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Urquhart Block

Lacombe

Other Names:
Urquhart Block
Jack Kanngiesser Ltd.
Kanngiesser Building
Kanngiesser Store, The

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place
The Urquhart Block is a two-storey brick building situated on three lots in the central business district of the Town of Lacombe. Built in 1907, the structure features a rare polygonal footprint within a triangular block that provides it with two virtually identical street frontages. The Urquhart Block is otherwise typical of early commercial buildings constructed in the province and its two street frontages include yellow cement brick facades, recessed entrances, arched lintels with keystones over the second storey windows, and parapets with central pediments.

Heritage Value
The heritage value of the Urquhart Block lies in its fine representation of early commercial architecture in Alberta.

Built in 1907, the Urquhart Block is situated in a historic Lacombe neighbourhood distinguished by an uncommon triangular footprint created by the intersection of the original land survey with the oblique alignment of the Calgary and Edmonton Railway line. The block's triangular plotting and grouping of heritage buildings makes it one of Alberta's premier collections of early twentieth century commercial buildings. The peculiar shape of the block's footprint imparts to the Urquhart Block building a unique feature: dual storefronts. Though the presence of two storefronts on the building is unusual, the design of the storefronts is typical of Alberta's early commercial buildings, featuring the division of their surfaces into three sections: the main floors with recessed entrances, large display windows surmounted by transoms, and bulkheads; second storeys separated from the first by sign bands and featuring the symmetrical arrangement of multi-paned windows; and crowning cornices surmounted by parapets and a central pediment. The yellow cement brick joined by red mortar on each of the storefronts imparts a distinctive character to the building. It is a vital contributor to the lively historic ambience of Lacombe's central business district.

Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. 1683)


Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of the Urquhart Block include such features as:
- location in Lacombe's historic downtown;
- yellow cement brick joined by red mortar on main facades;
- original chimney;
- dual street frontages, including recessed entryways, pediments, large display windows surmounted by transoms, bulkheads, typical sign bands framed on the top and bottom by projecting brick stringcourses, second storey arched lintels with keystones and windows, projecting brick stringcourses below and on top of crowning cornices and parapets, upper cornices with decorative conclave brackets, and parapets with central pediments;
- fenestration pattern and style, including original three paneled windows on the second storey.


Location



Street Address: 4923 - 50 Avenue
Community: Lacombe
Boundaries: Portions of Lots 3 to 5, Block 5, Plan RN1
Contributing Resources: Buildings: 1

ATS Legal Description:
Mer Rge Twp Sec LSD
4
26
40
19
15 (ptn.)

PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
Plan Block Lot Parcel
RN1 (I)
RN1 (I)
RN1 (I)
5
5
5
5 (ptn.)
4
3 (ptn.)




Latitude/Longitude:
Latitude Longitude CDT Datum Type
52.462910 -113.730306 GPS NAD 83

UTM Reference:
Northing Easting Zone CDT Datum Type

Recognition

Recognition Authority: Province of Alberta
Designation Status: Provincial Historic Resource
Date of Designation: 2007/10/15

Historical Information

Built: 1907 to 1907
Period of Significance:
Theme(s): Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life : Architecture and Design
Historic Function(s): Commerce / Commercial Services : Shop or Wholesale Establishment
Current Function(s): Commerce / Commercial Services : Shop or Wholesale Establishment
Architect:
Builder:
Context: HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

The Lacombe area dates back to the early days of the settlement period in the part of western Canada which became the province of Alberta in 1905. The first white inhabitants in the area were settlers and their arrival in the 1880s marked the informal beginnings of the community. Surveyors for the Calgary and Edmonton (C & E) Railway listed the site of the present town as Siding No. 12 in 1891, but locals commonly referred to it as Barnett Siding until officials named the community after Father Lacombe. Granted status of village in 1896, it was one of only a handful of incorporated communities in the western prairies before the turn of the century. The others were Calgary, Lethbridge, Edmonton, Macleod, Strathcona, Red Deer and Medicine Hat.

Lacombe's existence owes much to its location on major transportation corridors. The passage of the railway through the town not only created the triangular shaped block in which the Urquhart Block is an integral feature, it also gave vitality to its business sector. In addition to being on the main north-south transportation corridor the Calgary-Edmonton trail through the province, Lacombe also was the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) line running east from Central Alberta to Winnipeg. Therefore, Lacombe's central location provided convenient passenger and freight connections to the major centres in the province and to central Canada.

Given its relative prominence in the central Alberta economy at the turn of the century, Lacombe attracted many early businesses. Various retail outlets, housed in wood structures, inhabited the unique triangle-shaped block as early as 1895. A dry goods store, operated by D.G. Stewart, first sat on the site of the Urquhart Block. Workers demolished a harness shop in 1903 to make way for the new Merchants Bank building which opened in 1904 and served as the only financial institution in the area until the construction of the adjacent Union Bank in 1907. The bank's decision to build with fire-resistant materials proved wise as a fire in 1906 razed the remainder of the triangular business block. As a result, all new construction in the block followed the bank's example.

A title search of the land currently occupied by the Urquhart Block reveals a complicated mix of owners prior to 1907 since the building sits on parts of blocks three, four and five on block number five in Lacombe. However, on June 8, 1907, Andrew Urquhart, a merchant, took ownership of a complicated mix of property and built his store that same year. He sold the property in 1944. Historically, this building most closely typifies the settlement period and the growth of urban centers in the period between the arrival of the rail in the west in the 1880s to the First World War.


ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

The Urquhart Block is a good example of the commercial style, which was the dominant architectural style of Alberta commercial structures prior to World War One. This style which was strongly influenced by the classical tradition in western architecture consisted of three parts that correspond with the base, shaft and capital of classically styled columns. The equivalent of the base is the ground or lower floors, which are emphasized by large windows, fancy brick or stonework and a generally horizontal composition. The central section, corresponding to the shaft of the column, is much plainer, and accentuates vertical lines. Capping the building, a cornice - often quite large and heavy-looking - reasserts the horizontal and brings the eye to a halt in the same way as the capital of a column. The Urquhart Block represents a less elaborate version of this style than other buildings of Lacombe.

(AHRF, 1988)

Additional Information

Object Number: 4665-0637
Designation File: DES 1683
Related Listing(s): 4664-0419
Heritage Survey File: HS 49656
Website Link:
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. 1683)
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