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Salvation Army Citadel

221 Rupert Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B, Canada

Formally Recognized: 1983/10/19

Primary elevations, from the southwest, of the Salvation Army Citadel, Winnipeg, 2006; Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 2006
Primary Elevations
Wall detail of the Salvation Army Citadel, Winnipeg, 2006; Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 2006
Detail
No Image

Other Name(s)

Salvation Army Citadel
Harbour Lights
Harbour Lights

Links and documents

Construction Date(s)

1900/01/01 to 1901/12/31

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2009/04/09

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

The Salvation Army Citadel, built in 1900-01, is a three-storey brick meeting hall, residence and office building situated on a corner site one block west of Main Street on the edge of Winnipeg's historic warehouse district. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint.

Heritage Value

The Salvation Army Citadel is an impressive Romanesque Revival-style multi-purpose building that for some eight decades provided an important Winnipeg base from which Salvationists pursued their mandate to preach the gospel and deliver social services. The sturdy, richly detailed masonry structure, designed by J. Wilson Gray of Toronto, reflects the army's flamboyance while avoiding overt symbols of religious or military architecture. The landmark, which served as the army's provincial headquarters until 1960, then as its Harbour Light Centre for Alcoholics, retains much of its exterior integrity. It is one of the few remaining structures in central Winnipeg that recall the pioneering efforts made by private agencies to aid the needy - work in which Salvationists were first engaged in the mid-1880s.

Source: City of Winnipeg Council Meeting Minutes, October 19, 1983

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Salvation Army Citadel site include:
- the building's location on the northeast corner of Rupert Avenue and King Street, with facades set flush to the sidewalks and rear lane

Key elements that define the citadel's richly detailed, Romanesque Revival-style exterior include:
- the box-like mass, three storeys high on a limestone foundation, with walls of buff-coloured brick
- the flat roof with an irregular undulating parapet featuring raised stone-capped corners and arches along the front (south) and west facades and part of the east side
- the asymmetrical ordering of each facade with many different architectural features unified through the use of arches and rhythmical arcading
- the number and variety of windows, all with rusticated stone sills and lintels and, on the first and second floors, with segmental-arched or blind round-arched heads of brick and cut stone
- the projecting tower-like treatment of the southwest corner emphasized by the increased height of the parapet and use of rusticated stone to the top of the main-floor windows
- the front facing with its rusticated stone base, corbelled and arcaded brick cornice and large central entrance marked by twin engaged columns, a bold arch of brick and white cut-stone voussoirs and double doors with sidelights and a large fanlight
- the variety of details on the other elevations, including the west facade's rusticated stone base, interrupted cornice and side entrance beneath a corbelled brick pediment; the east elevation's mostly plain finish and large painted advertisement for the Harbour Light Centre; the north side's narrow pilaster strips and mix of openings; the high chimneys on the west, south and east facades, clad above the roofline by either rusticated stone or brick with stone capping; etc.

Key internal elements that define the building's heritage character include:
- the large second-floor auditorium with an ornate tin ceiling supported by unadorned cast-iron columns

Recognition

Jurisdiction

Manitoba

Recognition Authority

City of Winnipeg

Recognition Statute

City of Winnipeg Act

Recognition Type

Winnipeg Landmark Heritage Structure

Recognition Date

1983/10/19

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)

n/a

Theme - Category and Type

Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life
Architecture and Design

Function - Category and Type

Current

Commerce / Commercial Services
Office or Office Building

Historic

Religion, Ritual and Funeral
Religious Facility or Place of Worship

Architect / Designer

J. Wilson Gray

Builder

n/a

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation

15-30 Fort Street Winnipeg MB

Cross-Reference to Collection

Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier

W0052

Status

Published

Related Places

n/a

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