McLeod Building

Location

Description of Historic Place

The McLeod Building is a nine- storey brick and terra cotta structure in the Chicago Commercial style on a prominent corner in downtown Edmonton.

Heritage Value

As the only terracotta-clad building in the city, this massive Chicago- style building is valued for its landmark status, its architecture and its unique decoration, which reflects the height of Edwardian-era architectural influences in Edmonton. Noted as the best local example of its kind, its style reflects a refined neo-classicism that was reinvented at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and came into popular use in American cities in the early part of the twentieth century. Designed by J.K. Dow, a Spokane architect who practiced from 1889-1937, he was very familiar with the Chicago school of architecture and its stylistic influences.

In its association with the development of Edmonton’s downtown, the significance of the McLeod Building was also that it was constructed in a prestigious office location in the heart of Edmonton’s commercial core, and this was reflected in both its exterior and interior finishes. Its proximity to the former downtown post office, land titles office, courthouse and city hall attracted doctors, lawyers, insurance and grain companies, and many other prominent tenants.

The McLeod Building is also significant because it represents the culmination of McLeod’s success as a construction contractor and real estate speculator. He was one of Edmonton’s pioneers, arriving in 1881, and became an alderman and public school trustee. Having achieved financial success, he sought to build Edmonton’s greatest commercial structure that would bear his name. The building’s prominence remained until the 1960s when new, modern office buildings attracted the city’s elite clientele.

Character Defining Elements

The building’s Chicago Commercial style and distinction among other buildings in Edmonton are exemplified by the following elements:

EXTERIOR:

- prominent corner location and orientation toward Edmonton’s city hall and plaza;

- form, scale and massing;

- Chicago School Edwardian styling;

- tripartite separation between main floor, intermediate storeys and top floor;

- regularly-spaced fenestration consisting of one over one equally divided double-hung windows;

- ivory terra cotta for the two building corner façades, windowsills, lintels and cornices, and matching glazed yellow brick for the rest of the façades;

- Edwardian classical detailing, including highly decorated cornice and polychrome friezes;

- “MCLEOD BVILDING” name band along the east-facing storefront frieze, and “JOHN K. DOW ARCHITECT 1913” inscription above the north-facing storefront cornice;

INTERIOR:

- terrazzo corridor floors;

- marble corridor wainscots and main lobby ceiling;

- solid oak doors and window trim.