Description of Historic Place

The Arrand Block is a Municipal Heritage Property comprised of two city lots on 11th Street East in the Broadway district of Saskatoon. The property features a three-storey, Classically-inspired, brick apartment building, which was constructed in 1912, and a non-contributing small garage on the rear of the lot.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Arrand Block resides primarily in the building's architecture, which is an excellent example of a luxurious, neo-Classical, mid-rise apartment building constructed for a specific clientele. Built by the prominent James and Walter T. Arrand Contractors' Company during the city's 1910-1912 building boom, the Arrand Block is unique in Saskatoon and its elegance reflects the fact that the Arrand cousins intended to reside in the building themselves. The structure's neo-Classical columns, which support ornate balconies, accentuate the unique design of the building, which was divided into three large, two-storey apartments with three suites on the top floor. The apartments originally had both front and back verandas, and although the back verandas were enclosed in 1926 to make sun rooms, the original form and character of the building have been maintained. The upper-suite skylights, luxurious for their time, remain in place today, as does the circular iron fire escape, which is nestled between the back verandas. The decorative entablature sits prominently atop the concrete columns and highlights the unique design of the building. Retaining much of its original character, the Arrand Block remains one of the few "boomtime" apartment buildings from an era when many commercial and residential structures began to dominate Saskatoon's major streetscapes.

Heritage value also lies in the building's association with the Arrand family and their prominence as contractors and well-known concrete specialists in Saskatoon. As owners of one of Saskatoon's major construction companies, the Arrand cousins were contractors for several prominent structures in the city, including the Broadway Bridge, the University Memorial Gates, the Saskatoon School for the Deaf, and the Capitol Theatre.

Source:

City of Saskatoon Bylaw No. 7029.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Arrand Block resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements that speak to the building's Classically-inspired design, such as the three-storey, white, concrete-enclosed columns; the decorative entablature (cornice, frieze, architrave); the lintelled windows;
-those elements that reflect the unique layout of the building, such as the ornate balconies, the enclosed back verandas, and the upper suite skylights;
-those elements that are typical of 1910s architecture, such as the brick masonry and the original circular iron fire escape.