The Gibbard Block

Written By Dane Ryksen

  • 6423 112th Avenue

  • Architect: Ernest W. Morehouse

  • Constructed: 1912

  • Designation: Municipal & Provincial Historic Resource

Sitting in the Highlands, the “highest class residential section of the city,” the Gibbard Block was the work of the Magrath-Holgate Company, the area’s developer. While they originally intended their development to be wholly high-class residential — à la Glenora — the arrival of the streetcar along Knox Avenue — today’s 112th — brought the possibility of other developments.

Magrath-Holgate’s plan was to build a business and apartment block that could attract retail and working class individuals into what was ostensibly a wealthy suburban area. The thought was that it could “increase the neighbourhood’s sustainability without compromising its exclusive residential quality,” as it was “technically located just outside the original boundary of the Highlands.” Their proposal wasn’t without merit. Ken Tingly writes that “as demand for housing escalated during the pre-war boom years, apartments became an important part of Edmonton’s housing scene” and buildings like the Westminster and Arlington Apartments proved their viability.

The company searched for financiers and found one in William Thomas Gibbard, a furniture merchant from Napanee, Ontario. He was a striking figure — an archival photo shows him clutching a Homburg hat while draped in a thick fur overcoat, as steely-eyes stare out and sharp smile-lines frame a thin frown — but he was a cautious, aging man, and not someone who typically ventured into land speculation. Still, he agreed to front one-third of the projected $30,000 price-tag on one condition; he received naming rights. Magrath-Holgate acquiesced despite fronting most of the cost. But why invest in a city some 3,000 kilometres away? His daughter lived there.

Construction began in October 1912. The Edmonton Journal wrote that it was a boon:

“The value of the north end of the city from a commercial viewpoint is just beginning to cut a figure among the businessmen of the city, and a handsome new building is shortly to be erected on block 23, Bellevue Addition adjoining the Highlands. When this block is up the Highlands and surrounding property will receive a big boost, for the streetcars run right alongside the property and situated as it is near to the Swift Canadian [packing] plant, this portion of the city should go ahead more rapidly than it has previously done.”

Architecturally, the Gibbard Block is typical of Edmonton’s pre-war Edwardian-style commercial buildings. Built from pressed brick manufactured in Redcliffe, Alberta, the building features, what A Guide to Canadian Architectural Styles calls, a “grandiose and robustly modelled” exterior design.  Likewise, interiors were luxuriously furnished. Its eleven suits, featuring one to five rooms each, and three storefronts all had electric lighting and telephones. In addition each apartment featured hot and cold showers, and modern kitchenware.

Retail tenants like the Belleview Meat Market and Highlands Cash Grocery lived to serve the community, and small-scale grocers maintained a presence here in one form or another into the Second World War. Apartment tenants varied. Initial renters included: James Allardice of F.S. Lawrence & Co.; Gallespie G. Dunlop of Gariepy, Madore & Dunlop Barristers; Henry C. Damkroeger of the Zenith Construction Co. Ltd.; and James Fulton, an accountant with Jasper Brokers Ltd. As the years went by the block became a preferred home for labourers, particularly meatpackers.

But the Gibbard was a bust. As Jac MacDonald writes:

“Some reports have indicated that the Gibbard Bock was erected for $90,000. This is a distinct possibility, considering the inflationary boom times which existed in 1912, and the cost of importing materials and craftsmen into an area that was little more than farm land on the city’s hinterland.”

Soon the market crashed and the Highlands never became the exclusive community that Magrath-Holgate hoped. Lots sat undeveloped — more sat unsold — and many of those built on were foreclosed. Ultimately, “Magrath died and his family lost his home. Holgate pulled out of his Ada Boulevard mansion with a quit claim and the shirt on his back. Gibbard died in 1920, and all of their interests in the Gibbard Block were foreclosed on in a complicated legal action in 1926;” Kingston’s Queen’s University received the title and kept it until 1945.

By the early 1970s, the Gibbard Block had become a low-rent boarding house and most of its tenants were transient. But its charm still shined through its ratty exterior, and Ernest Ender, an Austrian immigrant, saw its potential. In 1979 he opened La Bohème, a traditional French restaurant, on the building’s ground floor. “People say I’m crazy,” Ender told the Journal. “So far every cent I’ve made I’ve put into the building... but I have a fantasy about this building” — buying it outright. He achieved his dream within six years and committed $800,000 to restoring it. As MacDonald writes, the Gibbard Block “emerged from a period of decay to become fashionable and profitable once again” and for nearly forty years La Bohème and its upper-floor bed-and-breakfast became a Highlands staple.

Of course with a building this old there’s ghost stories, but most have little bearing in reality. The most persistent is the tale of a Depression-era murder. Jealous of his wife, the building’s caretaker allegedly killed her in their third-floor bedroom, and dragged the corpse down to the basement. There, he proceeded to dismember the body, and fed it to the coal-fired boiler. “Bone fragments were noticed by employees, eventually leading to an arrest and murder conviction,” or so the story goes. It’s a fun tale, but I’ve yet to find any contemporary sources corroborating it. You’d think a story like that would’ve been reported on both of Edmonton’s leading papers.

A big change came in 2018; La Bohème and its bed-and-breakfast closed. The restaurant’s then-owners, Mike and Connie Comeau, told C.B.C. News that “too many losses in the family” forced their hand. But the couple said it wasn’t as hard a choice as they thought. Global News reporter Kendra Slugoski explained that “before selling the building, the Comeaus said they wanted to make sure Gibbard Block would remain a focal point in the neighbourhood. Sparrow Capital [a local developer] was the right fit, so much so, the La Boheme owners said they invested in the future plan. ‘We were all in,’ Comeau said. ‘We believe in it that much.’”

Since then, Sparrow, Black Box Hospitality, and the City of Edmonton have invested over $4,000,000 into restoring and modernizing the building, funded in part by a wildly successful Kickstarter project and the City’s heritage grant program. Now the Gibbard Block is once again home to a new slew of tenants: “Fox Burger, a craft beer and burger shack; June’s Delicatessen, a Jewish-influenced deli serving bagels and pastrami; and Highlands Liquor, a boutique liquor store.”

Image Gallery:

An early render of the building by architect Ernest Morehouse.

Edmonton Journal, September 21st, 1912.

Sources:

Dane Ryksen
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