'All we have are the memories': Historians mourn loss of key building from Winnipeg's jazz era

It took two days to burn down 110 years of history at a corner on the edge of Winnipeg's downtown, where icebound rubble is all that remains of a building that was once a focal point of the city's jazz and big band era.

The two-storey Kirkwood Block, a brick, arrowhead-shaped building that stood at the northeast corner of Portage Avenue and Langside Street, was consumed by a fire that began Wednesday and kept crews pouring water throughout the night and following day.

By Friday, it was partially collapsed into a single level, with the city preparing for full demolition in the coming days.

It's a wrenching end to a building whose second floor had a glorious three-decade run, beginning in the mid-1950s, as Harry Smith's Club Morocco.

"The club became Winnipeg's top nightspot and the longest-running such jazz club not only in our city, but in Western Canada," according to music historian and author John Einarson, who wrote about it in his book Heart of Gold: A History of Winnipeg Music.

"I would consider the Club Morocco definitely a landmark in Winnipeg's music history, and we've lost it just as we've lost so many others as time marches on," Einarson said in an interview on Friday.

"To see it now gutted is heartbreaking because there are so many memories from so many people who either went there or played there."

More recently, it was home to a handful of independent businesses on its street level, including a Japanese doughnut shop, a hairdresser and a convenience store. 

Brent Bellamy, senior design architect for Number Ten Architectural Group, called it "a tragic loss."

"I worry about the neighbourhood and how the neighbourhood moves on with losing the businesses that were in there."

Those types of buildings are the lifeblood of a community, often providing the livelihoods of people who not only work, but also live in the neighbourhood, he said.

"They're part of the DNA and fabric of the community and when those buildings are lost, we lose that connection."

The Kirkwood Block was designed by architect John D. Atchison, who was responsible for nearly 100 buildings in the city from the early 1900s until the mid-1920s, many in the Chicago style of architecture.

Built in 1912 for pharmacist William Kirkwood, it opened at a boom time, as Winnipeg flooded with new citizens and new buildings sprouted to fill many needs.