Description of Historic Place

The Manitoba Telephone System Building, a compact stucco-clad brick veneer structure built in ca. 1941, is set amid mostly larger commercial and institutional facilities on Carberry's Main Street, in the northern half of the Historic Downtown Carberry heritage district. The municipal designation applies to the one-storey building and its small lot.

Heritage Value

The Manitoba Telephone System Building (also known as the Henry Carroll Law Office), a tidy building in an eye-catching Spanish Colonial Revival style, is a fine representation of the modest-sized exchanges erected by Manitoba Government Telephones in small rural centres in the early 1940s. Based on a standard design also applied to other exchanges throughout Manitoba, the structure is distinguished by its well-defined rectilinear form, many windows and contrasting finishes of light-coloured stucco, red tile and red brick. Its presence recalls the pre-automatic era of telephone technology when human operators were essential to daily communications in their communities, working switching equipment that made local and long-distance calling possible. Still in office use, this facility is a bright and familiar fixture in Carberry's business district, also a designated historic area.

Source: Town of Carberry By-law No. 5/2006, June 12, 2007

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Manitoba Telephone System Building site include:
- the mid-block location on the east side of Main Street, central to business and community services in the Historic Downtown Carberry heritage district, and in visual and physical relationships with other designated sites, such as the Old Town Hall, etc.
- the building's placement, set well back on a small grassed lot behind a long walkway

Key elements that define the building's prominent Spanish Colonial Revival exterior include:
- the deep one-storey rectangular form with a small rear corner extension, flat roofline, high parapet on three sides and large brick chimney
- the straightforward construction, materials and finishes, including the concrete foundation, brick veneer walls, light-coloured cladding of smooth stucco, etc.
- the feature front and side elevations, symmetrically composed, with corner and wall pilasters that rise above the roofline, bracketed pseudo-roofs and canopies with Spanish-style red tiles, etc.
- the extensive fenestration on all sides, comprised of paired and single square-headed windows with four-over-four-pane sashes and bold surrounds of red brick soldier, stretcher and rowlock courses
- the main entrance, also highlighted by red brick, with a single door of panelled wood and clear glass, a shallow transom, etc.

Key internal elements that define the building's heritage character include:
- the deep floor plan, including the well-lit open front space and rear partition wall
- details such as the wood window surrounds with ingenious window-opening hardware (comprised of sill hinges and upper frame guides and stops)