Description of Historic Place

The Simson Residence is a Municipal Heritage Property located at 205 Leopold Crescent in the historic Crescents Area within the City of Regina. The property features a two-storey house which was constructed in 1927 and faced with stucco.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the property resides in its association with the prominent Regina architects, William G. Van Egmond and Stanley E. Storey. The house was designed for a distinguished resident of Regina, James Duncan Simson, who founded Caxton Press in 1907 and was active in many of the city’s cultural and charitable organizations. Van Egmond and Storey designed over sixty homes in Regina as well as many apartment buildings, industrial and commercial buildings, schools, and churches. The firm was formed in 1907 and was active in Saskatchewan for over forty years.

The heritage value of the property also resides in its English Arts and Crafts style of residential architecture, which was popular during Regina’s post-First World War development boom. The Simson Residence reflects this graceful and generally unadorned aesthetic style of residential architecture, which is suggestive of hand-craftsmanship. Stylistic elements include the plain exterior stucco treatment, steeply-pitched roof, round-head front entrance with curved galvanized iron hood and decorative brackets, and second-storey window shutters. The bold composition of projecting volumes, reminiscent of the style, is illustrated by the distinctive stepped-end front gable as a decorative element and the projecting sun room. The overhanging eaves add a picturesque appearance to this design.

The heritage value also resides in its location within the Crescents Area of Regina and its contribution to establishing the historic architectural character of that neighbourhood. In 1905, Regina developer George Marsh purchased a block of land from the Canada North West Land Company and by 1908, the area began to be subdivided. This area, with its distinctive three concentric semi-circular streets and elm shade trees, was one of Regina’s earliest upper-middle class districts and still features many of the original architect-designed residences.

Source:

City of Regina Bylaw No.2006-34.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Simson Residence lies in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements which reflect Van Egmond and Storey’s interpretation of the English Arts and Crafts style of architecture, such as the unadorned exterior stucco treatment, steeply-pitched roof, round-head front entrance with galvanized iron hood and decorative brackets, overhanging eaves, and the bold composition of projecting volumes as illustrated by the distinctive stepped-end front gable and projecting sun room;
-those elements which speak to its location within the Crescents Area and to its contribution to the area’s historic architectural character, including the historical integrity of the house’s façade and its continuity with the original Leopold Crescent streetscape.