Independent Order of Odd Fellows Temple

Description of the Historic Place

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows Temple features a three-storey, brick and terracotta faced office building in Saskatoon’s downtown.

This historic place, located at 416 21st Street East, was designated as a municipal heritage property in 1983. Designation is limited to the building’s exterior.

Heritage Value

Built between 1911 and 1912 by Saskatoon architect Walter W. LaChance, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Temple combines simple symmetry and an attractive terra cotta façade in a blend of neo-Classical and Beaux-Arts architecture. Both of these architectural styles are relatively rare in Saskatoon. Its temple-like composition includes rusticated, low-relief pillars and capitals with a hint of Classicism, a slender frieze and corbelled cornice. On the top storey, decorated pilasters separated by ornate panels support an entablature adorned with female faces suggestive of the caryatids of ancient Greece or Persia, completed by a scrolled parapet and an inscribed pediment. Stone sills emphasize the symmetrical placement of the windows, including those at ground level. Built by the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows, the building follows the Lodge tradition of combining meeting space with commercial property to offset costs.

The Heritage value of this building also lies in its long association with the development of the Saskatoon community and its integral contribution to the 21st Street East streetscape. The creation of the building reflected the need for a centre for social functions in Saskatoon. The solution to this was the building of the Odd Fellows Temple, commissioned by the Saskatoon Lodge #29, which had been formed in 1903 and the North Star Lodge #67, formed seven years later. The Dominion Land Titles office was also once located here, and it was also the site of Saskatoon’s first library from 1913 to 1923.

The building served as an Odd Fellows Temple until 1959. The building later became a Union Centre, and today serves a number of mixed-use functions. In close proximity to the historic railway hotel, the Bessborough Hotel, and various other pre-World War I structures along 21st Street, this building contributes strongly to one of Saskatoon’s main commercial boulevards.

Source: City of Saskatoon Bylaw No.6357 / City of Saskatoon Built Heritage Database / Canadian Register of Historic Places

Character Defining Elements

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

• Its terra cotta façade and Tyndall stone window trim;
• Its Neo-Classical architecture, evident in: its high-relief carvings of its entablature, its pillars and capitals;
• Its Beaux-Arts architecture, evident in: its scrolled parapet and other ornate details of its entablature and cornice; and
• The abbreviation “I.O.O.F.” inscribed in its central pediment.