Key Number:	HS 49656
Site Name:	Jack Kanngiesser Ltd.
Other Names:	Urquhart Block
Site Type:	0412 - Mercantile/Commercial: General Retail Store

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			40	26	4

Address:	4923 - 50 Avenue
Number:	23
Street:	49
Avenue:	50
Other:
Town:	Lacombe
Near Town:

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

Style:
Plan Shape:	Irregular
Storeys:	Storeys: 2
Foundation:	Basement/Foundation Wall Material: Concrete
Superstructure:	Brick
Superstructure Cover:
Roof Structure:	Flat
Roof Cover:
Exterior Codes:	Massing of Units: Single Detached Wings: Unknown Number of Bays - Facade: First or Ground Floor, 3 Bays Number of Bays - Facade: Second Floor, 5 Bays Wall Design and Detail: Column or Engaged Column Wall Design and Detail: Buttress Wall Design and Detail: Corbelling Wall Design and Detail: String or Belt Course Wall Design and Detail: Entablature Wall Design and Detail: Plain Parapet Plain Eaves Roof Trim - Verges: Not Applicable Towers, Steeples and Domes: None Dormer Type: None Chimney Location - Side to Side: Unknown Chimney Location - Front to Rear: Unknown Roof Trim - Special Features: Monumental Pediment Window - Structural Opening Shape: Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Plain Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Material: Wood Window - Sill Type: None Window - Sill Material: None Window - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Plain Window - Trim Within Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Window - Number of Sashes: None Window - Opening Mechanism: Other Window - Special Types: None Window - Pane Arrangements: None Main Entrance - Location: Centre (Facade) Main Entrance - Structural Opening Shape: Flat Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Plain Flat Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening Material: Unknown Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Plain Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Main Entrance - Number of Leaves: 1 Main Entrance - Number of Panels Per Leaf: 2 Main Entrance - Leaves - Special Feature: Glass Main Stairs - Location and Design: None Main Porch - Type: Recess Main Porch - Special Features: None Main Porch - Material: Wood Main Porch - Height: First Storey
Exterior:	Pediments with piers on both faces, entablatures with decorative concave brackets, voussoirs with keystones, multilight windows in moulded (segmental arch) frames, brick string course, tin name bands, two lower front bay windows on either face
Interior:	N/A
Environment:	Lot Sizes: Irregular. Part of the old downtown commercial. Forms an integral part of a triangular-shaped block forming the centre of downtown Lacombe.
Condition:	Structure - Fair Repair - Good
Alterations:	N/A

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Construction Started	1908/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
Commercial Commercial	1908/01/01 1980/02/04
Owner:	Owner Date:
Andrew Urquhart David Calder & Alfred Lundie Jack Lawrence Jack Kanngiesser	1908/01/01 1914/01/01 1945/01/01 1980/04/30

Architect:	N/A
Builder:	N/A
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	Original owner/tenant was Andrew Urquhart. D.G. Stewart was one of the first to establish business in Lacombe as a general merchant in a frame building on this site prior to 1895. He sold out to C.T. Daykin in 1897 who operated it for a few years before selling out to Andrew Urquhart. A fire in 1906 destroyed the frame building and Urquhart built the present brick structure in 1908. In 1914 A. Urquhart sold his business to David Calder and Alfred Lundie. These two men sold out by 1945 to Jack Lawrence who ran it as Lawrence's Department Store. He sold to Jack Kanngiesser Ltd. who owns it at present. RESOURCE Kanngiesser Store ADDRESS Lacombe, Alberta BUILT 1907 to 1908 DESIGNATION STATUS Local Historic Resource HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE Within a decade of the Lacombe district’s first settlement in 1883, the hamlet of Lacombe was established on the Calgary-Edmonton railway line. The parkland of the region supported mixed farming, with much of the produce being bartered in exchange for groceries and other necessities at local stores like the one owned by local merchant Andrew Urquhart. In 1906, fire destroyed the building and Urquhart subsequently (1907-08) built what became known as the Kanngiesser Building of brick in its place. The building went through several ownership changes from Jack Kanngiesser eventually bought it but it was always operated as a general or department store, one of several active retail outlets making Lacombe an important regional center. The building is recognized for its distinctive and well-preserved original architectural features and is therefore included in Alberta Culture and Multiculturalism’s Historical Walking and Driving Tour of Lacombe. * * * RESOURCE Kanngiesser Store ADDRESS 4923 - 50 Avenue, Lacombe BUILT 1908 DESIGNATION STATUS Registered Historic Resource 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 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 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. On July 19, 1944, Jacob Lawrence, also a merchant, purchased the property from Urquhart. Lawrence subsequently sold the store to businessman John R. Kanngiesser Sr., also called Jack Kanngiesser, on May 9, 1963. 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 - Kanngiesser Store 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 - Kanngiesser Store represents a less elaborate version of this style than other buildings of Lacombe. * * * Urquhart Block Description of Historic Place 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 triangular footprint that provides it with two virtually identical street frontages. The Urquhart Block is otherwise typical of early commercial buildings constructed in the province and includes 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 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 Community Development, Heritage Resource Management Branch (File: Des. 1683) Character-Defining Elements The character-defining elements of Urquhart Block include such features as: - mass, form, scale, and style; - yellow cement brick joined by red mortar on main facades; - original chimney; - 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 panelled windows on the second storey; - style, scale and placement of signage within designated upper and lower sign band areas; - original interior features such as baseboard and window mouldings, pressed tin ceiling, the panel door to the second floor office, the staircase to the second floor, and the freight elevator and related equipment along the southwest wall.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Provincial Historic Resource	2007/10/15

Register:	N/A

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places:	4665-0637