptly by Arthur Bushby (1879-1933).  Arthur was the brother of Randy's Grandma Boulton and had a hand in many buildings and homes in Reston in the teens and twenties. What a great sentence to say the "building will be an ornament to the town and a credit to the builder." It does make me wonder if the compliment was written by another sister Gertie - Gertrude Mary Bushby (1896 - 1929) who worked at the Reston Recorder and lived with Arthur and his wife Lou and their children during this time. Some relatives do have a tendency to gush like that.  😉

Bank of Montreal on building on the left where the car is parked in this street scene from around 1920's 

In 1918, the Bank of British North America became known as the Bank of Montreal. Mr. R. A. MacLaren continued as manager after the transition. The second floor was used for storage but the Trails Along the Pipestone history book (1981) does say Dr. Clark's wife had a business selling the latest hats to the ladies in town for a short time in 1927 before moving next door to a men's clothing store built for Art Morris where the playground on Main Street is today.  Living quarters were built on the second floor in the 1950's and extensive renovations were made below in the next few decades.  Early bank employees were mostly male but ladies began to be hired more readily, especially in the war years. 

     

Go Kart racers in front of the bank .  Maybe the 1940's by the skirt lengths?

The Bank of Montreal remained the only financial institution in town until the Virden Credit Union opened a branch in Reston in 1977.  In 2000, the opportunity arose for the Credit Union to purchase the assets of the Reston branch of the Bank of Montreal and the building was no longer needed.  Photographer Brian Sytnyk purchased the bank building in 2007 and continues to update the building including replacing the old with beautiful new windows this past summer. 

From Reston Museum