Description of Historic Place

The Glines House, a 2½-storey red brick house built in 1906 then expanded and converted to an apartment block in 1928, is nestled in a mixed-use neighbourhood in Winnipeg's downtown. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint.

Heritage Value

The Glines House is one of just a handful of turn-of-the-century houses that remain to recall the character of a well-to-do residential area of downtown Winnipeg, once the location for scores of architecturally impressive houses. The Glines House is typical of the type, in this case a Queen Anne Revival-style structure adorned with Tudor-influenced mock half-timbering. The substantial, finely detailed building, designed by Alexander and William Melville for pioneer businessman George A. Glines, also illustrates the neighbourhood's early development and subsequent transition to higher-density residential use. For the Glines House this meant a 1928 transformation by then owner J.A. Tremblay, a building contractor, into a modest-sized apartment block, including construction of a rear addition complementary in scale, design and materials to the original dwelling.

Source: City of Winnipeg Council Minutes, August 2, 1989

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Glines House site include:
- the mid-block location on the east side of Hargrave Street between Broadway and Assiniboine Avenue, with the 1906 house set back from the front property line and the 1928 addition extended toward the rear

Key elements that define the 1906 dwelling's dignified Queen Anne Revival exterior include:
- the substantial 2½-storey mass, irregular yet balanced in its box-like form, with two-storey projections (angled bay windows and a circular corner tower) on the front (west) and south sides
- the lively roofline featuring a truncated hip roof with offset cross gables and gable dormers, a conical roof and wooden finial atop the tower, etc.
- the solid brick construction and fine, textured masonry finishes, including the foundation of rusticated limestone, the stone-clad tower, the walls of red brick, the rough-cut stone windowsills, etc.
- the number and variety of windows, often grouped in threes, including tall rectangular bay and tower windows, small triplets in gable ends, an arcaded group of round-arched lights in the front dormer, etc.
- the slightly elevated front entrance, including the wood and glass door with side and transom lights set under a stone lintel and round-headed brick arch, etc.
- the details, including the ornamental half-timbering in the gable ends and dormers, the deep, bracketed wooden eaves that wrap around the house, etc.

Key exterior elements that define the complementary character of the 1928 addition include:
- the boxy two-storey form on a raised concrete foundation, with walls of red brick, a flat roof and horizontal rows of tall rectangular flat-headed windows, etc.
- details such as brick belt courses, lintels and windowsills that echo the stone highlights of the 1906 house, brick diamonds along the parapet, a large round-arched window over the rear entrance, etc.