Description of Historic Place

The Lambton Block is a three-storey Edwardian-era brick building that sits on an irregular-shaped lot, at the corner of 110 Avenue and 97 Street, in proximity to the Royal Alexandra Hospital and on a prominent street at the northern end of the Boyle McCauley District.

Heritage Value

The Lambton Block is valued for its association with its original owner, John Robert Boyle. Boyle was well-known as a member of Edmonton's first city council, a Member of the Alberta Legislative Assembly, a minister of several different portfolios and Attorney General. In 1924 he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Alberta where he served until his death in 1936. The community of Boyle, in Edmonton, was named in his honour.

The building is also significant for its association with its designer Roland W. Lines who was a noted architect in Edmonton although he only practiced there for nine years. His architectural designs include buildings such as the Canada Permanent Building, the Union Bank and the original Royal Alexandra Hospital. Trained in Britain, Lines moved to Edmonton in 1906, as the western economic boom was beginning and later became President of the Alberta Association of Architects in 1913. Lines was killed in action overseas in 1916 during World War One.

The Lambton Block is significant in its area for its architecture and landmark value. Built during the Edwardian-era, when construction was booming in Edmonton, this unusually-shaped building was designed with Classical Revival elements, which were part of a common design vocabulary at the time. Its unusual shape is dictated by the shape of its lot and makes it immediately recognizable while the distinct chamfered corner increases its presence on the street.

The significance also derives from its association with the development of the McCauley community, one of Edmonton's oldest settled neighbourhoods. The area was named after Matthew McCauley, the City of Edmonton's first mayor. It emerged as a financial, business and residential district along the axis of an important street leading into the downtown, one of only a few crossings of the Canadian National Railway tracks, which separated the downtown from the northerly communities.

Source: City of Edmonton (Bylaw 13466)

Character-Defining Elements

The Edwardian-era architecture is expressed in character-defining elements such as:
- location on an unusually-shaped, prominent corner lot;
- form, scale and massing;
- brick construction;
- double-hung wooden-sash windows, paired on the 97 Street facade, six-over-one on ground floor;
- chamfered corner and corresponding raised parapet and pediment above the third storey window;
- decorative metal cornices above the first and third floor windows;
- projecting brick pilasters at the corners;
- raised parapet on the facade edges;
- stone name plaque on the upper corner facade.