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George C. Cushing Residence
Calgary
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The George C. Cushing Residence, built in 1906, is a two-storey, wood-frame, Queen Anne Revival-style house and property. The modest house features a wraparound veranda, turreted corner and patterned shingle cladding. The house is a rare surviving example of an early twentieth-century residential structure in a context of mixed commercial and multi-unit residential structures immediately south of Calgary’s downtown district.
Heritage Value
This Queen Anne Revival-style house was built in 1906 for George C. Cushing (1881-1930), and his wife Sarah (McKernan), who were married that year. George was a member of the well-known Calgary family that dominated the milling and lumber business in the city in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It survives with the A.B. Cushing Lumber company office at 1301 10 Av. SW as one of just two buildings, and the only residence, associated with the Cushing family and their important Calgary businesses and presence. Undoubtedly the building materials of the house would have been sourced from the Cushing Bros. Company, thereby serving as an extant example of the company’s choicest offerings at the time and a direct tie to that firm.
George C. Cushing was the nephew of both William H. Cushing who controlled Cushing Bros. Ltd, a large planing and milling company, and Alfred B. Cushing, who was in charge of A.B. Cushing Mills, a hardware and lumber company. From 1906-16 George was employed for Cushing Bros Ltd, first as a yard foreman, then as a chief salesman; by 1911 as an assistant and local manager; and from 1912-16 as treasurer before being transferred to the company’s Regina office to serve as the local manager. Cushing Bros Ltd was started in 1885 as a sash, door, and planing mill and became a major presence in Calgary and the prairie region. By 1914 the Calgary-based firm had become one of the largest of its kind in Canada with factories in Edmonton, Regina, and Saskatoon, and retail locations elsewhere in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In the years preceding the First World War the large Calgary factory alone employed 200 workers and turned out an array of goods that included doors, windows, ornamental glass, mouldings, all kinds of millwork and office, bank, and church fixtures.
In the late nineteenth and early twenthieth centuries the Cushing name was prominent in the region with W.H. Cushing being well-known in Alberta for serving as a Calgary alderman (1890-1905), mayor (1900) and then the Alberta Minister of Public Works (1905-10). Meanwhile his brother Alfred went on to establish his own separate company in 1911, A.B. Cushing Lumber, which claimed to be the ‘Largest Hardware Depot West of Winnipeg’.
The George C. Cushing Residence survives as a rare example of Queen Anne Revival-style architecture in the Beltline community, and one of a small number of such houses in Calgary. Modest in scale and design the house would have been similar to a number of others constructed in Calgary at the time, but now is one of the last of its type, as well as being one the earliest known houses in the Beltline community.
The house is an exemplary execution of a Queen Anne Revival-style residence from the early twentieth century with its fine proportions, detailing and execution. Distinguishing features of the house include a wraparound veranda, turreted corner, and patterned shingle work in the gables and frieze. With its high degree of integrity the house also retains its original windows, siding and finishes, which includes nicely panelled fascia boards and uniquely textured soffits. The interior of the house displays most of its original fir mouldings, casings, doors, flooring and staircase finishes.
Character-Defining Elements
The exterior character-defining elements of the George C. Cushing Residence include, but are not limited to, its:
- Wood-frame construction with wooden drop siding, corner boards, frieze band and courses of patterned wood shingle cladding;
- two–storey form;
- cross gable roof;
- hipped verandah and rear extension roof;
- polygonal corner turret with metal finial;
- roof-wall junctions comprising closed eaves with distinctively tooled and textured wooden soffits, framed cornice boards, and panelled wooden fascia boards;
- buff-coloured brick chimney with corbelled cap;
- open, wraparound veranda with classical Tuscan-style columns on panelled bases, turned balusters and wooden tongue-and-groove ceiling;
- single-door, main-entrance assembly with transom light; and
- fenestration, with wooden, fixed and hung-sash windows and corniced casings comprising one-over-one and two-over two windows, patterned, textured, jewelled and/or stained glass upper sashes or fixed sashes.
The interior character-defining elements of the George C. Cushing Residence include, but are not limited to, its:
- Extant portions of the original floor-plan / configuration which includes all interior demising walls of the ground floor and second floor (not basement) and which on the ground floor comprise a stair hall, large southeast room, large southwest room and small northwest room; and which on the second-floor comprise a stair hall and corridor, and a small northwest room (bathroom);
- staircase, comprising balustrades of turned balusters, squared newel posts, and wooden, tongue-and-groove paneling ;
- all historic window and door casings and baseboards;
- wooden, seven-panel door and a set of wooden seven-panel, double pocket doors (first floor) and associated door hardware (knobs/plates) ;
- leaded and ‘jewelled’ glass first-floor foyer window; and the leaded and ‘jewelled’ glass transom light above main entrance door;
- built-in china cabinet (southwest room);
- three iron heating grates ; and
- some extant fir floors throughout.
Location
| Street Address: |
1313 Centre Street SW |
| Community: |
Calgary |
| Boundaries: |
Lots 19 and 20, Block 100, Plan SC |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
SC
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100
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19 and 20
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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51.041 |
-114.064 |
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: |
2014/07/28 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
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| Period of Significance: |
N/A |
| Theme(s): |
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| Historic Function(s): |
Residence : Single Dwelling
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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: |
4664-0350 |
| Designation File: |
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| Related Listing(s): |
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| Heritage Survey File: |
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| Website Link: |
www.calgary.ca/heritageinventory |
| Data Source: |
City of Calgary |
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