Franklin Memorial Hall

Franklin Memorial Hall (1920) is a medium-sized,

one-storey, gable-fronted brick building on a raised basement, with a medium-pitched roof. It stands

on a large lot on the east side of PR 466 in the village of Franklin, Manitoba. The municipal designation

applies to the site, the hall, and the cenotaph in front of the building.

Franklin Memorial Hall is valued primarily as a rare surviving example of a community

hall built as a memorial to people who died fighting in the First World War; a cenotaph in front of the

building commemorates the five local men who died in that conflict. The hall was built under the direction

of contractor William Wylie of Minnedosa, and still serves today as an attractive venue for community

events and celebrations. As one of few remaining buildings in Franklin - once a lively town with three

elevators, a large school, two churches, a bank, and their associated houses and shops -it stands today

as a reminder of the vitality, prosperity and optimism of small Manitoba towns in the 1920s, before the

province began shifting towards a predominantly urban population. The building has experienced a rear

addition and some sensitive interior alterations, but the overall physical integrity is good; it retains

its original windows and interior woodwork.

Source: R.M. of Rosedale By-law No. 3-2012, 8 June 2012.

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Franklin Memorial Hall site

include:

- the building's placement, facing west near the road, on a slight rise

- the cenotaph,

in front and slightly to the north of the building

Key elements that define the exterior heritage character

of Franklin Memorial Hall include:

- the overall size and massing, with a raised basement and medium-pitched

front-gable roof

- the yellow brick construction with concrete sills and lintels, and cast-in-place concrete

foundation

- the name and date incised in Tyndall stone blocks framed in a simple corbelled brick pattern

above the main entrance

- the wood soffits and the simple brackets at the gable ends

- the original wood-framed

sash windows: six-over-one on the front facade and six-over-six on the sides

Key elements that define

the interior heritage character of the Franklin Memorial Hall include:

- the overall arrangement of the

space: a vestibule flanked by smaller ancillary spaces at the entrance (west) end; a large, open central

area; a stage at the east end

- the interior materials: the varnished hardwood floor; the vertical

tongue-and-groove dark-stained fir wainscoting; the horizontal painted tongue-and-groove fir wall panelling

with ceiling boards at right angles; the plain wood ceiling brackets along the side walls

- the dark-stained

fir-panelled vestibule with its ticket window opening from what was once the kitchen at the northwest

corner; the cloakroom in the southwest corner

- the original, unpainted fir interior panelled doors and

simple wood mouldings including window and door casings; the original sash windows

- original or longstanding

fittings including the decorative heat registers and the painted cloth backdrop behind the stage