Despite the family name, the Fortune family was not overwhelmingly lucky.

When Mark Fortune arrived in Winnipeg in 1874, it seemed like things could not go wrong. Fortune quickly established a successful real estate business opening an office block on Main Street in 1882.

The Fortune Block was designed by architects Charles Mancel Willmot and George W. Stewart in the High Italianate style. Highly ornamented and picturesque, the building featured dramatic brickwork along the window arches, roofline, and doorway.

When the Fortune Block opened, a combination of retail and office spaces, it was the largest block on south Main Street. The Fortune family built a grand 36-room mansion on Wellington Crescent.

Tragedy struck the family in 1912. The Fortune family were finishing a tour of Europe and travelling home on the maiden voyage of the “unsinkable” Titanic. Mary Fortune survived with her three daughters, while Mark Fortune and son Charles perished.

The Fortune Block was a desired mixed-use facility for many years. By the 1980s, though, the building was vacated and empty for nearly 30 years.

John Pollard purchased the Fortune Block in 2016 and after extensive renovations, the Fortune Block remains a rare remnant of a pre-1890s Winnipeg streetscape.