|
Coates Residence
Edmonton
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Coates Residence, a one-storey Arts and Crafts Revival style home, is located on a corner lot on the west side of 115 Street NW at 132 Avenue NW in the Calder neighbourhood. The house is distinguishable by its front-gabled, L-shaped massing with pebble, glass and shell-dash stucco cladding, and double and triple assembly windows flanking an off-centre front entryway with a wooden canopy. The house features a unique external clinker brick chimney on the south elevation and clinker brick stairs at the front entryway. The house is set back from the property lines and situated on the north end of a well-landscaped property.
Heritage Value
Built in 1931, the Coates Residence is significant as representative of the diversity of residential development in Elm Park, a subdivision now part of Calder, and as an important indicator of the neighbourhood’s stability during the 1930s Depression era. Elm Park and the adjacent Village of West Edmonton neighbourhoods were established and developed in response to their proximity to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway rail yard, the first divisional point west of Winnipeg, operational by 1910. Railway workers and their families settled in Elm Park, which was subdivided by James Wright in 1903 into large lots. Elm Park, annexed by the City of Edmonton in 1913, and the adjacent Village of West Edmonton, annexed in 1917, grew steadily through the 1910s and 1920s, represented by a varied collection of modest houses and commercial buildings. During the Depression, several high quality residences were built, including the Coates Residence, indicative of the relative stability and growth of the railway community during this period of economic hardship. The property was first owned by one of the area’s early pioneer Elm Park families, the Coates, who had owned property on 115 Street NW since the 1910s. David C. Coates purchased Lots 5 and 6 in Block 4 in Elm Park from local stonemason, Frederick Stanley Jones in 1920. Coates and Jones were friends and neighbours; both worked for the railway, and both had emigrated from Great Britain to Canada in the early 1900s. In 1921, a residence was constructed for the Coates family beside the property at 13058 115 Street NW. When his daughter Blanche Kathleen Coates (a stenographer) married, David then constructed this residence for her and her new husband, Cecil “Jack” Rhodes Young in 1931. Blanche and Jack, a railway worker, remained at the house until 1940, when Jack was transferred to the CNR rail yard in Hudson Bay Junction, Saskatchewan. The Youngs then leased the property until it was sold to Colin and Margaret Marson in 1957.
The Coates Residence is also significant for its fine craftsmanship and construction using locally-sourced materials from Edmonton and labour from the Calder neighbourhood. It showcases a rare and early example of a pebble, glass and shell-dash stucco cladding. David Coates constructed the house using recycled lumber from the rail yard with hand-thrown pebble, glass and shell-dash stucco cladding on all facades of the house. Jones, a talented stonemason and bricklayer, who lived across the street at 13067 115 Street NW, built the masonry chimneys and the front entry steps using locally-manufactured clinker brick. The use of stucco cladding on all facades of the house is a rare and early material selection for the cladding in the city and represents a tie to the owner’s British roots.
The Coates Residence is further valued as an excellent example of British Arts and Crafts Revival architecture in the Calder neighbourhood, representative of the Coates and Young families’ British heritage. The persistence of traditional period revival styles during the inter-war years illustrates the profound popularity of historical references in domestic architecture. Homeowners of the period understood and found comfort in traditional, historically-referenced British architecture, yet appreciated the domestic comforts of the modern home. Typical of houses built in the 1920s-1930s in Edmonton, the Coates Residence reflects the modern ideals of economy and good design as well as an ongoing pride in past traditions. At the time, it was presumed that a well-built house would display a traditional and readily identifiable style as a hallmark of good taste. Coates designed and built the house inspired by the Aladdin Company’s ‘Lorraine’ house plan, which was available in the 1930s. Although modest in stature and detailing, notable stylistic features of the Coates Residence include its asymmetrical massing, stucco cladding, double and triple assembly window openings detailed with stucco-clad window boxes supported by false projecting beams, and a gabled canopy over the front entryway with delicate wooden gable screen and curved brackets.
Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of the Coates Residence include such features as:
• form, scale and massing as expressed by its: one-storey height; L-shaped plan; medium-pitched roof with narrow overhangs; full-height basement; and side-gabled roof on wing;
• unique construction techniques and materials including: wooden-frame construction with decorative parged concrete foundation; pebble, glass and shell-dash stucco cladding; clinker brick masonry of internal and external chimneys and front entry stairs;
• British Arts and Crafts Revival-style details such as: asymmetrical plan; open soffits with exposed rafter tails; bargeboards; fascia board; front-gabled canopy with decorative gable screen supported by curved brackets flanking the main entry; stucco-clad window boxes with central wooden shield applique under front window assemblies supported by false beams; square bay window with shed roof with decorative wooden modillions flanking base of bay at front façade; and front stairs with two sets of capped piers at either side of steps;
• original window fenestration such as: single, double and triple assembly window openings; single assembly square piano window openings on either side of external chimney; single assembly multi-light wooden-sash fixed window at gable peak on front façade with wide wooden sill; leaded glass window on north façade of house; and three-panel wooden front door with multi-light upper panel and original hardware; and
• interior elements such as recycled beams and joists exposed in basement; oak floors; wooden trim; wood burning fireplace; built-in bookshelves; curved archways; pocket doors; and light fixtures.
Location
| Street Address: |
13068 – 115 Street NW |
| Community: |
Edmonton |
| Boundaries: |
Lot 29, Block 4A, Plan 3322KS |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building: 1
|
ATS Legal Description:
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
|
Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
3322KS
|
4A
|
29
|
|
Latitude/Longitude:
|
Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
|
53.592 |
-113.5204 |
Secondary Source |
NAD83 |
UTM Reference:
|
Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
Datum Type |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Local Governments (AB) |
| Designation Status: |
Municipal Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
2015/11/17 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1931/01/01 |
| Period of Significance: |
1931 - Present |
| Theme(s): |
Peopling the Land : Settlement
|
| Historic Function(s): |
Residence : Single Dwelling
|
| Current Function(s): |
Residence : Single Dwelling
|
| Architect: |
|
| Builder: |
David C. Coates
|
| Context: |
|
|
|
Additional Information
| Object Number: |
4664-0385 |
| Designation File: |
|
| Related Listing(s): |
|
| Heritage Survey File: |
|
| Website Link: |
|
| Data Source: |
City of Edmonton, Sustainable Development Department, 10250 - 101 Street NW, Edmonton, AB T5J 3P4 (POSSE FIle: 172271402-004) |
|