Description of Historic Place

The Albert Cook Row Houses is a Municipal Heritage Property which comprises six units at 2008/2018 Athol Street in the Cathedral Area within the City of Regina. The property, which occupies Lots 9 and 10 and the eastern twenty-one feet of Lot 8 in Block 379, features a two-storey brick terrace, which was constructed in 1919.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the property resides in it being one of the last row housing, or terrace, developments to be erected in Regina prior to 1920. This type of housing was not popular in Regina with only about a dozen known examples constructed in Regina in the first two decades of the twentieth-century; of which five still exist. The exterior design of the flat-roofed main portion of the Albert Cook Row Houses displays Georgian Revival influences. The gable-roofed front entry porches may have been added in the early 1920s.

The heritage value of the property also resides in its association with an early Regina businessman, Albert George Cook. Albert and his brothers William and Norman arrived in Regina from Watford, Ontario, in 1906, with Albert opening a tinsmithing business upon arrival. In 1912, Albert partnered with his uncle, Samuel Cook, to construct the Empire Hotel at the southwest corner of South Railway Street (now Saskatchewan Drive) and McIntyre Street, with Albert acting as the general contractor for the project. In the late 1920s, Albert assumed ownership of the hotel from his uncle and owned and managed the property until 1935. In 1919, Albert commissioned the construction of the six-unit brick row houses on Athol Street. The Cook family retained ownership of the property until 1945. Albert moved to Vancouver in 1940, where he died in 1949.

Source:

City of Regina Bylaw No.9636.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Albert Cook Row Houses lies in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements which reflect its Georgian Revival-influenced row house architecture, including the central front door, the symmetrical arrangement and vertical alignment of window openings, quoins on the exterior corners, and slightly rounded-head window openings;
-those elements which speak to its association with an early Regina businessman, Albert George Cook and his family, such as the siting of the building on its original location.