Description of Historic Place

The brick Union Bank Building maintains a prominent presence among the other commercial buildings in Hamiota, a town in one of western Manitoba's most productive agricultural areas. The two-storey structure, built in ca. 1903, is set flush with the sidewalk on one of the town's two business streets. The municipal designation applies to the building and its deep lot.

Heritage Value

The Union Bank Building, a mixed-use facility, is a good illustration of the storefront structures that once lined the main streets of Manitoba's urban centres from the mid-1880s into the mid-1900s. The building combines straightforward features, such as a large plate glass front window and corbelled exterior brickwork, with fine interior details, such as rich oak woodwork and second-floor light wells. Built for the Union Bank of Canada and absorbed by the Royal Bank of Canada in 1925, this facility functioned as a bank for over seven decades. Now refurbished and operated as the Heritage Arts Centre, it is one of the few remaining historic structures in Hamiota's business centre.

Source: Village of Hamiota By-law No. 3/95, February 15, 1995

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the prominent Union Bank Building site include:
- the placement of the building flush to the sidewalk on the north side of Maple Avenue in Hamiota, abutting other commercial and public buildings

Key exterior elements that define the brick building's straightforward design include:
- the high and deep two-storey rectangular form with a flat roof and solid side parapet walls
- the primary (south) facing dominated by large square-headed openings, a wide main-floor plate glass window, the double-door entrance and two second-floor openings, each with transom windows
- the additional fenestration provided by light wells, tall rectangular openings at the rear, etc.
- the materials and details, including the buff-coloured brick finish, rusticated limestone base and stone sills on the front facing, the corbelled brick and limestone cornice, plain wooden cornice between the main and second floors, wooden doors and window frames, etc.

Key elements that define the heritage character of the building's rich interior include:
- the well-lit vestibule with its high decoratively detailed tin ceiling and steps into the banking hall
- the open main floor, with a high ceiling and a manager's office with glassed upper walls and doors of glass and wood
- the large second-floor rooms organized around a wide central hall, with front and rear wooden staircases
- the use of large transom windows and additional features such as built-in fireplaces in the office and room above, rich oak woodwork and doors, etc.

Key elements that recall the building's original function include:
- the brass name plate on the bank manager's office door engraved with the word 'MANAGER'
- the rear main-floor and basement vaults