Description of Historic Place

The Hample Building, situated on Winnipeg's primary thoroughfare, Portage Avenue, is a three-storey three-bay brick and reinforced concrete and brick commercial building that was built in 1906. The City of Winnipeg designation refers to the building on its footprint.

Heritage Value

The Hample Building is a good example of the type of small but attractive speculative ventures that punctuated the easterly stretch of Portage Avenue during its transformation in the early years of the 1900s from muddy trail to dominant commercial thoroughfare in Winnipeg. The structure was built for Martha Hample, who had been in partnership with husband Adolphe until his death in 1900, and continued to run their catering business for several years. The Hample Building was well-placed, just east of the retail giant the T. Eaton Co. which opened its doors in 1905, and just west of the new Dominion Post Office, which had relocated its Winnipeg facility from a former Main Street location, and provided retail and office space to many tenants over the years. Although modest in scale, the Hample structure captured a flair for its period, in the skillful hands of renowned local architect John. D. Atchison. Over a reinforced concrete frame, a new innovation in Winnipeg's construction industry, the facade rose three storeys in three identical bays from a base that was set in to enhance the large display windows of its ground level tenants.

Source: the City of Winnipeg Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development Minutes, November 25, 2008

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Hample Building site include:
- its location on the north side of Portage Avenue, in the block between Smith and Garry streets
- its formal compatibility with other adjacent and nearby commercial structures in this older section of Winnipeg's main commercial street

Key elements that define the exterior of this turn-of-the-century commercial building include:
- the main (south) facade, divided into three bays, with south-facing windows in the upper two storeys divided vertically into three sections with flat heads on the second floor and segmentally-arched heads on the third
- the use decorative features and details, including the brick quoins on the sides and a fine stone detailing outlining the three window bays and with diamond-shaped inserts beneath each window
- the north-facing rear elevation, a plain brick wall with the upper two storeys each lit by three windows with rounded heads; and the remains of at least two generations of painted signage; legible is `Semi-Ready' and `Starks' on the upper portion of the wall and the words `Clothier Furnishers Furriers Hatter' and `Blue Room' visible underneath

Key elements remaining in the interior include:
- open unobstructed spaces and presence of reinforced concrete columns throughout
- a metal staircase offset east on the ground floor leading to a mezzanine, with the loading area to the rear