Description of Historic Place

The Hutchinson Building is a Municipal Heritage Property comprising two city lots on 2nd Avenue South in downtown Saskatoon. The property features a two-storey, brick-clad commercial building. The designation is limited to the front façade of the building.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Hutchinson Building lies in the design of its façade and the work of prominent Saskatoon architect, Frank P. Martin. Built in 1923, durability and permanence are exhibited in its strong, plum-coloured brick face complemented by a symmetrical accent of Tyndall Stone. The full and half pilasters with quoining, central pediment and extremely subdued cornice displays the modern Classical style which was popularized during the 1920s. Large plate glass windows at street level for the display of store items reflect its commercial use. Vertical transom lighting above the display windows and the double-hung windows with stone sills on the second-storey, further embellish the façade.

Heritage value also resides in its association with the commercial development of Saskatoon. When a huge fire on December 18, 1922 destroyed the Saskatoon Hardware Store along with most other buildings on the block, the immediate announcement of reconstruction spelled optimism for downtown Saskatoon. The name of the store owner, J. L. Stanley Hutchinson, founder of the Retail Merchants’ Association and of a commercial fire insurance plan for Saskatchewan, is inscribed on a broad triangular pediment above the building. The new home for the hardware store was hailed as fully fireproof with the latest Grinnell Sprinkler System of fire protection. The Hutchinson Building remained housed a hardware store until 1970 and served various commercial and residential purposes thereafter.

Source:

City of Saskatoon Bylaw No.7866.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Hutchinson Building resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements articulating its façade, such as its quoining on the stone pilasters, low-relief capitals, transom lights, belt course, double-hung upper windows with stone sills, its subdued cornice and pediments;
-those elements that reflect the building’s design and business interest, including the architect’s etched name, Frank P. Martin; the upper pediment bearing the name “Hutchinson;” the Grinnell Sprinkler drainpipe near the base of the building; and the flagpole at its top.