LAND TITLES BUILDING - VICTORIA ARMOURIES
10523 - 100 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T5K, Canada
Formally Recognized:
1977/03/15
Other Name(s)
LAND TITLES BUILDING - VICTORIA ARMOURIES
Industrial Health Lab
Dominion Land Titles Building
(Old) Land Titles Office
Old Land Titles Office
Old Land Titles Building
Land Titles Office (Old)
Victoria Armoury
Victoria Armouries
Links and documents
n/a
Construction Date(s)
1893/01/01
Listed on the Canadian Register:
2006/03/27
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Land Titles Building - Victoria Armouries is a one and one-half storey building of brick covered in stucco located on two city lots on 100th Avenue in downtown Edmonton.
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 immigrants 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.
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.
Together with the Arlington Apartments across the street, the Land Titles Building - Victoria Armouries establishes a direct link with the pre-World War One development of Edmonton.
Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. 208)
Character-Defining Elements
The heritage value of the Land Titles Building - Victoria Armories lies in such character-defining elements as:
- 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.
Recognition
Jurisdiction
Alberta
Recognition Authority
Province of Alberta
Recognition Statute
Historical Resources Act
Recognition Type
Provincial Historic Resource
Recognition Date
1977/03/15
Historical Information
Significant Date(s)
1893/01/01 to 1940/01/01
Theme - Category and Type
- Peopling the Land
- Settlement
- Governing Canada
- Military and Defence
Function - Category and Type
Current
Historic
- Government
- Courthouse and/or Registry Office
Architect / Designer
Thomas Fuller
Builder
n/a
Additional Information
Location of Supporting Documentation
Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch, Old St. Stephen's College, 8820 - 112 Street, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P8 (File: Des. 208)
Cross-Reference to Collection
Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier
4665-0395
Status
Published
Related Places
n/a