A terra cotta tale for Halloween

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/10/2014 (4073 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s nearly Halloween and I know no Wolseley tale of terror. I can, however, recount a story from the other side. The other side of Portage Avenue, that is.

It’s a story of disguise and let’s say costume change… or, for the macabre, of “head cloning.” It’s a story that links two Winnipeg landmark buildings and it starts with a frightful event.

On May 25, 1953, shortly after noon, a terra cotta rosette fell from the cornice — the decorative top edging — of the 13-storey Union Tower Building at 191 Lombard Ave. at Main Street.

Architectural terra cotta — a molded, fired clay material — was popular for cladding and fine detail on late 19th and early 20th century buildings. A white glazed variety, gleaming like china, sheaths and embellishes the Union Tower.

The City Engineering Department reported at the time of incident that the rosette “landed on the public sidewalk on Main Street, narrowly missing pedestrians.”

The skyscraper’s broad, frilly cornice was removed later that year. The wall that once supported it was rebuilt and covered with “plaster stucco” scored with lines suggestive of brick. And so, one of Winnipeg’s most elegant buildings was left with a blockish, blank top. It looked to be decapitated.

Some 30 years and 3.8 kilometres down the road (Portage Avenue, that is), terra cotta ornamentation on the Robert Fletcher Building at 1181 Portage Ave. at Wall Street was removed, replicated and replaced. It was 1984.

Original terra cotta that graced the otherwise austere brick building (this was formerly a Ford Motor Company assembly plant, but that’s another story) was used to produce molds for casting the replacement features, including a new cornice.

The restrained, clean lines of the Robert Fletcher cornice were nothing like the Union Tower’s once frothy top. But with some measure of success, both buildings would sport the same hat… or head.

In 1985, the Union Tower’s owner sought to reinstate that building’s cornice. Molds from the recent work on the Robert Fletcher Building and a glass-reinforced concrete product, also used on the earlier project, were utilized to create the Tower’s new crown.

The story ends well.

Current owners of Winnipeg’s terra cotta buildings are aware of their responsibilities to ensure the material’s good repair. Ideally, missing or irreparable segments are replaced with new terra cotta. Historic manufacturers still craft this versatile material.

And thanks to the Robert Fletcher Building, the Union Tower again has a good head on its shoulders.

Community correspondent Gail Perry has, for many years, led a downtown terra cotta walking tour for Winnipeg Architecture Foundation. For more information on terra cotta in Winnipeg, see www.winnipegarchitecture.ca/a-terra-cotta-tour