Brick walk up apartment blocks and converted houses line a dense grid of streets reached by one bridge from downtown.
What Osborne Village looks like
Osborne Street crosses the Assiniboine River on , the main route in from downtown. On the other side the blocks run dense right up against the sidewalk, three and four storey apartment buildings set close to the curb with almost no front yard between the brick and the street. Osborne Street's own storefronts continue south from the bridge, two and three storeys of brick with flush mounted signs and cars parked along the curb.
and are walk up blocks in yellow and dark brown brick, their bay windows and stone window heads lined up one after another along the block. on Hugo Street North has a hipped, red tiled roof over cream stucco and brick. , near the Osborne Street bridge, is a five storey Queen Anne Revival block in dark red brick. Its dormers, chimneys and bay windows break up a long roofline.
Not every building on these streets is a full block. A gable roofed house on Stradbrook Avenue has had its ground floor converted into a storefront, the glass pulled forward to the sidewalk under the original roofline.
on Nassau Street North is built of pale stone in the Gothic Revival style, with a square corner tower and pointed arch windows under a steep gabled roof. , a few blocks over on Wardlaw Avenue, is built in the same stone and the same style. At the edge of the blocks, the Southwest Transitway's sits on a glass walled footbridge over the rail line, a modern structure against the brick around it.
Shot in Osborne Village
St. Luke's Anglican Church stood in for the pageant church in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, filmed in and around Winnipeg in 2024. Crescent Fort Rouge United Church, a few blocks south on Wardlaw Avenue, was a filming location the year before for the Hallmark Channel film Holiday Hotline.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, 2024
St. Luke's Anglican Church
Played the pageant church, present day
St. Luke's Anglican Church stands in as the pageant church in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, filmed in and around Winnipeg in 2024. Only the exterior is the real building. The church's interior scenes were built as a separate set for the production. Street View
What Osborne Village can double for
Loring Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Loring Park's blocks carry the same three and four storey brick walk up apartment buildings close to downtown, built in the same stretch of years as Osborne Village's own blocks. Minneapolis's taller downtown towers show behind the rooflines in a wide shot, so keep the frame tight to the block to hold the illusion. Try searching walk up apartment buildings now.
Browne's Addition in Spokane, Washington
Browne's Addition has the same mix of large Victorian houses converted into apartments and small shops, on a dense grid close to a river crossing. Its lots run wider and the houses sit further apart, so a tighter lens keeps the density believable. Try searching Victorian houses converted apartments now.
Cathedral Hill in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Cathedral Hill mixes large brick and stone churches with apartment blocks and converted Victorian houses from roughly the same decades. Its lots are wider and its churches larger landmarks, so a street level frame close to one block avoids the scale mismatch. Try searching brick church apartment blocks now.
