1913 – Adelman Building, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Architect: John H.G. Russell

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Constructed in 1903 as the new Campbell Brothers and Wilson warehouse, the Adelman Building was located on the C.P.R. spur line that still runs behind Princess Street. Three large loading docks opened from the rear of the building onto the railway line. An arched driveway off Princess Street provided three more covered docks for loading horse-drawn wagons and later, trucks. Business proved to be brisk and by 1913 two additional storeys were added to the building.

Russell used a rusticated stone lower level with a stone string course to identify the main floor. The main façade of a round-headed brick arcade was broken by a segmental arch indicating a loading dock. The paired rectangular window motif with a stone lintel and sill separated by a brick mullion was a direct copy from Marshall Field’s store. Russell attempted to give a Sullivanesque skyscraper look to this low building by using a projecting brick moulding that ran vertically around each set of windows. In the two-storey addition of 1912, Russell designed paired rectangular windows to continue the vertical rhythm created by the arcade.