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/ Greater Winnipeg
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Wesley College
(University of Winnipeg)
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Advanced education in Manitoba was spearheaded by church
institutions. Earliest among them were St. Boniface College
(Roman Catholic, 1818), St. John’s College (Anglican,
1866), and Manitoba College (Presbyterian, 1871). When
the University of Manitoba was established in 1877, it
became the provincial examining authority, but teaching
remained the prerogative of the affiliated denominational
colleges.
Wesley College (Wesleyan Methodist) incorporated in 1877,
and the first classes opened in the fall of 1888 in Grace
Church on Notre Dame Avenue. As enrolment expanded, the
college moved to rented facilities on Albert Street, and
in 1890 to a converted house at Broadway and Edmonton Street.
The college eventually selected a permanent location in
West Winnipeg on the Spence Estate near Manitoba College.
By March 1894, construction was underway on a combined
classroom, office and dormitory building designed by local
architects George Browne and Samuel Frank Peters. Students
first occupied the facility in January 1896. A formal opening
ceremony followed in June.
