Front view of Thorson Cottage, Gimli 2013
Photo: Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Tourism, Culture, Heritage, Sport and Consumer Protection, 2014
- Built
- 1910
- Recognized
- 2012
- By
- Local government
The register’s text, word for word
Description
The Thorson Cottage (1910) is a small, one-storey, frame building, raised slightly above the ground, with a wooden porch at the front and a deck to the rear. The shingled, hipped roof extends outward to cover the verandah at the front of the building. A rear addition has a very shallow, asymmetrical gable roof. The cottage stands at #50 on the west side of 4th Avenue in Gimli, Manitoba.
The municipal designation applies to the lot and the buildings on it.
Heritage value
The Thorson Cottage is valued primarily as a well-preserved example of the type of summer cottage or cabin typically built in the Gimli area in the first half of the 20th century. Dating from 1910, it is an early example as Gimli became a popular destination only after train service from Winnipeg arrived in 1906. . Like most such buildings, its window openings were originally screened, and could be shut against the weather with wooden shutters; like most such buildings, many of the openings were glazed decades ago.
The cottage has a high degree of interior and exterior physical integrity, and retains its original doors, hardware, windows and shutters
Source: R.M. of Gimli By-laws No. 11-0022,
23 February 2012.
Character‑defining elements
Key elements that define the exterior heritage character of the Thorson Cottage include:
-the overall size and massing, raised slightly off the ground and with a hipped roof
-the original brick central chimney
-the painted wood exterior: vertical tongue-and-groove siding on the verandah, and clapboard on the balance of the building, with cornerboards, skirting board and drip cap; exposed rafters in the eaves
-the fenestration, with some screened openings and some multi-paned wood windows, set individually or in rows (in the verandah);
high, horizontal openings in the verandah; the simple wood window frames and interior shutters
Key elements that define the interior heritage character of the Thorson Cottage include:
-the informal interior; the fir floor and interior partitions of tongue and groove fir
-the general division of the interior space into a main hearth room with small bedrooms and kitchen on the periphery and a large L-shaped verandah wrapping around the east (front) and north sides.
-the chimney, which originally connected to stoves in both the kitchen and hearth room.
-the original fittings including the doors and hardware
-the pattern of the original interior wood shutters, and their hardware; the mechanisms for opening and fastening the hinged windows
Key elements that define the heritage character of the Thorson Cottage site include:
-the verdant quality of the corner lot, with large trees
End of the register’s text
Location
50-4th Avenue, Gimli, Manitoba, R0C, Canada
50.63200° N, 96.99020° W
Get directions (opens in a new tab)Being on the register doesn’t make a place open to visitors. Many are private homes or businesses; please view them from the street.
Loading map…
Nearby
All 15 places in Gimli
Similar places
Places whose register descriptions are closest to this one.
From the Canadian Register of Historic Places, as last updated on December 12, 2025. The register’s text is shown word for word.