Description of Historic Place

Built circa 1900, the CPR Company House - 30 Lake Avenue is a one-and-a-half storey double tenement (now single family) wood-frame, family dwelling located opposite the High School on Lake Avenue in a row of five double tenement houses built and designed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

Heritage Value

The CPR Company House - 30 Lake Avenue is designated a Local Historic Place because of its significance in having been designed by Edward Maxwell in 1899. Maxwell, a well-known architect best known for his work on Chateau Frontenac, was commissioned as a designer by the CPR. Residences such as this company house were built by the CPR in an effort to provide adequate housing for employees of the fast-expanding CPR railway shops and the rest of the railway community. This residence is one of a row of five double tenement houses whose blueprints are on file at McGill University in the Maxwell Brothers Architecture collection and referred to as the “cottages” and labelled as Building Type A.

Source: McAdam Village Office, Historic Places File, “CPR Company House – 30 Lake Avenue”

Character-Defining Elements

The character defining elements relating to the CPR Company House - 30 Lake Avenue include:
- the central and largest in a row of five double houses;
- rectangular one-and-a-half storey massing;
- design as per Building Type A from the Maxwell Collection of blueprints;
- four hipped dormer windows on front façade;
- four hipped dormer windows on the rear façade;
- roof and dormer arrangement reminiscent of the McAdam Railway Station;
- principal front entrances with pediment porticos at far ends of the front façade;
- lateral gable roof;
- interior designed with four bedrooms upstairs and hall, kitchen, dining room and parlour downstairs;
- double-wide large front parlour windows.