Description of Historic Place

Aikins House (Balmoral Hall School), a 2 1/2-storey brick dwelling built in 1901 and later converted to educational use, occupies a large Assiniboine River site in a residential area of west-central Winnipeg. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint and the following interior elements: entire ground floor and stairwell, and fireplaces on the second floor.

Heritage Value

Aikins House (Balmoral Hall School) is an excellent example of a Georgian Revival-style dwelling that serves as the symbolic centre of a prestigious private school (Balmoral Hall School) and also is valued for its association with Sir J.A.M. Aikins, a leading legal, community and political figure in early Winnipeg and a two-term lieutenant-governor of Manitoba. The graceful home, stately in its proportions, with magnificent porticoed entranceways and other classical details deftly applied, was designed by J.H.G. Russell to accommodate the Aikins family on its large Riverbend estate. Since 1929 the Assiniboine River site has housed an ever-expanding educational complex, which began as a girls' school operated by the United Church of Canada through an Aikins endowment and evolved into an independent non-denominational facility for residential and day students up to Grade 12. The Aikins home, carefully restored on the outside and well preserved within, remains integrated into the school's daily life and a signature presence at the front of the campus.

Source: City of Winnipeg Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development Minutes, September 28, 1999

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Aikins House (Balmoral Hall School) site include:
- the expansive grounds at southeast Westminster Avenue and Langside Street, in a transitional residential area between Winnipeg's West Broadway and Armstrong's Point neighbourhoods, and with extensive frontage on the Assiniboine River
- the building's angled placement, facing northwest from within landscaped grounds and off a formal front drive, visible from the street and with rear sightlines to the river

Key elements that define the building's Georgian Revival style and dignified form include:
- the substantial proportions, symmetrically massed in an elongated 2 1/2-storey brick rectangle rising from a very high rough-cut stone foundation to a moderately pitched side gable roof
- the grand, elevated central porticoes, with unfluted columns, balustrades and modest classical adornment, including the one-storey front portico with an upper deck supported by Doric columns and the two-storey riverside portico with giant order Ionic columns, pilasters, a second-storey balcony, etc.
- the generous fenestration throughout, composed mostly of tall rectangular windows set singly or in groups and with rough-cut stone lug sills and lintels
- the restrained classical features, such as the front gable dormer with a Palladian-style opening, the front entrance outlined by wedge-shaped bricks and keystones, the modillions and mouldings, etc.
- additional details such as the subdued finishes of buff brick, white porticoes and white trim, the front dormer tracery, the tall brick chimneys with drip mouldings, etc.

Key elements that define the building's well-preserved interior include:
- the spacious, well-organized layout, based on a centre-hall plan, with large living and dining rooms, kitchen, study and sitting room on the main floor, a grand open staircase to the second-floor hallway and rooms, a side staircase that connects all levels
- the elaborate fireplaces in oak or brick surrounds, with tile inlay and plaster detailing, in the living room, study, sitting room and second-floor rooms
- the many fine features, materials and finishes, mostly of oak, including the dark-stained door and window casings, the high baseboards, the pocket doors, the panelling and rich mahogany finishes in the dining and sitting rooms, the hardwood flooring, decorative plaster mouldings, built-in bookshelves, etc.