Zenith Building

Description of the Historic Place

The Zenith Building is a two storey brick building located in the Central Business District at 128 2nd Avenue North. Built in 1913, the building has been a local landmark in Saskatoon's downtown for over 100 years.

Heritage Value

Originally called the Dominion Block, the heritage value of the Zenith Building is its history with a number of long standing businesses in Saskatoon. Following its initial construction, the building provided office suites in a prime main street location.  Its first tenants were a microcosm of the rapidly diversifying and economically active city. Between 1918 and 1919, Samuel Serif moved west from Ontario, and took an interest in the building.  Serif opened up suites in the building (called the Elite Rooms at the time) in 1919. He relocated the Zenith café, a joint venture with his brothers that had been operating a few doors down, to the ground floor of the building and renamed it the Zenith Building. Although Serif sold the building to merchant Robert McGowan in 1924 he continued to operate the café. For over a decade, the Zenith restaurant was one of the city’s finest; the Zenith Café orchestra provided live music for the dinner crowd. The Café continued its success into the 30s, although the Depression seemed to have had a slow debilitating effect on the Serif brothers' operation.  In 1938 the Zenith Café closed and the Serif family moved out of Saskatoon.

A number of other retail and office tenants have occupied the Zenith Building over the years, including Broadbent’s Furniture who occupied the space from 1940 – 1979. A second-hand music store, called The Vinyl Exchange, has been a tenant since 1994. Throughout its long life, the Zenith Building has remained one of the anchors of Second Avenue, providing a visual monument to the energy of Saskatoon's early builders and entrepreneurs, while striving to maintain its usefulness for current business needs and appeal to contemporary tastes.

Source:  City of Saskatoon Built Heritage Database

Character Defining Elements

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

• Those features that relate to its historical significance, such as the building’s brick façade and crenellated parapet, its location along 2nd Avenue, and its form, massing and scale.