Description of Historic Place

The Historic Downtown Carberry heritage district consists of two linear blocks of the historic commercial core of the Town of Carberry, with the majority of the buildings dating from the period of the community's initial growth from 1882 to 1903. The district consists of 39 commercial and institutional buildings, as well as three sites (former building lots now used for parks and other services), and is also defined by its wide Main Street and sidewalks, bisected at the intersection of 3rd Avenue. The district opens on the south to a vista of grain fields, is extended to the north by another block of Main Street (until its intersection with 1st Avenue), and is bounded on east and west by residential areas. The municipal designation applies to the approximately 15,000-square-metre parcel of land, and the exteriors of the specified structures and the sites thereon.

Heritage Value

Historic Downtown Carberry is valued primarily as the community's vital social core, providing the physical focus for most public activity for the town and surrounding (primarily agricultural) area. The district also is valued as an ongoing expression of Carberry's pride and sense of civic responsibility, and as the face and source of the peoples' confidence in their future and reverence for the past. The district is significant historically and architecturally, as a rare remaining Manitoba example, mostly intact, of the kind of streetscape that defined small-town commercial cores from the turn of the 20th century. With mainly brick facades (including even many of those that currently are faced with stucco or metal siding), Carberry's heritage district effectively conveys the exuberant character of such places. With typical functions, as well as representative and exceptional architectural expressions of the various types of buildings that defined such streetscapes, expressed in facade designs, fenestration and details, the district is an exemplary example of its type.

Source: Town of Carberry By-law No. 5/2006, June 12, 2007

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of Historic Downtown Carberry include:
- its north-south linear quality, with buildings facing onto Main Street, the broad thoroughfare (with wide paved sidewalks) that bisects the district; and also interrupted halfway by the intersection of 3rd Avenue;
- the ongoing functional variety that defines the district, including a range of commercial activities and important institutional buildings, and also with remnants of residential functions in many second-storey situations;
- in the southern half, the mostly contiguous line of facades, generally two storeys in height and typically aligned flush on their faces; the use mostly of brick on the main facades (even behind contemporary facade treatments), carried out in typical turn-of-the-century architectural expressions (Italianate and mostly Romanesque Revival); and with inviting pedestrian-friendly amenities, like recessed doorways, large display windows, animated signage, etc.;
- in the northern half, a more casual arrangement of buildings, occasionally on grassed lots and set back from the street, etc.;
- the highly informal and lively quality of the back lanes of both blocks, with irregular extensions of buildings, wealth of materials and textures, staircases, occasionally eccentric construction, etc.;