Description of Historic Place

The Devonshire Road Bank Building, built in 1921-22, is an elegant two-storey limestone structure in the Beaux Arts style. Located at a busy intersection at 606 - 610 Devonshire Road in the former town of Walkerville, it is recognized by City of Windsor Bylaw 11938, 1994.

Heritage Value

Historically, this building speaks to the prosperity of Walkerville in the 1920s and has added value because of its association with respected local architect David J. Cameron. It was constructed by the Royal Bank, on land purchased from the Walkerville Land and Building Co., to serve the town’s growing financial needs. Although designed by the bank’s staff architect, S.G. Davenport, the local firm of Cameron and Ralston acted as superintending architects. David J. Cameron, one of Windsor’s premier architects, was responsible for numerous local churches, residences, commercial and educational buildings over a forty year period.

The architectural value of this former bank building lies in its elegant, symmetrical Beaux Arts style, which incorporates some Classical Revival elements. Although the building represents a more reserved phase of bank design, with broad flat planes and minimal ornamentation, its solid form and clean lines are striking. Constructed with pre-cast limestone amalgam, design highlights include the two-storey paired Classical Revival pilasters, a central door with transom, and a cavetto cornice on both street elevations.

Prominently sited at the corner of Wyandotte Street and Devonshire Road, in what was then Walkerville’s commercial core, the building has been a neighbourhood landmark since 1922. Together, with other nearby municipally designated properties including the Crown Inn (1893), former Walkerville Town Hall (1904) and the former Walkerville Post Office (1914), it contributes to Devonshire Road’s exceptional streetscape of heritage buildings.

Sources: Building Analysis Form, April 1994, and City of Windsor Bylaw 11938, 1994.

Character-Defining Elements

Key character defining elements that express the architectural and aesthetic value include:
- construction materials of smooth-dressed, pre-cast limestone amalgam
- symmetrical facade
- two-storey paired pilasters rising from a podium
- central door with transom, flanked by semi-detached columns supporting a plinth;
- second-floor, tri-partite central window;
- plain frieze and cavetto cornice
- set-back ell, which faces Devonshire on the southwest corner
- five bays and six pairs of pilasters on the Wyandotte Street elevation

Key character defining elements that contribute to the building’s historical and contextual values include:
- prominent siting at the busy intersection of Wyandotte Street and Devonshire Road
- its proximity to other significant residential and commercial heritage properties