Description of Historic Place

Caron House is a large brick-clad farmhouse built in 1901 on the south bank of the Assiniboine River in what is now the Winnipeg suburb of Charleswood. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint.

Heritage Value

Caron House, a gracious dwelling in a restrained Queen Anne Revival style, transplanted from Ontario and favoured on prosperous prairie farms, recalls one of the prominent families of a Metis and Franco-Canadian settlement established west of Winnipeg along the Assiniboine River in the nineteenth century. The George Caron family from Quebec began working the site in 1880, engaging in mixed farming and cheese production, and contributing significantly to the development of their thriving community, the nucleus of which was a Roman Catholic church across the river. The Carons' substantial dwelling, occupied by family members until the 1940s, has been restored by the Charleswood Historical Society as representative, along with other site features, of the community's pioneer days of narrow river lots, ferries and ox carts.

Source: City of Winnipeg Committee on Environment Minutes, February 2, 1981

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Caron House site include:
- its location in Caron Park, a municipal park on a sweeping bend of the Assiniboine River and the building's orientation near to and facing the south bank of the river
- the remaining farmyard, including mature plantings and a cut in the riverbank marking a former ferry landing just east of the farmhouse

Key exterior elements that define the dwelling's restrained Queen Anne Revival style include:
- the irregular 2 1/2-storey form, of wood-frame construction with buff brick veneer on the walls and a high rubble limestone base
- the steep hip roof with four cross gables that double as pediments
- the distinctive, formal appearance of each facade, based on massing and materials, including pavilions on the north (front) and west sides and a two-storey east bay
- the two-storey wooden entrance porch and balcony set into the recessed northeast corner
- the many windows throughout, rectangular and flat-headed with sills of rough limestone, most in vertical alignment
- the modest ornamentation, including bracketed eaves, brick window and chimney detailing, subtle decoration in the gable ends, etc.

Key elements that define the interior of the farmhouse include:
- the integrity of the side-hall plan on all levels, including common rooms on the main floor and bedrooms above
- the straightforward materials and details, including the wood floors, baseboards and millwork, the intact front and rear staircases, etc.