Description of Historic Place

The two-storey Moon Apartments, built in the late 1890s and later altered, is a mixed-use brick structure near the south end of a long row of pre-1900 commercial facilities on Main Street in Carberry. The municipal designation applies to the building and its wide, deep lot.

Heritage Value

The sturdy Moon Apartments, solid in its brick construction, modest in its aesthetics and capable of multiple uses, is a dignified example of a two-part commercial building that has provided much needed retail, office and residential space since the early development of Carberry's business district. The structure's well-lit main-floor storefronts, upper-storey Classical features and continuity of functions convey a distinct sense of time and place. Because of its wide frontage, the block also has a vital role in maintaining the integrity of its streetscape, an intact section of the designated Historic Downtown Carberry district that contains several buildings of similar age, height, alignment and construction.

Source: Town of Carberry By-law No. 5/2006, June 12, 2007

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the strategic character of the Moon Apartments site within Historic Downtown Carberry include:
- the Main Street location (east side) near Fourth Avenue and the Canadian Pacific Railway line;
- the building's placement on its lot, abutting the front public sidewalk and structures to the north and south, with some open land at the rear;
- the building's physical, visual and historical connections to nearby designated structures, including openings in the south party wall between it and the C.V.M. Café.

Key exterior elements that define the structure as a durable two-part commercial block include:
- the wide two-storey rectangular form, of brick construction over a rubble-stone foundation, with a flat roofline and modest parapet;
- the distinctive two-part front (west) facade, including the main floor's street-oriented storefronts with their own doorways and large display windows, the separate upper-storey entrance and the more limited second-floor fenestration suited to less public commercial or residential uses;
- the upper storey's symmetrical Classical composition, including its three-bay division defined by shallow brick pilasters and tall rectangular windows with radiating brick heads and smooth-cut stone sills;
- the limited but expressive Classical ornament, including a front brick stringcourse between the two floors, a continuous course of geometric drip moulding over the upper windows, sawtoothed, indented and corbelled brickwork at the roofline, a stepped south parapet, etc.

Key internal elements that define the building's heritage character include:
- the subdivision of the main floor into deep separate commercial spaces, with open areas at the front and rooms at the rear;
- the central staircase with simple wooden steps to the basement;
- finishes and materials such as lath-and-plaster walls, the basement's exposed wooden posts, beams and main-floor joists and south brick party wall, etc.