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LAND TITLES BUILDING - VICTORIA ARMOURIES

10523 - 100 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T5K, Canada

Formally Recognized: 1977/03/15

Land Titles Building - Victoria Armouries Provincial Historic Resource, Edmonton (January 2006); Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch, 2006
Front facade, view looking southeast
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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

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

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