Manitoba’s rapid growth at the turn of the century prompted the provincial government to support agricultural research and education. The Manitoba Agricultural College (MAC) was established in 1905, with the objective of educating students in modern farming practices. MAC was the first college of its kind in Western Canada, and only the third in all of Canada. MAC offered courses in horticulture, agricultural engineering, animal husbandry, farm management, and home economics.

One of the agricultural engineering courses offered was a course training students in the operation of steam engines and the newfangled gasoline tractors. Judging by the number of young men seen here the course was quite popular. Given the rapid expansion in the number of steam engines and tractors on the Prairies and general unfamiliarity of the farm population with machinery, this sort of course was much needed at this time.

While MAC was designed to give men a solid educational background in agricultural sciences, MAC also included a division of home economics, which was intended to give young ladies from rural communities a scientific background in homemaking. The women were to receive an education in health, nutrition, and home management. Courses were offered in subjects such as food safety, laundry chemistry, human physiology, and home-based accounting. With such training the hope was that the graduates would return to their home communities, become leaders and impart their knowledge to other ladies in the area.

MAC was built at a Winnipeg site in the Tuxedo neighbourhood close to Assiniboine Park with construction starting in 1905. By 1910, MAC had outgrown its Tuxedo campus and found that obtaining additional land in the immediate area of the campus was impossible. Seven years after the Tuxedo campus was opened, MAC moved to a new site in Fort Garry which is now the location of the University of Manitoba. The Tuxedo campus became the Fort Osborne barracks used by the Canadian military from 1914 to 1968 when Kapyong Barracks were built. The site was then acquired by the provincial government that moved government offices into the buildings. The site was then purchased from the provincial government and redeveloped into the Asper Jewish Community Campus.

The tractor the students are on is a 30-horsepower Big Four.The Big Four tractor designs came from the Transit Thresher Company which set out to design a thresher which could move around a harvested grain field to the stooks of grain so eliminating the need to bring the sheaves to the thresher. For this purpose a belt pulley at the back of a gas tractor was very useful as the tractor could then drive a threshing machine which was towed behind the tractor. After design work had taken place, Transit realized the entire idea was not workable as a drive belt was not compatible with turning a tractor towing a threshing machine. But Transit realized that the tractor it had designed was a decent design so it began to build and sell it as the 25-horsepower Big Four. The Big Four retained the rear-mounted belt pulley as moving it to a more conventional location would have involved a major redesign.

The Big Four tractor entered production in the U.S. in 1906. The tractor was the first tractor with a four-cylinder engine which explains why the tractor was known as Big Four. Transit changed its name to the Gas Traction Company in 1908 as this name better reflected what the company manufactured. The Big Four was a sales success with demand outstripping supply.

In 1909, the Gas Traction Company of Winnipeg was organized and purchased the Canadian patent rights for the Big Four from the Gas Traction Company. Gas Traction of Winnipeg wasted no time erecting a factory in Elmwood, a suburb of Winnipeg with the first tractor rolling out of the plant in March 1910. In 1912, Emerson-Brantingham purchased the Gas Traction Companies and the Winnipeg plant was closed. Production of the Big Four continued until 1920, however, Emerson-Brantingham was producing smaller and lighter tractors soon after purchasing the Gas Traction Companies. Emerson-Brantingham was sold to J.I. Case in 1928.

There were two models of Big Four tractors, a 25-horsepower model and a 30-horsepower model. The tractor seen here is a 30-horsepower model. The 30 horsepower has a curved top to the radiator whereas the 25 horsepower had a square radiator. As the 30 horsepower was introduced in 1910, this photo was taken sometime after that date. It may very well be this tractor was manufactured in the Elmwood, Winnipeg plant.

The Manitoba Agricultural Museum is open year round and its website has museum information including location and hours of operation.

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In fact, the tractor was so new in 1908 that the word tractor had not even been invented. The Winnipeg contests were the first effort to scientifically quantify factors, such as horsepower, fuel economy, ease of handling and other factors which were important to tractor operators. The contests used newly invented devices such as the drawbar dynamometer and the de Prony brake, a belt-driven dynamometer, to achieve accurate measurements.

In 1908, people had barely begun to grasp the technology of the internal combustion engine and its possible uses. Agricultural motors, as tractors were more commonly known as in 1908, were very complicated contraptions holding promise — but of what?

It is thought that less than 1,000 internal combustion tractors in total had been sold by 1908 worldwide, so tractors were still largely experimental at this time. While these early tractors were large, heavy and crude, they did contain delicate ignition, carburetor and oiling systems which needed precise adjustment for decent performance. Experts on these technologies were few and far between.

But whatever the drawbacks of tractors, there were people who believed in the future of tractors in agriculture or “power” farming. Two adherents were E.W. Hamilton, editor of the Canadian Thresherman and Farmer magazine and A. Burness Grieg, a machinery salesman, agricultural writer and a sessional lecturer at the Manitoba Agricultural College.

In 1907, Grieg and Hamilton came to the conclusion that a contest would be a useful tool to promote the new technology of the tractor.

It appears that Grieg originated the idea, as he was aware of the use of competitions in Britain to promote agricultural machinery. Hamilton and Grieg managed to persuade the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition to host the event and the two men organized the “Light Agricultural Motor Competition” at the 1908 Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition.

The revolutionary aspect of this competition was the scientific measurement of the performance of the tractors as the tractor did real-life tasks such as plowing and hauling. Other important aspects of tractors such as quality of construction were also quantified in the competition. Points were assigned to each of the performance parameters assessed.

Each tractor was to be scored on these categories and Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals would be awarded to the tractors scoring first, second and third. Hamilton and Grieg secured experts in motive power to act as judges for the competition.

Seven tractors were entered in 1908, three from the International Harvester Company (IHC), one from the Transit Thresher Company (later became the Gas Traction Company) and one from Kinnard-Haines Company (builder of the Flour City tractor line). English manufacturers were well represented, with a tractor entered from Marshall and Sons Company and a tractor from H.P. Sanderson and Company.

The 1908 event proved to be a great success. Results of the competition were carried in Canadian and American farm papers, plus distributed abroad. Farmers in large numbers, as well as machinery company personnel from North America and abroad, came to Winnipeg to attend the event. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) even sent an observer to the competition.

The companies whose products had won medals in the competition immediately trumpeted their success in the farm newspapers by taking out advertisements. The Kinnard-Haines Company, winner of the 1908 Gold Medal, took out full-page ads in various farm newspapers discussing the advantages of its tractor and making prominent mention of the tractor’s fuel economy as measured in the 1908 competition. Even Cockshutt, the maker of the plows used exclusively in the 1908 competition, advertised proudly its involvement in the competition.

With the success of the 1908 competition it was assured that the event would be repeated in the years ahead. The event was refined with further performance measurements being taken and steam engines were allowed their own classes in the trials.

However, by 1912 problems were apparent, such as the costs of the trials for tractor companies, the financial instability of the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition, the lack in the Winnipeg area of virgin prairie sod fields for the plowing trials and the emerging use of field days by individual tractor companies, where farmers could actually operate the tractors plus avoid awkward questions the trials sometimes raised about a tractor’s performance.

A significant problem was that the trials were really a technical event being operated at an entertainment event, which is what the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition really was.

Only three companies chose to participate in the 1913 trials, Sawyer Massey, J.I. Case and the Avery Company. These companies entered a variety of steam engines and gas tractors in the various classes of the trials. With such a low turnout of companies, 1913 was the last year for the trials.

However, the Winnipeg trials generated two important results. The trials served as a “hothouse” for tractor designers and manufacturers as they could see various tractors in action, doing the same work and being accurately measured while they did it. The manufacturers learned what worked and, perhaps more importantly, learned what ideas did not work. An official with the Avery company reportedly admitted that the company learned a great deal about tractors by participating in the trials.

The Winnipeg trials also served as the pattern for the Nebraska Tractor Tests which are the yardstick tractors are measured by, from 1920 to this date. The originator of the Nebraska tests had been slickered by a tractor salesman into buying a poor tractor and, being aware of the Winnipeg event, determined that scientific tests would aid farmers in buying tractors that actually performed as advertised. He talked the state of Nebraska into conducting such tests.

Recently the Manitoba Agricultural Museum completed a digital documentary of the Winnipeg Light Agricultural Motor Competitions. The museum obtained digital copies of a number of high-quality glass plate negative photos of the trials from the archives at the University of Saskatchewan. The museum also scanned a number of photos of the event from various papers, primarily the Canadian Thresherman and Farmer. The museum researched the event in order to write the narration to the photos in the video. Currently the video is being distributed to various community TV channels.

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*The UFM governed as the Progressive Party, and was re-elected in July 1927. The victory was welcomed by the editorial cartoonist for The Grain Growers Guide, portraying Bracken as leader of a sensible and fiscally responsible farmer-run party as opposed to the free-spending, old-line Liberals and Conservatives.

In 1931, Bracken’s Progressives formed an alliance with the Manitoba Liberal Party, and the two parties eventually merged. In 1940, Bracken formed a wartime coalition government that included the Conservative, CCF and Social Credit parties. In 1942 he agreed to run for leader of the national Conservative Party on the condition that it change its name to the Progressive Conservatives.

*An earlier version incorrectly indicated the 1927 election was held with a system in which rural but not urban ridings used proportional representation. See reader comment at bottom.

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The issue contained several photos and reminiscences from the faculty’s past, including a series of tongue-in-cheek questions about who might know the identity of students perpetrating several stunts over the past 50 years. These included taking over a street car from the operator in order to return to the college on time, putting white rats in a sugar bowl at the girls’ training table and throwing a chicken on the stage during a performance at the Walker Theatre. “We know, but we’re not telling,” said the headline.

In other news, a group of U.S. scientists had concluded that it was possible to increase rainfall by seeding clouds with silver iodide, the Canadian Wheat Board Act had been upheld by the Court of Appeal and “no great influx of rust” was expected that year.

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The faculty recently held its 100th anniversary celebrations, which were highlighted by the announcement of a $100,000 fund that will generate scholarships for students pursuing degrees in human ecology, science, health studies, or health sciences.

There should be plenty of worthy candidates for the scholarships, worth about $2,000 each, as there are currently about 500 undergrads in the program. About one-tenth are foreign students and 10 per cent are males.

The funding acknowledges the significant contributions the faculty has made to improving human health and expanding agricultural market opportunities over the decades, said NDP MP Erna Braun, who brought greetings on behalf of Agriculture Minister Stan Struthers.

The centennial celebration attracted about 350 former grads, who went on to do everything from researching the health benefits of canola oil to extension work among rural households.

“You brought knowledge of engineering and medicine into households, and influenced community lives,” said faculty dean, Gustaaf Sevenhuysen.

The faculty began in 1910 with a diploma program, in what was then called household sciences, at the Manitoba Agricultural College. It became a degree program in 1918, and over the years the school was variously known as the division of home economics, the school of home economics, and departments of food and nutrition and clothing and textiles. Home economics was finally granted official faculty status in 1970, becoming the present-day faculty of human ecology in 1981.

It was nearly closed in the early 1990s but was saved by a strong lobbying effort, notably by Manitoba Women’s Institute. The provincial women’s group was organized the same year as the diploma program began, and provided grassroots venues through which extension home economists delivered “household science” education to rural women.

Early studies were focused on all aspects of housekeeping, with a curriculum that included home sanitation (drainage, plumbing, heating and ventilation), household handicrafts such as wood finishing, varnishing, soldering and glazing), home nursing (first aid, caring for the sick), home furnishing, and record keeping.

Today, students study family social sciences, human nutritional sciences, textile sciences, health studies or health sciences. Then, as now, the emphasis was to teach science-based skills for improving people’s lives, said Sevenhuysen.

While today’s curriculum is vastly different, “our values have not changed in the last 100 years,” he said.

Graduates find their wide range of practical studies makes them highly employable in many fields, from public policy-making and food research to community development and international work, said Sevenhuysen.

The centennial celebration included the screening of a documentary of the faculty’s history, highlighting the work of graduates and reflections of former students. A PowerPoint display showcased 100 “star graduates” nominated by peers.

Class of ’76 graduate Lynda Richard enjoyed hearing stories of the days when students looked after a live infant in what was known as the faculty’s practice house.

Richard was one of the last “practice house babies” brought to school by her mother, who was a married student in the faculty in the early 1950s.

Being permitted to bring a baby to school was unusual for an era when women seldom pursued their studies or careers after marriage, said Richard.

“It was very forward thinking for the times,” she said. lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

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But they could envision a better quality of life, and today’s farm families owe a debt of gratitude to those women who fought for amenities such as electricity and running water, and encouraged their friends and neighbours to learn new skills to create a better life.

Their allies in that fight were the province’s first professional home economists, graduates of what were then called Home Economics Societies. Created by a provincial act in 1910, the societies (later renamed the Manitoba Women’s Institutes or WI) sent women educated at the Manitoba Agricultural College across the province to help rural families acquire a better lifestyle.

Proficient in all manner of home management skills, these first home economists opened the doors of education for many, with the training and resources they provided affectionately dubbed “the rural women’s university.”

Next weekend, hundreds of home economists will gather at the University of Manitoba’s faculty of human ecology to celebrate the 100th anniversary of their profession in the province. Among those gathering will be the authors of a soon-to-be-released book documenting the history of Manitoba’s extension home economists. The book was authored by former directors and specialists with the Manitoba Department of Agriculture (which took over responsibility for extension services from the agriculture college in 1926).

A Time In Our Lives: Empowering Women, Strengthening Families, Building Communitiesis both a chronological account of extension work by home economics over the past 100 years, and a collection of memoirs, says Betty Burwell, one of the book’s authors. Her recollections of extension work date back to the late 1950s and early 1960s while she served as the extension service’s program director.

CHANGE IN AGRICULTURE

Manitoba’s provincial extension program was essentially a needs-based education providing rural women with the resources they required to help their families adapt to rapidly changing times in agriculture, says Burwell.

“Women steadied the family through the changes that were taking place,” said Burwell.

A Time In Our Livesis a carefully researched account of the very earliest years of extension, which date back to 1872 when agricultural societies were first established. In 1910, the same year the Women’s Institutes were established, the Manitoba Agricultural College created a diploma course for young women, offering a wide array of training for anyone managing a demanding household – including clothing construction, laundering, food preparation and preservation, nutrition, food budgeting, home furnishings, minor household repairs, home nursing and personal hygiene.

Extens ion programming changed with the times. Sewing, food prep and preservation courses remained hugely popular throughout the decades, but by the 1960s, money management and financial record keeping were also emphasized, reflecting both the changing reality of farm life, and women’s expanding role in bookkeeping and records management on the farm.

The ’60s were also a decade in which many new farm homes were built, so a home design specialist was added to the extension team in 1959 in order to help families plan new kitchens and bathrooms, and incorporate office space into new homes.

CAPACITY BUILDING

Their programs “emphasized management of resources, consumer and business education, human behaviour and development” and provided women and girls “with an opportunity to increase their knowledge, develop skills and change attitudes and beliefs about themselves, their families and their environment,” Burwell writes inA Time In Our Lives.

But extension programs offered far more than just skills developments, says Gail Watson, also a former director and book co-author.

“We were part of the decade when the roles of women changed considerably from being the mom on the farm or in town, and primarily responsible for children,” she said.

While participating in sewing or cooking or food-handling programs, women were also building their intellectual resources, she said. They would talk about the issues of the day facing their communities, and about ways to tackle them.

“We called it ‘skills development’ then,” says Watson. “We would call it ‘capacity building’ today.”

The extension home economists also helped with the early 4-H programs, which began in Roland in 1913. They enjoy still hearing of “the youngsters” whose projects and speeches they once judged, retired extension workers say.

“When you look at some of the farm leaders in Manitoba, they came up through the 4-H program,” says Burwell. “You recognize the names.”

Some are their own sons and daughters as many of the home economists married local boys and remain in the communities they first worked in.

Known since 2005 as rural leadership specialists, or business development specialists, extension home economists have also left a legacy through their support of rural organizations, says Burwell.

“Will we be remembered? I think probably we will be,” she said. “I think we’ll be remembered by the women that we worked with.”

100TH ANNIVERSARY

The centennial celebrations for the faculty of human ecology will be held Sept. 23-25, with three days of class reunions, tours, receptions, presentations and speakers planned.

A documentary on a century of home economics societies, WI and extension services will be shown. A rotating power-point presentation will highlight achievements of 100 “star grads” of the faculty.

“We’ve tried to create a program that will honour graduates’ history, celebrate their successes and imagine their future,” says anniversary events co-chair Elaine Adam.

For more information on the centennial events log on to:

www.umanitoba.ca/facul ties/human_ecology/centen nial/centennial. html.

lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

———

Asoon-to-be-released bookisthestoryofthedecades

duringwhichextensionhome economistsworkedthroughout ruralManitoba

———

The Memoirs OfA Time InOur Lives

A Time In Our Lives also contains lively recollections contributed by about 50 former extension home economists recalling everything from challenging working conditions to the people they met.

Some excerpts:

Finding a place to live in rural Manitoba was challenging in the 1950s….

“There were no apartment buildings or rooming houses and the residents were not accustomed to having boarders. The school teachers were all middle-aged women married in the community, as were the bank staff and store clerks. The whole town seemed very suspicious of a young woman moving into their community.”

Navigating country roads wasn’t easy either.

“Some of my funniest memories are of driving in the mud. One day I got on the wrong road and got stuck. The kind farmer who pulled me out said, ‘Nobody’s made it that far down the road in months!’”

The extension home economists brought new ideas with them. “Freezing of fruits and vegetables was a fairly new concept at the time and women were very interested.”

They were learning all the time too.

“I developed a lasting admiration and affection for rural women.”

Many recall amusing situations that arose. “And then there was the lady whose African violets grew so well. She was also a 4-H leader who wanted to serve us home brew for lunch on the day we were judging and would not take “no” for an answer. So we fed the violets every time she left the room.”

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Doug was highly regarded for his ability in the field of farm management, particularly his technical competence in soils and crops. He was an early promoter of soil testing in the Carman District and the establishment of the Mani toba Soils Testing Lab. Upon his retirement from Manitoba Agriculture in 1971, Doug was elected mayor of Carman, where he was active in the Pembina Valley Development Association and the Lower Red River Valley Water Commission. He was the driving force behind the Boyne River Diversion to prevent flooding in Carman.

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“This is about

everything you do.”

– JANICE FILMON

They say infant mortality rates began to fall in Manitoba after home economists began going out to rural communities to teach homemakers about sanitation and food safety.

Agricultural extension centred mostly on farm management, growing crops and raising livestock when home economics first became a separate course of study at the University of Manitoba in 1910.

But home economists soon took their places with other agricultural specialists on so-called extension trains travelling to rural communities and carrying practical information for farm families.

And while the field has undergone huge changes over the last 100 years, its purpose is still a direct delivery of science-based knowledge to the home, says Gustaaf Sevenhuysen, dean of the university’s faculty of human ecology.

Sevenhuysen joined staff, students and alumni September 11 in the official kickoff leading up to the faculty’s centennial celebration in 2010.

Special attention will be paid to May 3, 2010, the 100th anniversary date when the first class of home economics, then part of the Manitoba Agricultural College, came to order. Events will culminate in a gala homecoming September 23 to 26, 2010.

A look at the 1911 curriculum shows that, even back then, home economics was more than just cooking and sewing.

Units of study included home sanitation (drainage, plumbing, heating and ventilation), household handicrafts (wood finishing, varnishing, soldering and glazing), home nursing (first aid, caring for the sick), home furnishing, and record keeping.

Graduates were expected to be fully versed in all aspects of housekeeping. Last week’s meeting, which drew 150 registrants, was told only half-jokingly the real goal of home economics was to provide ideal mates for farm boys studying agriculture on the campus.

But home economics was one of the few opportunities in those days for young women to receive an academic education. The focus was always on professional training, incorporating science, engineering and medicine into practical skills that could be taken into the home, Sevenhuysen said.

From early on, child care was an important part of the program. A practicum held at a model house on campus saw students care for a “practice child” – usually an orphan or ward of the state. A nursery school was introduced in 1943.

Food and clothing are still important today. But the focus has shifted as the science developed. Food science now covers nutraceuticals, functional foods and metabolism. A medical textiles program develops protective clothing for special applications in hospitals. The sewing laboratory of 1915 has evolved into a computer-aided clothing design facility.

The faculty moved into its current location, the former horticulture building, in 1950. Home economics received faculty status in 1970. Its name changed to human ecology in 1982.

A proposed university initiative in the late 1990s to abolish the faculty was thwarted when community groups, including Keystone Agricultural Producers, protested.

Practitioners acknowledge home economics is searching for new directions in a changing world. Fewer high schools teach the subject now than they once did. People don’t sew and cook to the same extent either. Some wonder if home economics is still relevant in a world of fast food, throwaway clothes and changing social mores.

But Janice Filmon, honorary centennial committee chair and wife of former Manitoba premier Gary Filmon, believes home economics still provides essential training in basic life skills.

“The life I’ve had and how I’ve been able to mine the experiences probably found its genesis in these very basic things,” said Filmon, who graduated in 1963 and then went into social work.

“This is about everything you do.” ron@fbcpublishing.com

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“Home economists and human ecologists have done some outstanding things through the years and have assisted and helped change society.”

– ELAINE ADAM, CO-CHAIR OF THE 2010 CENTENNIAL EVENTS COMMITTEE

Photos and stories are sought for the 2010 centennial

Any materials persons wish to submit can be mailed to: The Home Economics and Human Ecology 100th Anniversary, c/o 596 Patricia Avenue R3T 3A6 Winnipeg, Man. To register for the September 11 centennial kickoff, or for more information on centennial planning please log on to: www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/human_ecology/centennial/centennial.htmlor telephone 204-474-7045 or e-mail gparson@cc.umanitoba.ca

Celebrations marking a century of home economics in Manitoba kick off this fall in a lead-up event to the next year’s faculty of human ecology’s 100th anniversary.

A centennial pathway of inscribed bricks and a banner will be unveiled Sept. 11 during a 5 p. m. to 8 p. m. evening event that also includes a presentation on the faculty’s history by Associate Dean Michael Eskin, a fashion show courtesy of the Costume Museum of Canada and samplings of made-in-Manitoba foods.

The University of Manitoba’s faculty of human ecology traces its beginnings to a diploma program offered in Household Sciences beginning in 1910 at the Manitoba Agricultural College.

It came about as women of the day demanded that they too should have opportunity for higher education, said Elaine Adam, a former faculty graduate now co-chairing the 2010 events committee.

As well, a 1900 royal commission under then Manitoba premier R. P. Roblin was, at that time, also calling for the creation of an agricultural college “to prepare men for agricultural pursuits” and for the education of young women as their “expert and competent helpmates.”

The first diploma courses were offered in household science at the Manitoba Agricultural College, and moved when it did in 1913 to its present-day location on the Fort Garry campus.

Name changes over the years meant graduates earned degrees variously in the division of home economics, the school of home economics, or departments of food and nutrition and clothing and textiles, until home economics was finally granted official faculty status in 1970. It became the present-day faculty of human ecology in 1981.

It is those thousands upon thousands of graduates they’re now hoping to reach and invite to attend both this fall’s kickoff and next year’s four-day centennial events, says Adam.

Next year’s celebrations, to be held September 23 to 26, will include campus tours, special receptions and events that honour and bring focus to the unique roles home economists played in the development of the province of Manitoba.

They want to give special recognition to those who worked for Manitoba Hydro over the years, said Adam.

“Many home economics graduates have worked for Hydro,” she added.

EXTENSION AND MWI

A book honouring this province’s extension home economists is also being prepared for 2010. It is being written by former director of extension with the Department of Agriculture, Betty Burwell, Adam noted. Hundreds of graduates were employed as District Home Economists with the former Department of Agriculture’s Extension Service during the last century, and their work with rural families and organizations was instrumental in rural community development.

These include the chapters of the Manitoba Women’s Institute, whose own history and evolution is closely tied to the faculty’s.

The Manitoba Women’s Institute was also founded in 1910 and its first chapters

called Household Science Associations, changing to Home Economics Societies, until 1918 when the MWI adopted its present-day name.

The MWI also plans centennial celebrations of its own for 2010. Special recognition will be given to MWI during their centennial, Adam noted.

NOMINATIONS SOUGHT

Meanwhile, what they’re looking for right now are names of faculty graduates to honour next year too, Adam added.

They want to get nominations of 100 graduates to honour in a special presentation that will recognize the unique and outstanding contributions they have made over the years.

“Home economists and human ecologists have done some outstanding things through the years and have assisted and helped change society,” she said.

“We’re asking graduates to nominate someone who has made a major contribution.”

Home management practice house

Commemorations actually began this past week with an open house held July 24 at the former home management practice house of the faculty.

The house was in use until 1957, after which it became a private residence for university vice-presidents and administrative personnel, then later converted into office facilities.

“The House” is being torn down this summer to make room for the new Art Research Technology laboratories on the University of Manitoba’s campus.

Those attending the 2010 centennial will see a documentary now being prepared on the practice house, noted Adam.

“People are now being interviewed and they’re gathering together information and materials and pictures from the house for it,” she said.

lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

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