Bellcrest Apartments
72 Lenore Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3G, Canada
Formally Recognized:
1994/03/01
Other Name(s)
n/a
Links and documents
Construction Date(s)
1928/01/01 to 1928/12/31
Listed on the Canadian Register:
2008/03/10
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The 1928 Bellcrest Apartments, a three-storey brick building faced on two sides in stone, stands on a busy street corner opposite an elementary school in a mature west Winnipeg residential neighbourhood. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint and the following interior elements: layout of the lobby, staircase and skylight.
Heritage Value
The Bellcrest Apartments is a sleek, minimally ornamented box whose otherwise typical mid-twentieth-century walk-up apartment block design conveys a timeless quality through limestone-clad facades. The structure's monochromatic finish, executed through the careful interplay of rusticated and ashlar stone, is an exemplary display of the mason's craft and of a local construction material whose use was heavily promoted in the 1920s. Designed and built by Bently Taylor, a Winnipeg contractor, the Bellcrest also has a spacious, well-lit interior, including central hallways, high basement suites and amenities such as eat-in kitchens, dining rooms, large living rooms and some private service entrances. The structure retains considerable physical integrity and fits well within its setting of stylish single-family houses and apartment blocks built mainly in the early 1900s.
Source: City of Winnipeg Committee on Planning and Community Services, March 1, 1994
Character-Defining Elements
Key elements that define the site character of the Bellcrest Apartments include:
- the building's location at northwest Lenore Street and Wolseley Avenue, set back on a grassed double lot opposite Laura Secord School in the Wolseley district
Key elements that define the building's sleek design, fine stone finish and residential function include:
- the sharply defined rectangular form extended three storeys over a high basement, of brick and concrete construction with a flat roofline and flat primary (front or east and south) facings
- the monochromatic Manitoba limestone cladding on the primary walls, carefully laid in broken-course rusticated blocks with fine ashlar trim in window and door surrounds, corner quoins, parapet coping, etc.
- the abundant fenestration provided by tall rectangular sash openings (with simple Art Nouveau-like uppers), symmetrically aligned on all elevations in singles, pairs and triplets
- the centred front entrance with double wood and glass doors and a pair of windows in a two-storey surround of smooth stone, and the similar but smaller south entrance with a single wood and glass door
- the large off-centre well containing wooden stairs and platforms on the west side and a second smaller wooden staircase at a jog in the north wall; the north and west sides plainly finished in sand-lime brick
- ornamentation limited mainly to the stonework, including raised parapet sections, continuous lintels and sills doubling as belt courses and quoin-like window detailing, and a few front wrought-iron balconets
- the large stucco-clad penthouse with rectangular-shaped windows
Key internal elements that define the building's heritage character include:
- the front lobby with a central staircase, spacious suites organized around central hallways, and common-area finishes and details such as egg-and-dart staircase moulding, the staircase skylight, etc.
Recognition
Jurisdiction
Manitoba
Recognition Authority
City of Winnipeg
Recognition Statute
City of Winnipeg Act
Recognition Type
Winnipeg Landmark Heritage Structure
Recognition Date
1994/03/01
Historical Information
Significant Date(s)
n/a
Theme - Category and Type
- Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life
- Architecture and Design
Function - Category and Type
Current
- Residence
- Multiple Dwelling
Historic
Architect / Designer
Bently Taylor
Builder
Bently Taylor
Additional Information
Location of Supporting Documentation
15-30 Fort Street Winnipeg MB
Cross-Reference to Collection
Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier
W0157
Status
Published
Related Places
n/a