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Stockton Block
Okotoks
Other Names:
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Okotoks Town Office Building
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Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The 1903 Stockton Block is a two-storey, brick clad Romanesque Revival Style commercial building with a decorative dog-tooth brick course and segmental-arched window pattern. A flat roof is accented with a wide projecting elaborately decorated dentillated cornice and side-stepped brick parapets. Stockton Block is prominently set on a square site in the middle of the block with one-storey commercial buildings surrounding it. The building fronts along McRae Street East with a parking area to the west and a landscaped urban park area adjacent to the east of the building. The commercial building is situated on the north side of the town’s main street in the Okotoks community of Heritage Okotoks, west of the Old Towne Centre, CPR Station, and north of the Sheep River.
Heritage Value
Constructed in 1903, Stockton Block significantly contributed to the commerce, business, and town hall development within Okotoks. It was the first prominent commercial building constructed along the west part of McRae Street, a predominant institutional and commercial street. The building was initially constructed for a medical office with residential above, and quickly provided for the local branch of the Union Bank of Canada on the west bay of the building. The Union Bank was Okotoks’ first bank providing financial services for the growing farming and ranching businesses in the area. In 1925, the Union Bank amalgamated with the Royal Bank of Canada where it continued to operate until 1974. The Stockton Block is valued for its continued banking use, the numerous bank managers and their contributions to the community, and the many bank positions that were filled by young ladies who got their start in business in the 1950-60s. The Stockton Block provided several uses on the west bay such as a drugstore, hardware store, general store, dentist office, and as the town hall. From 1946 the east part of the west bay of the Stockton Block was used for town offices until 1955 when council acquired the streamlined Moderne-style Co-op Store and the west bay of the Stockton Block became a court house. In 1974, the Town purchased the Stockton Block and relocated the Town Offices, Court Room and Okotoks and District Recreation Board to the building. The block was used until the Okotoks Municipal Centre was erected in 2008. Fittingly, its builder, Dr Frederick Stockton, served as the Town’s first mayor from 1904-05.
The Stockton Block is significant for its association with Charles Minue (1866-1957) and for Dr. Frederick Stockton (1867-1927). Charles Minue, an early pioneer to the Okotoks area constructed the building for Dr. Stockton who served as one of the town’s first physicians. Dr. Stockton ran his practice between 1902-14, first from his house at 9 Elma Street East and later from the Stockton Block. Packing up his carpenter’s tools, which he called “settlers’ effects”, Minue accompanied his aunt from New Brunswick to the Okotoks area to settle an estate. He went on to build, and help build, many buildings in the Calgary, Okotoks, High River and Turner Valley areas. As one of the few carpenters who settled near Okotoks, he was instrumental in the construction of the Big Rock School west of Okotoks and the Stanley house in North Turner Valley. He later put away his tools and built a prosperous farming business for his family.
The Stockton Block is an excellent and early example of the Romanesque Revival Style in Okotoks. The building employs the style characteristics in the elaborately decorated cornice, the repetitive pattern of the segmental-arched windows, and the rough-cut sandstone parging. The style is accentuated through the brick cladding, further used to tie together the window pattern and highlighted with eight repetitive windows on the upper floor of the front facade. The rehabilitation of the buildings front facade back to a storefront in 1993 continues the historic character, prominence, and characteristics of its original style features that contribute to its value along McRae Street.
Constructed during the time of Okotoks early settlement, Stockton Block is valued as a local landmark for its two-storey prominence amongst surrounding one-storey commercial buildings, detailed brick facades, window patterns, and continued commerce presence and familiarity along the street. The landmark status of the building is further emphasized with the park space on the adjacent east parcel and the open parking area on the west parcel accentuating the repetitive five window pattern one each of these side facades. Its landmark value was reinforced in 1937 when a well-known shop owner in the building was charged with arson for starting a fire in the hallway which risked the loss of the Stockton Block. At the time, the community deemed it “one of the saddest incidents in the life of the town”.
Character-Defining Elements
Character-defining elements of the Stockton Block include, but are not limited to:
- Form, scale and massing as expressed by its two-storey square plan;
- flat roofline; wide projecting elaborately decorated dentillated wooden moulded cornice on the south façade wrapping around the corners; stepped metal capped brick parapet roofline in thirds on the east and west facades; narrow wood eave on the north façade;
- wood-frame construction with red brick cladding laid in a running bond pattern; dog-tooth brick course at the top of the upper floor façade and below the dentillated wooden moulded cornice; wood trim; concrete block foundation with sandstone parging;
- original fenestration pattern on all facades: eight brick segmental-arched connected Romanesque Revival style window pattern on the south façade, five brick segmental-arched connected window pattern on each of the east and west façade upper floor; five brick segmental-arched connected window pattern on the east and two on the west main floor facades; four segmental-arched window pattern on the north façade upper floor; wood window sills; full-height glazed storefront windows on south facade, including a lower separated horizontal glazed and wood panes; flat brick decorative arch on the west door lintel; one rear at-grade single metal door;
- exterior elements including: horizontal wooden moulded band on the top of the main floor south façade; the1903 inscribed concrete date framed with vertical header bricks on the south façade upper floor;
- original placement and orientation in the middle of the block fronting McRae Street; main entrance from the south with an interfacing brick planter box along the west side of the façade stairway and access ramp; and
- relation to other historic buildings within the vicinity like the Mahon House (4 Elma Street East), the Okotoks United Church (3 Elma Street East), Masonic Hall (13 Elma Street East), St. Peter’s Anglican Church (2 Clark Avenue), and the Old Post Office (52 North Railway Street) and CPR Station (53 North Railway Street) to the east along a further portion of the historic main street (North Railway Street).
Location
| Street Address: |
14 McRae Street |
| Community: |
Okotoks |
| Boundaries: |
Pt. Lots 6 to 9, Block B, Plan 165S |
| Contributing Resources: |
Buildings: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
165S
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B
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6-8 and portion of 9
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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50.725655 |
-113.973850 |
Digital Maps |
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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: |
2022/02/14 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1903 to 1904 |
| Period of Significance: |
1903 to 1979 |
| Theme(s): |
Developing Economies : Trade and Commerce
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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: |
Charles Minue
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| Context: |
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Additional Information
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