Description of Historic Place

Moose Jaw City Hall is a Municipal Heritage Property located on four lots at the southwest corner Main Street North and Fairford Street in downtown Moose Jaw. The 3½-storey Tyndall stone and brick-clad building was constructed between 1911 and 1914.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of Moose Jaw City Hall lies in its role as a public building and centre of government in the community. Constructed for the Dominion Government it served as a post office and housed other government agencies such as customs, and eventually, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In 1963, the City of Moose Jaw purchased the building to accommodate city council chambers, municipal departments and the local police service.

The heritage value of Moose Jaw City Hall also lies in its architecture. Designed by Chief Dominion Architect David Ewart. The building fits into the stylistic direction set by the Dominion chief architect exhibiting elements of the Edwardian Classical style. This style is typified by its utilization of Tyndall Stone, classical end pavilions with pilaster, a double height ionic order, its ornate stonework, asymmetrically-placed clock tower with dome, cornice, pilasters and engaged columns with capitals. The style is also displayed in the voussoirs, pronounced keystones, triangular, round-headed and broken pediments as well as decorative interior elements such as marble skirting and terrazzo floors. Other architectural elements that speak to the property’s prominence and style, including its rusticated stone base, four-faced clock, and attic with mansard roof and dormers.

The heritage value of the property also rests in its association with the prosperity of the pre-World War I boom period. Built during the height of a pre-World War I boom period in the community, the building’s large scale and substantial $281,000 cost were a symbols of the optimism which both the Dominion Government and local residents placed in Moose Jaw’s future.

The heritage value of Moose Jaw City Hall also lies in its role as an important component of the streetscape. Located on a corner of a major intersection whose other corners host buildings of similar age of construction and scale, Moose Jaw City Hall is both a focal point of the downtown and an enduring icon for the community.

Source:

City of Moose Jaw Bylaw No. 4080, 1982.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of Moose Jaw City Hall resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements that reflect the property’s role as a public building and centre of government including the carved stone characters “GR”, signage indicating its use as City Hall, and metal bars on basement windows;
-those architectural elements of the property which reflect its prominence, such as its rusticated stone base, Tyndall Stone, four-faced clock, attic with mansard roof and dormers and the Edwardian Classical styled elements of its architecture including its ornate stonework, an asymmetrically placed clock tower with metal-roof dome and cupola, cornice, pilasters and engaged columns with capitals, voussoirs, classical pavilions with pilaster, double height ionic order, pronounced keystones, triangular, round-headed and broken pediments and interior marble skirting and terrazzo floors;
-the property’s present and prominent location in the streetscape on the corner of a major intersection.