Description of Historic Place

The Washington Street 1890s Buildings is a grouping of five two- and three-storey historic wooden commercial buildings dating from the late 1890s and located on the eastern side of Washington Street between Columbia Avenue and First Avenue. These attached buildings all have a flat-roofed or false-fronted appearance and have commercial storefronts at street level.

Heritage Value

The Washington Street 1890s Buildings are recognized for their historic and aesthetic values to the community of Rossland as the only surviving intact block of first-generation commercial buildings in Rossland's historic downtown. This grouping of five wood-framed buildings in downtown is rare and significant for not having been affected by a series of devastating fires prior to 1930 that decimated many other contemporary buildings of this era in the surrounding blocks, leaving only isolated examples of buildings from Rossland's earliest development period.

This group of buildings is valued for its original saw tooth characteristic of the earliest commercial streetscapes during the early boom period of the city. The wooden construction of these buildings reflects the rapidly-gained wealth afforded by speculators, businessmen, and citizens, who desired to build a city as quickly as the gold was mined in the surrounding hillsides. The false-front appearance of these buildings reflects the design trends of the day that strove to convey a sense of permanence, sophistication, and emulate the success of larger, established urban centres.

This group of buildings also holds value as a reminder of the economic and social diversity that were commonplace in mining boomtowns of western Canada. With early purposes ranging from hotels, cafes, furnished rooms, a wholesale liquor distribution warehouse, a movie house and a US consular office, these buildings together demonstrate the agglomerate nature of businesses, people, skills, and experiences that came together in the 1890s to build a city upon hills of gold. There is also heritage significance in the story of the occasional internal consolidation and separation of some of these buildings for a variety of commercial and social purposes throughout their histories. This value is evident in the history of long-term ownership and operation by many individuals, families, and organizations over time.

Character-Defining Elements

The elements that define the character of the Washington Street 1890s Buildings include its:
- Original location on the 2000 block of Washington Street in Rossland's historic downtown
- Contiguous relationship of the five structures
- Saw tooth appearance of the roofline of the buildings
- Commercial design, form and wooden construction of all five structures, each with a flat-roofed or false-fronted appearance
- Relationship of each building to the street, with no setbacks
- Surviving or evidence of commercial storefronts at street level on all buildings