Description of Historic Place
Moyse House is a 2 1/2-storey brick mansion erected in 1913 on a riverbank lot in Wolseley, an older district of prestigious homes in west Winnipeg. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint.
Heritage Value
Moyse House is a well-preserved Winnipeg example of a Georgian Revival mansion, an architectural style that saw much popular application in the Wolseley neighbourhood, an area of mostly single-family houses stretching along the north side of the Assiniboine River, and south of Portage Avenue. The dwelling's orderly facades, hipped roof with dormers, red brick finish contrasted with light limestone and wood trim, classically detailed rear verandah and signature Palladian-style window all speak to the skill of the architect, P.M. Clemens, who also designed the house next door in a similar fashion. This pair and two more red brick homes immediately to the east form a closely tied collection of stately residences established on spacious river lots in the pre-1914 period by business executives, including John Moyse, owner of a downtown livery stable.
Source: City of Winnipeg Committee on Environment Minutes, February 10, 1986
Character-Defining Elements
Key elements that define the heritage character of the Moyse House site include:
- the location on the north bank of the Assiniboine River at the intersection of Canora Street and Wolseley Avenue
- the dwelling's position as the western anchor of four Wolseley Avenue houses of similar scale, design and age, all set well back from the public sidewalk within grassed and treed lots
- the garage to the rear southwest side of the property
Key exterior elements that define the dwelling's dignified Georgian Revival style include:
- the nearly square plan, 2 1/2 storeys in height, of brick construction on a raised limestone foundation, with a hipped roof, gable dormers, a west gable end that doubles as a pavilion pediment
- the harmonious, generally symmetrical facades, with walls of red brick, mainly flat save for the broad west pavilion, protruding east chimney and angled two-storey southeast bay window
- the magnificent two-tiered south (river side) verandah with a full wooden entablature and four unfluted giant order Composite columns on high rusticated limestone plinths
- the many windows, mostly tall rectangular flat-headed openings in singles, twos or threes, several with multi-paned upper sashes, including a stylized west Palladian arrangement, etc.
- the two primary entrances: a north door with sidelights and a fanlight accessed through a modified two-storey wooden porch and an elaborate west entrance recessed below a broad brick and rusticated stone archway, and flanked by compact round-arched windows
- the classically inspired details and features, including modillioned wood cornices along the main roof, south verandah, etc., prominent keystones and arched brickwork over windows, stone windowsills, cartouches in the north dormer and west gable ends, the south-side walkout, the tall chimneys, etc.
Key elements that define the building's interior character include:
- the centre-hall plan
- finishes and details such as floors inlaid with hardwood patterns, decorative wood wainscotting, coved plaster ceilings, etc.
