Jim’s Vintage Garages Museum

A seasonally-open museum in Headingley, Manitoba, Canada highlights the petroleum industry and vintage garages

Jims Vintage Garages museum highlights the petroleum industry and vintage garages as well as some of the history of the community it is located in: Headingley, Manitoba, Canada. Open only during the months of July and August, the small museum’s well-presented displays contain a wealth of information.

Museum room contain vintage gas pumps and vehicles

A 1906 McLaughlin Buggy hangs from the ceiling. Originally a carriage maker, McLaughlin became one of Canada’s first automobile makers. While that buggy is a nod to the era of horse-drawn vehicles, the museum is all about the growth of the automobile industry.

There are a few vintage vehicles in the museum, but only a few. The focus is on the garages, the petroleum industry, and servicing of the automobiles.

Museum display featuring vintage gas pumps, and garage signs

Displays feature replicas of vintage service stations, vintage signs, fuel pumps, oil and fuel cans, license plates, service station uniforms, hub caps, and more. Signage highlights a few of the rarer artifacts, including a number of logoed items from now-defunct oil companies and quart glass oil bottles with metal spouts of different colours for different grades of oil. Drawers in one display contain collections of key chains, volt ammeters from the 1920s and 1930s, radiator identifiers, logo lighters and matches, and name brand wrenches.

Museum display features vintage garage signs, a mannequin in a chauffer outfit, hubcaps, and oil cans

Placards include information about the history of various petroleum companies, a history that includes a lot of merging and buying up of other companies. Following is a sample of the information to be found.

North Star Oil, which was formed in 1919 and built a refinery in St. Boniface (now part of Winnipeg) in 1955 that produced 2,500 barrels of oil a day, was taken over by Shell in 1960.
After Ontario-based McColl-Frontenac Oil Company (itself the product of a merger) purchased Empire Oil of Winnipeg in 1939, it changed that company’s brand name from Red Indian to Sky Chief. The company name later changed to Texaco in 1951 and was later sold to Imperial Oil Limited.
The Canadian Oil Company introduced the Slate Boy as part of their logo in 1917 to market their gasoline. By 1939, he was replaced with a new logo and brand name–White Rose. Today the company is owned as Shell Canada.
British American (B-A) took over Winnipeg Oil and its 115 Manitoba outlets in 1920. Gulf Oil bought 20% of B-A in 1947 and in 1967 merged B-A, Royalite, Purity, and Anglo. In Canada, it was nationalized as Petro-Canada in 1975. By 2004, it was fully private again.

A wooden cabinet with shelves behind glass doors contains a selection of historical documents and memorabilia — *A cabinet of information about the community’s history*

Museum placard showing signs and containing text about the variations in spelling the community name over the years - Headingley or Headingly

Headingley is located just a few kilometres west of the western edge of Winnipeg. One of the museum displays highlights confusion over spelling of the community’s name, sometimes ending in “ley” and sometimes in “ly.”

Museum exhibit of an old general store — *Recreation of Marilyn’s General Store fully stocked with products from the past*

Museum exhibit recreates the post office window in a general store

Other stories in the museum include that of Canada’s first woman bus driver, who in 1918 took over driving the bus for her father’s boat and bus service in Lockport, Manitoba and the five generations of the Bell family who have owned and operated Bell’s Garage in Headingley, a garage that traces its origin to a livery stable for horses.

The museum is named after Jim Pearn. Jim and Vivienne Pearn, long-time residents of Headingley, owned a large and and valuable collection of automotive and petroleum industry memorabilia which they had arranged and displayed in a building in their back yard. In 2002, they donated the collection, worth approximately one million dollars, to the Rural Municipality of Headingley. A community fund raising committee formed the next year to raise funds for a building to house the collection. The building, attached to the new Headingley Community Centre, was completed in the summer of 2004. Residents spent the fall, winter, and part of the spring re-creating the displays. Jim’s Vintage Garages officially opened in May 2005.

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