Description of Historic Place

Young United Church Tower is a surviving element of a large brick Methodist church built in the early 1900s in a residential area of west Winnipeg. The tower is incorporated into a multi-faith, multi-functional building, Crossways in Common. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the tower on its footprint.

Heritage Value

Young United Church Tower, at a height of over 30 metres, is a significant historic and visual landmark in Winnipeg, anchoring the west end of Broadway, an important city thoroughfare. Designed by James Chisholm and Son in the Romanesque Revival style, the tower was an integral component of a 1910 addition to the 1906 Young Methodist Church, a handsome well-crafted early example of progressive Methodist Church architecture in Western Canada. The tower was the only part that remained when the church burned in 1987, and when the community recreated its vibrant inner city mission, the tower was saved, serving as a beacon of faith and an important symbol of community outreach in the West Broadway area.

Source: City of Winnipeg Committee on Environment Meeting Minute, March 3, 1986

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Young United Church Tower site and its landmark qualities include:
- its highly visible location at the southwest corner of Broadway and Furby Street in a mixed commercial and residential neighbourhood
- its height, overall symmetrical massing and square shape, with emphasis on clear sharp lines
- its relationship with the adjoining new structure, whose roofline is well below that of the tower

Key elements that define the tower's finely crafted Romanesque Revival exterior include:
- the tall pyramidal red roof with crowning finial, four gable dormers (one on each side) and polygonal towers at each corner
- the composition of the tower shaft, divided into three sections, the lowest with a few small rectangular openings, the tall middle stage defined by elongated pilaster strips with inset window openings and stone label mouldings, and the belfry stage highlighted by twin round-arched openings skirted by decorative wrought-iron railings and topped by a prominent Roman-influenced metal and brick entablature
- the use of red-brown Menominee brick on the shaft, with white ashlar-cut Bedford stone and white paint providing contrast and crisp detailing, including on the high stone base and the stone belt courses that delineate the upper stages
- the various shapes and sizes of windows, openings and recesses, which are further defined by stone sills and lintels
- details such as stone column capitals and brick voussoirs in the belfry stage, the northeast corner stone with the name 'YOVNG METHODIST CHVRCH' [sic] on the east face and 'ERECTED A.D. 1910.' on the north face, etc.


Key elements that define the tower's interior heritage character include:
- the division into six levels with wooden floors, wooden stairways and hatches that lead from the uppermost floor to the belfry
- the exposed brickwork in the upper stages
- the windows with wooden lintels and segmental arches visible from the inside