634 Corydon Avenue

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634 Corydon Avenue was constructed for the government-owned Manitoba Telephone System in 1948-50 as an addition to the extant Fort Rouge Telephone Exchange on the adjacent site to the east. At the time of its completion, automatic phone switching equipment was installed, the first of its kind in North America. The building is executed in an Art Moderne modernist idiom, clad in Manitoba Tyndall limestone used in large, unembellished segments. At the Corydon Avenue entrance, marked by a silvery metallic canopy, this stone is incised with lines and curves inward, lending a feeling of streamlined movement. Its architect, R.B. Ross was the in-house architect for Manitoba Telephone System.