Anyone who remembers Winnipeg in those early years 

 as a mere village, with its new population, mostly young men, 

 constantly being added to from the East, its crowded board- 

 ing houses, its imperfect buildings, hastily erected to accom- 

 modate new anivals, the absence of sanitary arrangements 

 and the prevalence of typhoid fever, can speak of the neces- 

 sity for an hospital even at that stage of the city's existence. 



Yet it was not one of the new arrivals who; Avas the chief 

 benefactor in this matter, but one who had come to Red 

 River when a merie lad, and who had spent most of his life 

 there, the Hon. A. Gr. B. Bannatyne. 



The first building used for hospital purposes was on the 

 banks of the Red River, somewhere near the foot of Lombard 

 Street. The second was a log house in Point Douglas, rented 

 from the late Hon. John l^orquay. The imperfections of 

 both these buildings soon con^dnced the hospital board that 

 they must arise and build. The Messrs. McDermot and 

 Bannatyne donated the present hospital site, afterwards en- 

 larged, and a building was erected on it in 18Y5, which was 

 occupied as an hospital until 1882. 



During the financial stimggles of this early period the hos- 

 pital board was more than once indebted to tine ladies of the 

 city for substantial aid. As early as 1873 a bazaar was held 

 under the auspices of Mjrs. Bannatyne for the benefit of the 

 hospital. 



In the fall of 1877 the increasing demands upon the hos- 

 pital having brought it into financial difiiculties, a meeting of 

 the ladies was called and a statement of its afi^airs laid before 

 them. The secretary treasurer showed that the hospital's 

 annual cost! of maintenance was about $4,000, to meet which 

 til ere was : The local Government grant, $1,250; city grant, 

 $500 ; Dominion Government, for patients, $250 ; Hospital 

 Simday, $300 ; private patients from $300 to $400, leaving 

 a large deficit to be made up from uncertain sources. The 

 hospital was at the time $700 in debt for maintenance. 



