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Flatiron Building
Lacombe
Other Names:
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Flat Iron Building
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Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Flatiron Building is an early twentieth century Edwardian Classical Revival style, three storey triangular shaped brick and sandstone building situated at a prominent corner location on a triangular block in downtown Lacombe.
Heritage Value
The Heritage Value of the Flatiron Building lies in its distinctive architectural style and design and its association with the two financial institutions, the Merchant’s Bank of Canada and the Bank of Montreal that played an important role in the development of Lacombe and many other communities through Alberta in the early part of the twentieth century.
The building was designed by architects Morley Hogle and Huntley Ward Davis in 1903 after which the firm also designed banks in Edmonton, Alberta, in Wetaskiwin, Alberta and in Brandon, Manitoba, all for the Merchant’s Bank of Canada. They were the preferred firm for the bank having designed 17 banks across Canada.
The Flatiron Building is a rare example of a commercial building following the style of the 1902 Fuller Building in New York. While buildings of this shape were constructed in North America in the late nineteenth century, the Fuller, more commonly referred to as the Flatiron Building, is considered by many as the prototype of the buildings of this type, so named for their distinctive triangular shape that resembled a flat iron. Flatiron Buildings were fashionable throughout North America at the turn of the twentieth century, however few remain. Constructed in 1903-04, the Merchant’s Bank of Canada, Lacombe’s Flatiron Building is one of the few remaining in Alberta and is the oldest known building of this type in Western Canada. The basic design of the building is typical of the dominant architecture preferred by financial institutions of the time, to convey a sense of power, security and reliability to customers and competitors alike.
Character-Defining Elements
Character-defining elements of the Flatiron building include key elements of the Edwardian Classical Style, such as its:
-prominent location;
-form, scale, and massing of a triangular, “flatiron” building;
-exterior masonry, a rusticated sandstone base, brick walls with horizontal relief bands on the first floor and sandstone pilasters with Doric style capital through the second and third storeys;
- denticulated wood cornices and ornamental brackets;
-fenestration and door patterns, with wooden windows, sandstone sills, two palladian windows with voussoirs and one original round window;
-scallop-shaped hood with decorative brackets over the main entrance on the corner;
-decorated frieze;
-traces of the original banking hall on the main floor in the dentilated perimeter bulkheads and center column with decorative capital;
-original flag pole on the roof;
-second floor windows having the juliette style iron protection railings;
-concrete basement vault with steel interior vault door;;
-sandstone keystones above windows;
-six over one vertical slider windows; and
-iron security bars on basement windows.
Location
| Street Address: |
5005 - 50 Avenue |
| Community: |
Lacombe |
| Boundaries: |
Pt. Lots 1 and 2, Block 5, Plan RN1 |
| Contributing Resources: |
Buildings: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
RN1
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5
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1,2
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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52.462965 |
-113.730878 |
GPS |
NAD83 |
UTM Reference:
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Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Local Governments (AB) |
| Designation Status: |
Municipal Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
2022/04/11 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1903 to 1904 |
| Period of Significance: |
1903 to 2003 |
| Theme(s): |
Developing Economies : Trade and Commerce
Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life : Architecture and Design
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| Historic Function(s): |
Commerce / Commercial Services : Bank or Stock Exchange
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| Current Function(s): |
Commerce / Commercial Services : Office or Office Building
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| Architect: |
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| Builder: |
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| Context: |
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Additional Information
| Object Number: |
4664-0467 |
| Designation File: |
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| Related Listing(s): |
4665-0499
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| Heritage Survey File: |
HS 22703
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| Website Link: |
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| Data Source: |
City of Lacombe, Planning and Development Department, 5432 56 Avenue, Lacombe, AB T4L 1E9 (File: 65/201.01 2021) |
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