Description of Historic Place

The Donald H. Bain Building, a five- and three-storey brick structure erected in 1899, is located near the eastern edge of Winnipeg's Exchange District, a national historic site of Canada. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint.

Heritage Value

The Donald H. Bain Building, composed of two modest Romanesque Revival-style structures joined by a common wall, is a good illustration of the warehouses established in Winnipeg at the turn of the twentieth century. Of typical brick construction with heavy timber frames, the buildings are unified by complementary exterior features, including brick and stone details that demonstrate skilled craftsmanship and a fine sense of design on the part of architect James McDiarmid. The warehouses were sustained in their original function by a strategic location near rail and river transport and by the long-term tenure of grocery wholesaler and champion athlete Donald H. Bain (formerly Nicholson and Bain). Converted to offices, the buildings buttress an Exchange District streetscape that contains several early warehouses.

Source: City of Winnipeg Committee on Environment Meeting Minute, June 16, 1980

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the site character of the Donald H. Bain Building include:
- the buildings' placement, flush to the sidewalk, on the north side of Bannatyne Avenue, with a lane to the west and former railway spur track right-of-way at the rear and near other historic warehouses

Key exterior elements that define the buildings' typical warehouse character and modest Romanesque Revival style include:
- their rectangular form of solid brick bearing wall construction with high rusticated stone bases and flat rooflines with parapets
- the symmetrically arranged front (south) facades, each divided into five bays by brick detailing and the complementary placement of round-arched and lintelled windows, most with rusticated stone heads and sills
- the rear elevations' loading docks and rows of tall rectangular windows with segmental-arched brick heads and stone sills
- fine materials and details such as the buff-coloured brick finishes, fanciful straw basket and corbelled brickwork, thin spandrel panels, brick drip moulding, etc.

Key elements that define heritage character of the five-storey structure include:
- the round-arched openings with stone voussoirs and keystones on the front main and top floors
- the west elevation well lit by rectangular windows with segmental-arched brick heads and a top row of round-arched openings, all with stone sills
- details and finishes such as brick pilasters, stone pilaster caps, a heavily ornamented brick parapet with the date '1899' carved into a stone panel, etc.

Key elements that define the heritage character of the three-storey building include:
- large main-floor windows with stone lintels and round-arched openings with brick heads and stone imposts and keystones on the top floor and the east wall with only a few main-floor openings
- details and finishes such as the upper brick corbel tables, single corner pilaster cap, tall brick chimney, vertical brick recesses with decorative heads between the upper-storey bays, etc.

Key internal elements that define the buildings' heritage character include:
- the massive exposed wood beams and joists and exposed brick party wall