River Osborne Community Center
The original park site was developed as a concrete playground, including the present vertical slap and a recessed sitting and play area. Local residents referred to the park as "the bear pit," a term adopted by the Winnipeg press. Its lack of greenery and its hard concrete surfaces seemed to some "inhuman"; that is, fit only for bears. The building more than two decades has reclaimed the site neighbourhood purposes.
Manitoba Government Telephones
The first Manitoba Telephone building at this site (638 Corydon) was built 1907. Over time seven additions have been made, including this one to house new equipment and terminals. It is one of the finest examples in the city of modernism in the style called Art Moderne. This mode emphasized dynamism with asymmetrical composition, the play of vertical and horizontal lines as seen in the stair tower, and in the new materials used in the glass blocks, as well as streamlining in the rounded corners at the entryway.
Piazza
The site of the Piazza was originally a residence, but the property was bought by the City and converted into this beautiful park like setting. The Piazza is much enjoyed by locals and visitors alike as it is a perfect place to rest one's feet after an enjoyable day of strolling Corydon Avenue. The open air concept allows for the sunlight to fill the Piazza while the encircling trees offer a well shaded respite from the summer heat. Slightly off the beaten track the Piazzo is an important component of the Corydon Avenue atmosphere.
Knox House
This 2.5-storey wood frame was first occupied by James Russell Knox, a machine operator for the Canadian National Railways. It is another good example of the very popular Queen Anne style used here for a working class home. By comparison, the next level of expense is represented by 126 Gerard Street. Notable features in this case are the projecting bay that continues up to allow triple windows at both the first and second storeys, plus the variety of wood patterns used for exterior surfaces
St. Michael’s Anglican Church
This Tyndall stone building incorporates an earlier church of 1904 as its transept (crossing space), much as had been done for centuries in Europe. That structure, originally a mission of All Saints Anglican, was concerned under the present name by 1910. Permanency was obviously desired as a foundation was laid 10 years later to support massive 15-inch-thick stone walls. Construction was slow, however, and the structure, which cost a total of more than $22,000, was not finished for a decade. The rectory was added in 1932. The choice of early Romanesque as the style is unique among all the churches in the diocese; the rest are predominantly Gothic. This might be explained by the building's origins as a mission church and its one-storey height. Its priest for over three decades (1931-61) was Father William C. Turney, a prominent pedestrian rights activist.
Thompson House
The rising importance of the railway industry to Winnipeg's growth and prosperity in the decade preceding the Great War is evidenced by houses like this. Of comparable size and cost ($2,500) to the house at 628 Warsaw, these premises also accommodated a CNR employee, Walter T. Thompson. Exemplary of a Queen Anne variant called the Stick style, it has a porch that remains largely as it did originally, and it features a variety of wood crafts, including turning, jigging, and joining. The great similarity between houses on this block is due to the fact that several were built by Isenberg.
Earl Grey School
Earl Grey, one of Winnipeg's grand old schools, is named for the Governor General of Canada from 1904 to 1911 who initiated the Grey Cup in 1909. Safety concerns were paramount in the design of this facility, as is evident in its fireproof structure, wide corridors, and many means of entry and exit. As well, it had Winnipeg's first direct alarm connection to a nearby fire hall. The exterior is brick with Tyndall stone details as a veneer over a reinforced concrete structure. Another key requirement, day lighting, was accomplished with large, tall windows and an H-shaped plan to maximize the perimeter. The total cost of construction was nearly $160,000. The stately Neo-Georgian styling features two towers encompassing the front entrances. Their different heights present a counter to the dominant symmetry of the facade. Earl Grey saw the first Canadian experiment in junior high segregation (classes move, not the teachers) in 1919
Zimmerman House
Built at a cost of $4,000, this bungalow is a good example of a middle-class house type popular between the wars. It's one-storey plan, low-pitched roof with broad projecting eaves, and exposed supporting beams is ultimately based on Japanese precedents filtered through American designers such as Gustav Stickley. An indication of its adaptation to British- based culture is the segmental curved Neo-Georgian canopy over the entrance.
La Verendrye School
La Verendrye School is named after Pierre Gaultier de Verennes from Quebec, said to be the first white man to explore this region. Together with his sons he built a series of fur trading posts in the Lake Winnipeg basin from 1732 onward. As with the later design for Earl Grey School, J.B. Mitchell provided a plan with safety and natural lighting as primary objectives. Some of the large windows still retain original leaded glass and some of the pressed metal ceilings remain. The building's scale and powerful mass contrast with the wooden houses that closely surround it. The school is built with the materials that uniquely represent Winnipeg's great building ages of the 1880s and 1900s, sand-coloured brick with Tyndall stone trimmings. Its Neo-Georgian style is enriched by the cut stone features of the entrance porch, including pilasters and balustrade.
Merchant’s Bank of Canada
Tenure of the Merchants Bank in this brick building was brief; it became a second branch of the Bank of Montreal in Fort Rouge in 1923. As with its sister on Stradbrook, the branch had its entrance facing one way directly onto the commercial street, thus providing a contrast to its cross-corner neighbour, the Union Bank. Its original cost was $17,500 and its style was Neoclassical with a temple front motif, including pilasters flanking the entrance. In 1945 the current commercial use as R. Santa Furs was initiated, making it one of the most long-lived institutions of the neighbourhood. In 1958 the façade was considerably altered to provide the large display windows.
Union Bank of Canada
The pairing of this and its competitor, the Merchant's Bank which opened across the street in the same year, reflected much about the competitive strategy of the great boom ending at the time of World War 1. Direct confrontation was the order of the day; locations were determined by proximity to streetcar stops. The Union Bank had its showpiece, a skyscraper headquarters on Main Street, trumpeted as the tallest building in the British Empire at the time. But here the neighbourhood bank was to be low-cost ($12,000) and revenue-producing. It is spare in its ornamentation which is limited mainly to the corner entrance of the building hall.
St. Ignatius Church
This was the first serving church serving the Roman Catholics of Fort Rouge, River Heights, and Crescentwood. The present structure replaced a wooden building bought from the Baptists when they moved to their new stone edifice at Nassau and Gertrude. Only three years later, St. Ignatius was erecting its own building at a cost of $40,000. A small addition was made in 1917 and a decade later a large extension to the east increased the floor area of the hall by a third, including a new narthex and façade.
