Description of Historic Place

The 1906 Frost and Wood Warehouse, a four-storey masonry structure, occupies a corner site surrounded by several of its peers near the northern edge of Winnipeg's historic downtown wholesale district. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint with the following interior elements: post-and-beam structural system, unique construction on the underside of the floors and the skylight in the stairwell.

Heritage Value

The Frost and Wood Warehouse is a good example of transitional warehouse architecture. The building, designed by J.H. Cadham, one of the architects who was instrumental in shaping the district's aesthetics, is distinguished by some typical Romanesque Revival-style features -- rusticated stone finishes, surfaces enriched with corbelled brick - but is notably absent the characteristic arched openings of the style, in this case replaced with abundant and simple flat-headed openings. Built to hold the heavy loads of one of Canada's largest farm implement makers, the solid structure also is noted for its strongly reinforced wood frame and other special construction features. Little altered over the years, the warehouse is very important in maintaining the historic and physical continuity of its Princess Street environs.

Source: City of Winnipeg Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development Minutes, September 10, 2002

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Frost and Wood Warehouse site include:
- its location at northwest Pacific Avenue and Princess Street, flush to the public sidewalks, and historically and visually connected with similar period warehouses and commercial structures nearby

Key elements that define the building's substantial warehouse aesthetic include:
- the massive four-storey rectangular volume, symmetrically composed, with a peak-and-valley roof behind a high, flat brick parapet
- the articulated mill construction with thick brick walls on a rusticated stone foundation and wide brick pilasters on the primary elevations, all around a frame of large wooden posts and beams
- the bright primary elevations with their red brick finishes contrasted by light rough-cut limestone at the base and in heavy window sills and lintels
- the extensive fenestration on three sides, including large flat-headed display windows and paired and single sash windows vertically aligned in bays on the primary elevations, the orderly array of rear segmental-arched sash windows, numerous basement openings, etc.
- the centred and elevated front entrance set in a large round arch and topped by an arched transom, and the south and rear loading areas, including a round-arched opening near the southwest corner and a west door topped by a segmental-arched transom with ribbon windows
- the fine corbelled brick detailing above fourth-floor windows and in the entablature

Key internal elements that define the building's sturdy construction and functional character include:
- the exposed structural elements on most levels and features such as vertically laid plank flooring on all levels, the low-pitched beams and roof boards on the fourth floor, the shaped wood lintels and brick relieving arches over the upper south-side windows, etc. and the brick-encased stairwell with a skylight