Winnipeg Landmark Heritage Structure

Anvers Apartments

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Primary elevations, from the northwest, of the Anvers Apartments, Winnipeg, 2006

Primary elevations, from the northwest, of the Anvers Apartments, Winnipeg, 2006

Photo: Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 2006

Built
1912
Recognized
1994
By
City of Winnipeg

The register’s text, word for word

Description

The Anvers Apartments, a three-storey brick structure built in 1912, stands on a busy corner in a south Winnipeg residential neighbourhood. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint and the following interior elements:

original finishes of the hallways, including doors, windows and stair details.

Heritage value

The handsome Anvers Apartments is one of the many high-quality residential blocks built in Winnipeg prior to World War I. The picturesque Tudor Revival-style building, designed by C.S. Bridgman, emanates refinement and comfort, while also addressing practical considerations of safety, privacy and access to natural light and ventilation. The block's large suites are arranged deftly around light wells and an interior courtyard and, in most cases, are equipped with sunrooms. To ensure compatibility with surrounding development, the building's scale and lively gabled roofline are offset by its subdued ornamentation, dark red brick facades and recessed corner entrances. Located near, but not on, a major transportation artery, the Anvers is a dignified multiple-family structure that contributes to the vitality and historical continuity of its neighbourhood.

Source: City of Winnipeg Committee on Planning and Community Services Meeting

Minutes, March 1, 1994

Character‑defining elements

Key elements that define the site character of the Anvers Apartments include:

  • the

building's placement at the southeast corner of McMillan Avenue and Arbuthnot Street amid dwellings of similar vintage

Key elements that define the block's picturesque residential character and Tudor

Revival style include:

  • the substantial three-storey rectangular form on a raised foundation, further

shaped by a variety of squared, angled and recessed corners, and with an animated gabled roofline

  • the

three facades (west, north and south) of dark red brick and symmetrically massed around a T-shaped interior courtyard and light wells with closely angled walls, wooden staircases and separate suite doors

  • the

paired pavilions on the north and south elevations with prominent half-timbered gable ends and vertical banks of wooden sunrooms jettied on the upper levels and lit by large three-part openings with transoms, a design replicated on the west wall without the pavilions

  • the many windows on all sides, including

light well and courtyard walls; mostly tall rectangular lintelled openings set in singles, pairs or trios over smooth-cut stone sills; some with segmental-arched brick heads; others with transoms; many with six- or four-over-one sashes

  • the recessed and angled northwest and southwest entrances consisting of

heavy wood and glass doors set deep within ashlar stone architraves and accessed by broad steps; both also marked at the roofline by domed dormers clad by alternating bands of stone and brick, and accented with other features and details

  • other fine details, materials and finishes, including banding masonry

elements, geometric stone highlights, blind semi-circular dormers, plain gable bargeboards and brackets, exposed rafter ends, the name 'ANVERS' stencilled on the transom over the southwest doorway, etc.

Key internal elements that define the building's heritage character and residential function include:

  • the front vestibules with stone finishes, double doors of wood and bevelled glass encased

in oak and transoms lit with etched glass

  • the expansive interior layout, based on an O-shaped plan,

with twin east-west hallways on each level and spacious high-ceilinged suites with hardwood flooring, brick fireplaces, etc.

  • the fine common-area finishes and details, including oak wainscotting, doors,

woodwork and staircases in the hallways, stained-glass windows, etc.

End of the register’s text

Location

758 McMillan Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M, Canada

49.87092° N, 97.15506° W

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Being on the register doesn’t make a place open to visitors. Many are private homes or businesses; please view them from the street.

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