Vignettes
/ Greater Winnipeg
/ Pavilion-York
Seven Oaks House
Enlarge text: smaller | larger
John Inkster’s Red River home is one of Winnipeg’s
oldest surviving habitable houses. Built on his Kildonan
farm in 1851, it was used as a private residence for a
full century before being restored and reopened in 1958
as the Seven Oaks House Museum.
Inkster (1799-1874) was a stonemason from the Orkney
Islands who came to Rupert’s Land with the Hudson’s
Bay Company (HBC). A few years after his arrival in c.1821,
he opted to become an independent trader, freighter and farmer
in the Red River Settlement rather than serve out his HBC
contract.
