Description of Historic Place

The J.W. Harris House is a 2 1/2-storey brick dwelling on the southern edge of downtown Winnipeg. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint and the following interior elements: fretwork, stair work, stained glass and any original woodwork.

Heritage Value

The J.W. Harris House, erected in 1902, is one of a handful of stately homes surviving in the Hudson's Bay Reserve, a once-exclusive Winnipeg neighbourhood in the shadow of the Manitoba Legislative Building that has evolved to be a dynamic mixture of high- and low-rise office and apartment buildings. Architect James Chisholm's design is sparing in its Queen Anne Revival style, emphasizing instead the structure's shape, window treatments, materials and roofline for visual interest. Rescued after decades as a boarding house, the building, now in office use, retains much of its interior layout as well as splendid woodwork, stained-glass windows, quality hardware and a glass-roofed conservatory. The first owner-occupant, surveyor and property assessor John W. Harris, helped shape civic government in Winnipeg from the 1880s to the 1910s.

Source: City of Winnipeg Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development Minutes, May 4, 1998

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the J.W. Harris House site include:
- its location on the west side of Edmonton Street between Assiniboine Avenue and Broadway, one street east of, but in visual contact with, the grounds of the Manitoba Legislative Building
- the dwelling's situation within a small fenced and modestly landscaped yard

Key exterior elements that define the structure's restrained Queen Anne Revival style include:
- the high, blocky and elongated 2 1/2-storey form, of brick construction on a stone foundation, with a two-storey north pavilion and a one-storey south conservatory
- the complex, steeply pitched roofline incorporating truncated hip sections with cross gables, front (east) and south wall dormers, a west shed dormer, tall brick chimneys, etc.
- the sweeping two-storey verandah-balcony, of wood construction with sturdy columns and finely crafted balustrades, wrapping around the northeast corner to a deeply inset main entrance
- the many large windows on all sides, mostly single rectangles aligned vertically, including the glass roof and tall conservatory openings, etc.
- the finishes and details, including the rusticated limestone base, buff-coloured brick walls, bracketed and return wooden eaves, the varied treatment of window heads with stone lintels or radiating brickwork, the bargeboards and other wooden highlights on the front dormer, etc.

Key elements that define the building's interior character include:
- the largely intact side-hall layout, including the front hall and stairway
- the quality hardwood throughout, especially the spindled fretwork arching over the conservatory entrance and at the base of the main staircase, the doors highlighted with classical detailing, etc.
- other notable features including transoms of stained and leaded glass, and the eccentric details, such as four separate dining room doors of different heights and a similar situation in the front hall