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Dame Eliza Chenier Residences
Edmonton
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Dame Eliza Chenier Residences, built in 1911, is a two storey home with a hipped roof, clapboard siding, full-length front porch and a central balcony on the second floor. It is located on a single city lot in the Edmonton community of Oliver and is part of a contiguous group of similar homes built in the early 1900s. The municipal designation applies to the exterior of the building and the interior trim, mouldings and staircase; the rest of the interior elements are considered to be non-contributing.
Heritage Value
The Dame Eliza Chenier Residences is significant for its association with the theme of early residential development in the Edmonton neighbourhood of Oliver and its early foursquare duplex design.
Built in 1911 as a duplex by Eliza Chenier, the Dame Eliza Chenier Residences is valued as an example of working-class residential development in Oliver. One of Edmonton’s earliest communities, Oliver had a diverse population, and was home to people of a range of socio-economic backgrounds. The Dame Eliza Chenier Residences is representative of the more modest housing developments for working-class residents in Oliver. The easily built simple frame design, inexpensive wood cladding and sparing use of brick made this home an affordable option for residents of modest means. Furthermore, the multi-dwelling design was more typical of housing for lower income Edmontonians, differentiating it from the nearby brick mansions on Victoria (100th) Avenue, and contributing to the heterogeneous character of the neighbourhood. Since the 1960s the community of Oliver has experienced a great deal of redevelopment and densification: the continued presence of the Dame Eliza Chenier Residences represents a type of early residential development in Oliver that is important to the contemporary character of the neighbourhood.
The Dame Eliza Chenier Residences is significant as an early duplex with a foursquare design. The building was constructed using elements characteristic of foursquare homes, including a low hipped roof and hipped roof dormers, clapboard siding and trim boards, and full-length open front porch with square tapered columns and solid balustrade. These elements combined with the size of the duplex created a solid looking building that embodied a sense of dignity, an effect typical of the foursquare design and one which contributed to its popularity at the time. The second-storey corner windows are an unusual, though particularly striking element. While multiple foursquare residences remain in Edmonton, this is a rare surviving example of a foursquare duplex.
Source: City of Edmonton Planning and Development Department POSSE File 36179657.
Character-Defining Elements
The heritage value of the Dame Eliza Chenier Residences is expressed in such character defining elements as:
- symmetrical proportions;
- hipped roof with bell cast flared edges;
- timber clapboard siding and timber detailing;
- flaring of clapboard siding between first and second floors;
- full length ground floor veranda and smaller raised porch above with a gable ended roof, both with simple flared columns supporting solid entablatures and boxed eaves. The lower porch is enclosed with timber clapboard and the upper porch has balustrade;
- boxed eaves with a simple frieze board;
- central roof dormer with hipped roof, clad in clapboard with boxed eaves and double windows with decorative panes;
- brick at basement level separated from the siding above by a timber belt course;
- timber paneled front doors with glazing and a smaller window (9 panes) set to the inside of the door;
- timber panelled doors on upper balcony;
- brick chimney with corbelled capping;
- openings which feature wide wooden casing with decorative crowns;
- sash windows (1 over 1) on the upper floor;
- 2 sash windows (2 over 2) and a multipaned picture window on the main floor;
- interior timber trim and moulding;
- interior staircase between the first and second floors with wooden balustrade and newel post; and
- light well above stairs.
Location
| Street Address: |
9926 and 9928 - 112 Street NW |
| Community: |
Edmonton |
| Boundaries: |
Lot 75, Block 12, Plan B |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
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Mer |
Rge |
Twp |
Sec |
LSD |
4
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24
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52
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32
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PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
NB
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12
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75
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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53.538123 |
-113.514549 |
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NAD 83 |
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: |
2007/11/26 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1910 to 1911 |
| Period of Significance: |
1910 to 1926 |
| Theme(s): |
Peopling the Land : Settlement
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| Historic Function(s): |
Residence : Multiple Dwelling
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| Current Function(s): |
Residence : Multiple Dwelling
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| Architect: |
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| Builder: |
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| Context: |
Eliza Chenier built the home in 1911 and lived in the north side (9928) from 1911-1926. She was an early female entrepreneur in Edmonton who, along with her property holdings, was co-owner of the Strathcona Hotel from 1912 until 1923. Joseph A. Beachamp occupied the south side (9926) of the duplex from 1911 until 1919, and was Chenier’s business partner in the Strathcona Hotel. He was a long-time hotelier, having built the first hotel in Fort Saskatchewan in 1901 and then later bought the Windsor Hotel, renamed the Selkirk, and was a co-owner/manger of the Cecil Hotel from 1924 until his death in 1949. |
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Additional Information
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