St. James-Assiniboia
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St. James-Assiniboia was formerly the City of St. James, the RM of Assiniboia, and the Village of Brooklands. The three communities, just outside the City of Winnipeg, joined together in the 1960s to form the City of St. James-Assiniboia. In 1972, the City of St. James-Assiniboia formally joined Winnipeg in Unicity.
St. James-Assiniboia is a large community in the western section of Winnipeg. It is usually referred to as simply "St. James" and consists of the neighbourhoods of Old St. James, Deer Lodge, Silver Heights, Birchwood, Sturgeon Creek, Woodhaven, Heritage Park, Kirkfield Park, Westwood, Crestview, St. Charles, and Brooklands. Although Brooklands is a part of St. James, few people think of it as such, it is more often considered a part of the West End of Winnipeg.
Historically, the area was a farming community along the north bank of the Assiniboine River populated by an Anglo-Métis, or mixed Scottish/English and aboriginal population, compared to the French-speaking Métis people who settled further upriver at St. François Xavier, Manitoba and along the east banks of the Red River. Its development as a residential suburb of Winnipeg began in the early 20th century and was greatly enhanced by the extension of streetcar service to Deer Lodge in 1903, the opening of Assiniboine Park in 1904 and its location along Portage Avenue and proximity to Downtown Winnipeg. By 1920 the eastern area of St. James and the Deer Lodge area were fully developed. The area grew rapidly from 1945-1970 with the construction of the Silver Heights and Birchwood subdivisions in the 1940s and 1950s, and Westwood, Crestview, and St. Charles in the 1960s. As the community was developed as far as the Perimeter Highway, Winnipeg's unofficial urban limit, by the early 1970s, St. James has seen very little development since that time. From 1971 to 2001 the population declined from 69,820 to 60,900 (source Statistics Canada).
It is primarily residential, and is mainly a middle class area but there are poorer pockets in the eastern part of St. James, in Brooklands, and in St. Charles, and wealthier areas near the St. Charles Country Club, and along the Assiniboine River. There is some industrial development in the Murray Industrial Park in the north central part of the neighbourhood and near the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport which is located in St. James. There is substantial commercial development along Portage Avenue, the area's main thoroughfare, and near the western edge of the community near the Perimeter Highway, where the Unicity Shopping Mall once stood. St. James lies immediately west of the Polo Park area, Winnipeg's largest retailing district.
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