Drinkle Building No. 3

Description of the Historic Place

The Drinkle Building No. 3 is a five storey building with a brick façade that was constructed in 1913. Located in Saskatoon’s Central Business District at 115 3rd Avenue South, the Drinkle Building No. 3 is associated with J.C. Drinkle, one of the city’s pioneer developers. A 72 foot mural on the building’s north façade pays homage to some of Saskatoon’s earliest citizens, including Drinkle himself.  

Heritage Value

The Drinkle Building No. 3 was designed by Thompson & Crockart, and was constructed from structural steel and concrete with a facing of buff-coloured brick. The four bay building’s lines give the impression of a much newer building, due to the abruptness of the top of the building and the lack of detail in columns, cornices or parapets. The Drinkle Building No. 3 features pilasters with capitals and plinths and horizontal blocks on the lower portion of its façade.

In addition to its architecture, the heritage value of Drinkle Building No.3 lies in its association with Ontario-born J.C. Drinkle, who moved to Saskatoon at 25 years of age in 1903 with less than $500 to his name. As one of Saskatoon’s earliest developers, Drinkle teamed up with F. E. Kerr and set up a real estate office in Saskatoon and began purchasing large tracts of land. Ten years after Drinkle first settled in Saskatoon, the City had a booming population of 28,000 and Drinkle had become a multi-millionaire. He owned business property on 1st, 2nd and 3rd Avenue, 22nd Street West, 23rd Street West and a tract of 210 acres within the city, which was considered to be prime real estate.  Drinkle formed the City of Saskatoon Real Estate (Drinkle) Corporation for the purpose of developing and improving local business property. He was one of the first, and one of the youngest, real estate operators in Saskatoon prior to the First World War.

The Drinkle Building No. 3 originally was planned to be a ten-storey office tower with a grand cornice, marble corridors and a rooftop garden. As the money supply tightened in 1913, construction of Drinkle Building No. 3 was stopped halfway resulting in the five-storey building that stands on 3rd Avenue today. In 1917, J.C. Drinkle was bankrupt and the building remained empty for the first six years following its completion. The building was never used for offices as initially intended, and was instead converted for residential use in 1919.

The Drinkle Building No. 3 remains an important building along 3rd Avenue South, and is symbolic of the boom and bust experienced by the city in its early years. In 2007, the building received a Cultural Capitals grant through the City of Saskatoon and Heritage Canada to install a 72 foot tall artwork featuring portraits of 7 city founders on the north wall of the building. Titled "Founders", the mural was hand painted by artist Henry van Seters. Today, the building contains a mixture of residential, office and retail uses, and a sundeck on the roof of the building provides sweeping panoramic views of the city.

Source: City of Saskatoon Built Heritage Database

Character Defining Elements

Key elements which contribute to the heritage value of this historic resource include:

• Its architecture, evident in its; buff-coloured brick façade with stone belt-courses; its lack of detailing and ornamentation; its capitals, plinths and horizontal blocks on the lower portion of the façade, and its brick pilaster; and
• Those features that speak to its significance to early Saskatoon developers including its 72 foot mural depicting seven notable early Saskatoon Citizens.