Description of Historic Place

The D.A. Gillies Building National Historic Site of Canada, a prominent local landmark, stands two-and-a-half-storeys tall, with a lively silhouette and roof line featuring an octagonal clock tower flanked by roughly symmetrical façades, each with a large gabled wall dormer. North of the main building is an original one-storey annex. The building’s walls comprise a colourful array of stone with arched openings, corbelling, stringcourses, and carved lettering. Constructed 1896 to 1898, it illustrates a late Victorian free-eclectic historical revival and picturesque design that includes the Richardsonian Romanesque and aspects of Gothic and Flemish design. The designated place is the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

D.A. Gillies Building was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2024. It is recognized because:

• built in 1896-98 to a design by Dominion Chief Architect Thomas Fuller, this prominent local building is representative of the small urban post offices and customs houses erected as part of a nation-wide program of this era to house federal services in attractive and prominently located structures;

• with its two-and-a-half-storey height, use of high-quality materials, free eclectic historical revival and picturesque design, conspicuous siting, and interior layout, it is an excellent example of Fuller’s body of work and of late Victorian design, as well as a symbol of the aspirations of the Dominion;

• the building was saved from demolition and repurposed due to the effort of local heritage advocate D. A. Gillies, becoming Arnprior’s 1967 Centennial project, providing an example of the emerging heritage conservation movement of that decade.

The D.A. Gillies Building is a modest but excellent representation of the federal government’s efforts to erect attractive landmark federal buildings in small towns. Constructed to serve as the town’s Post Office and Customs House, it was designed by Thomas Fuller, Canada’s Chief Dominion Architect from 1881 to 1896. The building typifies Fuller’s approach to the design of post offices in small towns and, in this respect, displays such trademark elements as a clock tower, and walls of local and imported Maritime stone. In this way it embodies the late 19th century creation of a “Dominion Style” which gave Canada’s federal buildings a distinctive appearance. Threatened with demolition in the mid-1960s, the building was spared due to the efforts of local lumberman David A. Gillies, who gifted it to the town to be used as a cultural centre. As Arnprior’s 1967 centennial initiative, the building was renovated into a library and museum, representing one of few but significant heritage projects that were funded as part of this national celebration.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, December 2023.

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements contributing to the heritage value of this site include:
— its location at the corner of Madawaska Street and John Street North in downtown Arnprior, Ontario;

— the two-and-a-half-storey massing and picturesque silhouette of the main block and L-shaped single-storey north wing, the main block’s symmetrical south and west elevations, with octagonal tower at southwest corner;

— its Richardson Romanesque and Victorian Eclectic design, and materials including polychromatic wall surfaces, rough-textured, carved stone surfaces and detailing, basement plinth of grey Beckwith limestone, the upper walls of North Elmsley sandstone, window and door headings, sills, and decorative elements of Nova Scotia red sandstone and ornamental stone details including inscribed lettering, date stone, stringcourses and roofline corbelling;

— inset main entrance with double, door and transom window, and the projecting, west-facing entrance with double door, hip-roof, transom window, and the single-storey north wing’s projecting west entrance with double doors, and stepped parapet with carved sunburst, and the ground floor wide, flat-arched windows, thick voussoirs, rectangular window openings and prominent stone lintels;

— the single central chimney and gabled wall dormers on south and west façades with pyramid-shaped cut stone, and third floor gabled and hipped dormers;

— the truncated bell-cast pavilion roofs and single-storey north wing’s hipped roofs, all metal clad;

— the octagonal tower’s arched entrance, narrow rectangular window openings, corbelling, four-dial clock set in semi-circular dormers, and cupola with bell-cast roof and finial;

— first and second-storey sash windows with checkerboard mullion pattern;

— interior elements and finishes including first and second floor vaults, staircase with heavy newel posts and railings, and wood ceilings.