The pale yellow paint, protected from the elements for decades under plywood lettering, fades into the 90-year-old weather-resistant gray barn on the south shore of Winnipeg.
Soon, the Riverbend Dairy Farm and the neighboring two-story house will fall under the advancement of an excavator and development.
“You know, it’s progress, so you have to accept that,” said Lillian Gobert, the family’s matriarch, who lived on the St. Louis property. Mary’s Road for 68 years until she was forced to leave in May 2021.
Built in 1932, the estate was a rural outpost for many years, surrounded by a few other farms and orchards.
Now the town has advanced to the farm, with the River Park South neighborhood on its shoulder.
For safety, due to increased traffic in the area, the nearby intersection of Santa Maria Road and the perimeter road is receiving a new interchange.
The former rural property is located in St. Mary’s Road and Perimeter Highway, where the city now needs to build an interchange. (Pat Kaniuga / CBC)
The estate now passes on the road and the property has been expropriated.
“I was taken away because of the new expansion,” said Gobert, 87, who now lives a few miles east of the old estate.
He moved to the farm in 1954, when he was 19, after marrying R. George Gobert. They raised four sons, three sons and a daughter, while entertaining school groups on outings, customers buying fresh milk and visits from family and friends.
“I’ve always liked people going there for a cup of tea or lunch or whatever. It was like a main station and a lot of people passed by,” Gobert said.
Much of the property was surrounded by trees, creating a paradise behind that green screen, where children Gobert and his cousins and friends played, rode dirt bikes and lived around animals.
There was even a grass track just north of the farm, called Gobert’s Field, which R. George used for dusting crops.
The plywood cutout of the barn honored Rockwood Romarnuk, a Gobert bull that won several awards, including one at the 1955 Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. (Submitted by April Gobert)
“When the dairy was designed, they had a landscape architect design the yard, and it was beautiful,” said April Gobert, the lonely daughter.
It was a life full of countryside and the city was far away.
“My first memory is that the first set of lights was in Dakota,” April said.
That’s where St. Mary crosses Dakota Street and Dunkirk Drive, about five miles north of the dairy farm.
“I went to high school in Dakota [Collegiate]. People wouldn’t take me home because it was too far away, ”April said.
Cattle-Cattle across River Heights
The farm was started by April’s grandfather, also named George, one of the seven boys who came from Belgium. Everyone finally started their own dairy.
The first was on Brock Street in River Heights, when that area was still rural. After Jordi bought the property of St. Mary’s Road, took some cattle and marched with them to St. Mary’s. Vital.
He walked the animals from Brock to Elm Park Bridge, along Kingston Crescent to St. Mary’s Road and south.
“My grandmother told this story and said they left a few presents for the people of Kingston,” April said. “It was a high-class neighborhood, so they got some free manure.”
Over the years, other calves and oxen came from the Trappist monastery of San Norbert. As a woman, Gobert was not allowed to enter, so she waited on the road for one of the monks to pull out the purchase in a rubber bag.
One of these bulls, named Rockwood Romarnuk, won multiple award ribbons, including the 1955 Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. In honor of his achievements, in the 1960s a plywood scaffolding was erected near the top of the barn.
The house and other buildings on the property have been used by squatters and partygoers since Lillian Gobert had to move in May 2021. (Randall McKenzie / CBC)
The year 1975 meant a major change for the Goberts. The dairy business closed and the land was sold to Qualico Developments, which began work on River Park South.
This community grew to include more than 8,000 homes and businesses, a community center, a library, a mall, eight schools, parks, sports fields, playgrounds and three lakes.
Paradise lost
The Goberts continued to live on the property, renting it to Qualico and running a cereal farm until they retired in 2008. R. George died in 2012.
Although it had not been operational for 10 years, the estate continued to be a entrenched part of the Sant Vital fabric. People always recognize Gobert’s name and pass on their own memories, April said.
Now everything is slowly being erased. The trees have disappeared, cut down in late March to make way for the equipment.
“It was like an excavator with a drill in the front and it just cut them,” April said.
While Gobert has been “talking” about it to prepare for the demolition, April is eager to see it all. After Gobert moved, the buildings became a refuge for squatters and partygoers.
April Gobert poses for a 1993 wedding photo near the poster she adjusted years earlier to add the word daughter. (Submitted by April Gobert)
“The property and the buildings here were not respected. That was hard, to see the house where he lived, and people were stealing wood from the barn, wood from the elevator,” April said.
“It seems an insult to how much that yard and its buildings were taken care of and what they meant to my family.”
In a way, demolishing the buildings will preserve the past as she wants to remember it.
“The buildings will disappear, but they don’t keep the memories. It was a fantastic place,” April said.
One such memory is when April, at 16, used black paint to add “daughter” to the barn sign, which said George Gobert and Sons. He also painted an R in front of George to clarify the change of owners.
He was later photographed at the wedding.
Both editions have since worn out.
An aerial image of Riverbend Dairy Farm shows the River Park South neighborhood adjoining it. (Google Maps)
The elevator at the back of the property went down Tuesday as April and Gobert watched.
“And it was good. We sat there cheering,” April said.
The demolition of the barn and the house is delayed because lead paint has been found on the walls.
“It’s a permission issue because it’s a dangerous material right now,” April said, but she and Gobert will likely be there again when it’s time they go down.
And if they want to revisit more than one memory, Gobert gave a number of things to the Society and Museum of History of St. Vital, such as an old crank wall phone and Rockwood plywood trim.
“They did a great job of repainting it, and it’s beautiful in the museum,” Gobert said.