Description of Historic Place

The Town Office and Library is a Municipal Heritage Property located prominently on one civic lot on the corner of Railway Avenue and 6th Street in the Town of Rosthern. The property features a two-storey, yellow-brick building with projecting bay window, which was constructed in 1903.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Town Office and Library resides in its role as a banking institution in Rosthern, first as the Imperial Bank of Canada in Rosthern. In 1902, the rapid growth and optimism of the booming prairie community led the Imperial Bank of Canada to open a new branch in Rosthern. Operating out of a temporary office until 1903, the Imperial Bank of Canada became the first chartered bank in Rosthern, providing services to the village and surrounding community. By 1903, the permanent, two-storey brick bank had been completed, operating as the Imperial Bank of Canada until 1962, when the company amalgamated with the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Located prominently on the corner of Rosthern's main street, it anchored an important block in the heart of the business district.

Heritage value also resides in the building's architecture. Constructed in 1903, the building projected the images of strength, stability, and conservatism, and established a sense of authority and permanence desired by banking institutions at the time. Its two-storey rectangular plan speaks to its functional design, which, like most bank buildings in smaller centres, placed the service counter, manager's office, general office, and vault on the first floor. The second floor served as the bank manager's living quarters, the living room of which featured the prominent cantilevered bay window. The building's decorative features reflect a muted Edwardian influence, which are evident in the straight roofline, un-complicated ornamentation, window placement, cornice, and keystones. The brick detailing above the windows, at the corners, and at the rounded entrance also add to the building's prominence, all of which reflect the sense of optimism in the emerging prairie town.

Used for over 80 years as a bank building, the Town of Rosthern has adapted the building for use as the Town Office and Library, sustaining its use in the community.

Source:

Town of Rosthern Bylaw No. 8216.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Town Office and Library is reflected in the following character-defining elements:
-those features that speak to its use as a bank, including signage on the south exterior wall;
-those features that reflect its architectural style, such as it rectangular form and massing, corner entry with arched doorway, brick detailing above windows, at corners, and entrance, straight roofline and cornice, projecting bay window, regular window patterning with stone sills, keystones above windows, and date stone;
-its location on a prominent corner on Rosthern's main street.