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Findlay Apartments
Calgary
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Findlay Apartments, built 1909-10, is a Georgian Revival-style apartment house located in the centre city Beltline community, immediately south of downtown. The three-storey, red-brick building is trimmed with sandstone finishes and features front balconies, now enclosed. The 488 square-meter (0.12-acre) parcel occupies a mixed residential and commercial context.
Heritage Value
The Findlay Apartments, built 1909-10, is among the oldest apartment buildings in the city and represents the earliest era of purpose-built, apartment-house development Calgary. This distinction combined with its high-quality materials and Georgian Revival-style designs contribute to its architectural value.
The dignified, but understated, apartment house was constructed by James Findlay (1859-1918), a prominent Calgary druggist, and a leading businessmen and civic member. Findlay commissioned the Calgary-architectural firm of Lawson and Fordyce to design an apartment residence with the result being the 17-suite Findlay Apartments - among the best of its type to be constructed in the city. The building features high-quality finishes, including pressed red brick and sandstone, and is distinguished stylistically, by its formal, Neoclassical appearance. Elements characteristic of the Georgian Revival style include its symmetrical design, cut-sandstone frontispiece (main bay) and foundation, sunken brickwork channels, brick pilasters, rounded window and hipped roof. Open, front balconies on each floor contributed to the building’s original amenities. The interior originally contained eleven studio apartments and six spacious two-bedroom suites complete with fireplaces; a communal smoking room on the top floor was another amenity, and meant to facilitate a fraternal atmosphere among residents.
Upon completion, the elegant building attracted a professional and managerial-class of exclusively male occupants who would have found the location very convenient to both the downtown and wholesale districts where they worked. The building thereby serves to recall the attractive and historic character of the area, then known as Victoria Park, which developed as one of the most desirable residential zones in the city when the Findlay opened.
In a more specific way, the building also recalls the original mixed-use character of First Street SW -historically one of the city’s principle streets. After 1905 when the Underwood (Western) Block was built at Tenth Avenue, the thoroughfare competed with Eighth (Stephen) Avenue for commercial and retail business. First Street’s commercial status was further entrenched when it was made a streetcar route in 1909. Despite these developments, First Street also retained a residential character with the development of the Findlay Apartments, in addition to the pre-existing and subsequent residential terraces, cottages and houses that lined the street. Today the Findlay is the only historic residence between downtown and 17 Avenue SW to recall this historical mixed-use character. Despite the street’s loss of other historic residential buildings, the streetscape retains many commercial heritage buildings, and the Findlay is an integral contribution to this streetscape.
By the mid-1940s the Findlay Apartments were becoming a popular residence for single, women tenants. Between 1948 and 1953, as male renters left the building, each of the large suites were divided into three studio apartments for the exclusive occupancy of women residents. By about 1953 the building had become an exclusively female residence above the basement level. Such women-only residences had become a common feature in large North America cities immediately after the Second World War as women became more independent, choosing to live alone, yet looking for the security and company such women-only residences could offer. The Findlay remained a women-only apartment building into the early 1970s and represents a rare example in Calgary of the post-war trend of women-only apartment housing.
Character-Defining Elements
The exterior character-defining elements of the Findlay Apartments include, but are not limited to its:
- Pressed, red-brick facades; brickwork that comprises pilasters, sunk channels, and arched (flat) window heads; coursed, rough-faced sandstone foundation, frontispiece (slightly protruded) and stringcourse detailing;
- Three-storey, rectangular, ‘H-shaped’ building;
- Hipped roof; standing-seam metal roof cladding; overhanging eaves with wooden tongue-and-groove soffits, cornice and frieze; shed-roof dormer windows; five red-brick chimneys;
- Recessed, front-facade balconies (subsequently enclosed) retaining their wooden balustrades (first and third storeys) and brick balustrades (second storey); open, wooden, rear-facade balconies/fire escapes;
- Symmetrical fenestration with single-part windows and paired casement windows (dormers); round headed stair-hall window;
- Central front entrance of double width; large double-door and transom-light openings to all balconies;
- Inlaid, brass, sidewalk lettering at the front entrance comprising ‘FINDLAY APARTMENTS’;
The interior character-defining elements of the Findlay Apartments include, but are not limited to its:
- Staircase with wooden balustrades of plain balusters;
- Wooden door and window casings throughout (with cornice mouldings), and picture rails and baseboards; doorway assemblies with transom lights throughout corridors;
- Narrow-width, stained fir flooring;
- Six fireplaces on the first, second and third floors with brickwork chimneypieces and hearths.
Location
| Street Address: |
1324 - 1 Street SW |
| Community: |
Calgary |
| Boundaries: |
Portion of Lots 38 to 40, Block 100, Plan C |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
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Mer |
Rge |
Twp |
Sec |
LSD |
5
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1
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24
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15
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PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
C
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100
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part of 38, 39, 40
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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51.0398 |
-114.0657 |
Digital Maps |
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: |
2013/05/27 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
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| Period of Significance: |
N/A |
| 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: |
Lawson and Fordyce
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| Builder: |
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| Context: |
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Additional Information
| Object Number: |
4664-0318 |
| Designation File: |
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| Related Listing(s): |
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| Heritage Survey File: |
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| Website Link: |
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| Data Source: |
City of Calgary |
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