Grosvenor Court Apartments

The Grosvenor Court Apartments (161-165 Stafford Street) were built in 1909, at the height of Winnipeg’s apartment building boom. The building is mixed use, commercial and residential, and was designed in the then-popular Tudor Revival style so as to correspond with the single family homes surrounding it. The Tudor Revival style pays homage to Tudor-era (late Medieval) British architecture, conjuring nostalgia for a pre-industrial age. It generally features half-timbering, stucco, decorative stonework, and steep gables, all of which are present on the front facade of the Grosvenor Court Apartments. The facade also includes a smooth-cut limestone base, as well as elaborate limestone doorframes and lintels. 

In keeping with the Tudor Revival style, the Grosvenor Court Apartment’s walls are brick (construction, not veneer). Specifically, the front and side facades are made of red St. Louis brick, and the back facade is made of  less expensive buff-coloured clay brick. All told, the building cost 35, 000 dollars to build. 

When the apartment was constructed in 1909, the ground floor was commercial space accommodating two storefronts (the original tenants being Charles A. Baird, Druggist, and Crescentwood Grocery), the second, third, and partial fourth floors were residential. Although the 1909 building was designed by renowned American-Canadian architect John Danley Atchison, in 1911 a one-storey commercial addition fronting Grosvenor Avenue was built, designed by C.W.U. Chivers. In the early 1980s, the second floor was remodelled from four residential suites to office space. Many other more minor changes have taken place over the decades, but the front facade remains largely faithful to its original appearance.