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Land Titles Building - Victoria Armouries
Edmonton
Other Names:
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(Old) Land Titles Office
Dominion Land Titles Building
Industrial Health Lab
Land Titles Office (Old)
Old Land Titles Building
Old Land Titles Office
Victoria Armouries
Victoria Armoury
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Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Land Titles Building - Victoria Armouries is a one and one-half storey brick building located on two city lots on 100th Avenue in downtown Edmonton. The building’s original 1893 form was extended twice by the early 1900s at the east elevation by a matching roofline projection and later flat roof addition. An extensive exterior restoration along with a new addition along the north elevation was completed in 2022.
Heritage Value
The heritage value of the Land Titles Building lies in its structural representation of the settlement in Northern Alberta, as the site where settlers would register their claims to Crown land. As the Victoria Armouries, it is significant for its association with three Edmonton regiments.
The Land Titles Building was constructed in 1893 to serve as the Crown Land, Timber and Registry Office for the District of Alberta in the North-West Territories. (The federal government tried to move the office across the North Saskatchewan River to the rival town of Strathcona, but Edmonton residents sabotaged the wagons carrying the office's records and furniture, and engaged in an armed stand off with North-West Mounted Police (N.W.M.P.) in protest). It is likely the oldest existing Land Titles Office in Alberta, one of the oldest extant buildings in the province, and certainly the first purpose-built registry office. As the administrative centre of the settlement process in northern Alberta for almost twenty years, the Land Titles Building-Victoria Armouries is strongly associated with the most important period of agricultural settlement (1890s-1910s) in Alberta’s history.
When the volume of business necessitated a new Land Titles Office in 1912, the building on 100th Avenue became the Victoria Armoury. The Armoury was home to a series of Edmonton regiments over the next half-century: the 19th Alberta Dragoons (1915-39), Edmonton Fusiliers (1940-46), and the 19th Armoured Car Regiment (1947-8).
As a federal building, the original bisymmetrical design is attributable to Thomas Fuller, Chief Architect of the Dominion, but it echoes Hudson's Bay Company (H.B.C.) warehouses in Edmonton and elsewhere. Two additions have been constructed on the east elevation. The first, built during its use as an armoury, continued the general style and roofline to the east. A box-like addition was added later.
The Land Titles Building - Victoria Armouries establishes a direct link with the pre-World War One development of Edmonton.
Source: Alberta Culture and Status of Women, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: DES 0208)
Character-Defining Elements
The heritage value of the Land Titles Building - Victoria Armories lies in such character-defining elements as its:
- form, scale and massing (original 1893 building is bisymmetrical on a central north / south axis);
- jerkinshead roof with narrow, hipped dormers;
- boxlike flat-roofed addition forward of east elevation;
- bisymmetrical fenestration pattern describing the original 1893 building, additional irregular windows in additions, two-over-two and one-over-one wood windows.
Location
| Street Address: |
10523 - 100 Avenue NW |
| Community: |
Edmonton |
| Boundaries: |
Lots 49 and 50, Block 5, 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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15 (ptn.)
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PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
NB
NB
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5
5
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50
49
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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53.538572 |
-113.502433 |
GPS |
NAD 83 |
UTM Reference:
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Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Province of Alberta |
| Designation Status: |
Provincial Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
1977/03/15 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1893 to 1893 |
| Period of Significance: |
1893 to 1948 |
| Theme(s): |
Governing Canada : Military and Defence
Peopling the Land : Settlement
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| Historic Function(s): |
Government : Courthouse and/or Registry Office
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| Current Function(s): |
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| Architect: |
Thomas Fuller
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| Builder: |
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| Context: |
HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE
Opened in 1893, this building served as the crown land, timber and registry office for several years and may be the oldest such building in the province. The style of architecture appears to have been copied from the old Hudson's Bay Company warehouses in Edmonton and elsewhere. During World War One, the 19th Alberta Dragoons occupied the building and remained there until the late 1930's when the Edmonton Fusiliers took it over and remained there for the duration of World War Two. The 19th Armoured Car Regiment occupied it for the next few years. Victoria Armouries (as it was called for more than three decades) was then used mainly for the offices and laboratories of the provincial Department of Health (1949 - ?) and then the Elizabeth Fry Society of Edmonton (1995 - 2018). |
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Additional Information
| Object Number: |
4665-0395 |
| Designation File: |
DES 0208 |
| Related Listing(s): |
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| Heritage Survey File: |
HS 14503
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| Website Link: |
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| Data Source: |
Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch, Old St. Stephen's College, 8820 - 112 Street, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P8 (File: Des. 208) |
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