Description of Historic Place

The Manitoba Glass Company Site, a former industrial complex, is situated in a park-like area with walking paths in Beausejour. The provincial designation applies to the parcel of land, nearly two city blocks in size, and the building remains and subsurface resources associated with the glass-making processes within.

Heritage Value

The Manitoba Glass Company Site, strategically located to take advantage of silica-rich sand deposits in Beausejour, contains the remnants of the first complex to make glass containers in Western Canada. Established in 1906 by Josef Albert Keilbach, initially to produce bottles for Winnipeg breweries and soft drink companies, the large scale of the complex demonstrates the rapid growth of manufacturing in Manitoba, necessary to accommodate the thousands of newcomers moving into the prairie market during an era of rapid immigration. With new owners and investments provided between 1909 and 1911, the complex was expanded and equipped with semi-automatic machines, and at its height employed about 350 skilled European glass-blowers who also produced jars and medicine and ink bottles. In less than 10 years, however, the plant was outdated, unable to compete with fully automated factories. It closed in 1914 and its buildings were gradually dismantled. Community efforts in the 1980s to recall this important aspect of local and provincial history led to the creation of a heritage park in which building remnants and the detritus of manufacturing are preserved.

Source: Manitoba Heritage Council Minutes, January 28, 1989

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the site character of the Manitoba Glass Company Site include:
- its location in southwest Beausejour, just south of silica-rich deposits
- the exposed buildings remains (mostly concrete foundations), in and around which natural vegetation is being allowed to grow, differentiating the former industrial site from the adjacent groomed park and cemetery grounds

Key physical elements that define the site's heritage character include:
- the extant building foundation remains, of concrete, describing the large and impressive manufacturing functions (located at the north end of the site), warehouse functions (in the middle and south end of the site) and small office functions (at the southeast end of the site) that defined the operation in the early 1900s
- the surface and subsurface remains scattered throughout the site relating to industrial glass production, such as glass shards, machinery mounts, furnace remnants, etc.