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Joseph Ray Watkins founded Watkins Incorporated in 1868 from the kitchen of his home in Plainview, Minn. He began selling red liniment from a horse-drawn wagon, bringing home remedies to rural areas where few doctors practiced. Watkins traveled the world gathering ingredients and spices for use in his natural concoctions.

JR Watkins Drug Factory and Medical Co. warehouse was built at the corner of Anabella Street and Higgins Avenue in 1913. The CN Trans Canada rail line passes directly behind the building, which allowed for shipments of white cream liniment, camphor oil, turpentine spirits, cinnamon, cleaning solvents, pepper and vanilla to be shipped with ease. Two massive parallel elevators, one for freight and another for passengers, transported JR Watkins products, ingredients and supplies throughout the unique eight-story warehouse.

From 1909 to 1913, Annabella Street (then Rachel) and McFarlane Street made up Winnipegs’ semi official “Red Light” district and the Watkins head offices and distribution centre was right in the thick of it. “Mrs. Watkins frowned on this behavior and ordered the removal of several brothels between the Watkins building and Higgins and replaced them with the current garden. In this act of moral enforcement, Mrs. Watkins effectively quarantined a slice of Point Douglas for her and the Watkins employees. The overgrown trees, bushes and perimeter fence define two worlds: inside the garden and out”.

The JR Watkins Apothecary is a result of the stories about elevators and people, events and characters that make up my particular impression of the Watkins brand, the building, and its site. I imagine the Watkins family to be eccentric pioneers, a bit like the famous Willy Wonka from Raold Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – fiercely independent, innovative, and prone to lunacy from overexposure to potent ingredients.