Description of Historic Place

Downtown Rossland in Rossland, BC spans the width of Columbia Avenue from Cliff Street to Monte Christo Street. It is made up of the buildings on the north side and south sides of Columbia Avenue. It is a combination of commercial, institutional and residential buildings built from the early 1890's to postwar.

Heritage Value

Downtown Rossland has historic value for its dense clustering of buildings reflecting the town's gold mining era. Many of the historical buildings are valued survivors of two devastating fires and a weakening mining economy in the late 1920s. Columbia Avenue represents not only these early buildings, but also buildings from pre-World War II, wartime and postwar era. These later buildings are important markers of Rossland's continuing invigoration over the decades since its mining heyday.

The downtown area, currently represented by several blocks of Columbia Avenue, is important not only for its built heritage resources, but for its streetscape, street trees, public open spaces and public art. Views to the surrounding mountains strongly situate Downtown in its spectacular alpine setting.

Downtown Rossland is important for its still-intact small lot pattern of development that supports small businesses and contributes to a diverse and local commercial life, fostering a sense that Downtown is the city's social centre.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements may be found in its:
- Dense cluster of commercial and mixed-use buildings without side yards.
- Flat-roofed or rectangular false-fronted buildings from the gold mining era.
- Relatively level grading Columbia Avenue in the core area.
- Wartime and postwar institutional buildings and structures (including swimming pool).
- Zero setback from the front property line.
- Historic commercial buildings (named in the Heritage Register), with traditional detailing of ground floor commercial storefronts, punched hole window openings on floors above, and simple wood or brick ornamentation, particularly at the cornice.
- View west to the mountains.