Two sites in Portage la Prairie are now recognized with a Municipal Heritage Designation.

Portage and District Heritage Advisory Committee co-chair James Kostochuk. (photo by Matt Hermiz)

The Wallace Mausoleum at Hillside Cemetery, and the Olina building in downtown Portage, were given the historical designation by City Council last week. Portage and District Heritage Advisory Committee co-chair James Kostochuk calls both sites significant to local history.

The designation simply means those properties have been identified as historically significant, based on three major criteria: integrity, architecture and history of the building.

"Then we can work with the owners to offer technical advice, as well as grant assistance for restoration, stabilization, preservation and rehabilitation," Kostochuk says.

The Olina building is the oldest complete section of Portage la Prairie, Kostochuk says. Most other places with old buildings have gaps where original construction has been lost. In one of its earliest forms, Kostochuk says the Olina building used to be a furniture dealer and undertaker.

"If you made furniture, you could make coffins," he says. "The building is still in good condition, still has an external appearance of how it may have been in its prime."

In the case of the Wallace Mausoleum, which was built in 1919, heritage designations can't normally be applied to cemetery sites.

"However in this case, there's actually a building," Kostochuk explains. "And that's quite rare in the Prairies. You don't have mausoleums that are built. So that makes the site exceptional."

There is a legend tied to the Wallace Mausoleum, too. It's told back in 1918 the daughter of Colonel Wallace, Elva, was one of the first victims of the Spanish Flu outbreak in Canada. She died in hospital while awaiting the birth of her first child. She had apparently asked Wallace to make sure she was kept away from the cold ground. The Colonel built the mausoleum, and brought in a glass topped coffin so he could look upon both in death.

“It's in a pretty advanced state of deterioration,” Kostochuk says of the mausoleum. “So we wanted to get a designation put on it so we could look at restoration or stabilization of the building."