The Standard Bread Company bakery is a three-storey building with a four-storey tower, located west of the railway tracks at 951 Gladstone Avenue. The brick-clad, concrete building was constructed in 1924 and is located in Hintonburg, west of downtown Ottawa.
The Standard Bread Company has historical value for its association with the Standard Bread Company and its founders, Cecil Morrison and Dick Lamothe. The bakery was constructed in 1924 and the company expanded rapidly in the 1920s with a new bakery opening in Montreal in 1925. In 1927, the company merged with the Lake of the Woods Milling Company to become part of Inter-City Bakery Limited. Morrison and Lamothe continued in the bread business, opening the Morrison Lamothe bakery in 1932, a company remains in business today.
The Standard Bread Company bakery has heritage value as a representative work of architect Sydney Comber. Based in Montreal, Comber became known for designing commercial bakeries and dairy production facilities. In addition to this building, Comber designed bakeries in Winnipeg, Toronto, Saskatoon, Regina and Calgary.
The bakery has design value as a good, rare example of an early 20th century industrial building in Ottawa. The purpose-built, three-storey, reinforced concrete building with brick cladding is simple in its design, expressing its industrial use, while featuring some decorative elements including a date stone and brick pilasters. The interior features large open spaces punctuated by flared mushroom columns that reinforce its historic use as an industrial building.
The Standard Bread Company bakery's heritage value also lies in its contextual value as an important reminder of the former industrial character of this part of Hintonburg. The bakery is a landmark in the neighbourhood for its location at the top of a small hill adjacent to the railway tracks.
The attributes that express the heritage value of the Standard Bread Company bakery as a good example of a early 20th century industrial building include its:
- three storey massing with four storey tower;
- reinforced concrete construction with brick cladding laid in stretcher bond; simple
- ornamentation including:
- brick pilasters
- simple brick parapet o metal cornice
- date stone
- Large rectangular window openings with concrete sills and brick lintels arranged in groups of
two and three on the south facade
- Arrangement of window and door openings on the east facade including bricked in third storey loading door openings
- Large rectangular 15/15, 15/1, and 10/1 wooden sash windows
- Loading doors in basement on east facade
- Simple raised entrance at southeast corner of the building accessed by a staircase Cornerstone engraved with the words "Audaces Fortuna Juvat"
- 1924 date stone
- Interior flared mushroom reinforced concrete columns
- The prominent location at the top of a small hill, adjacent to the railway tracks
- The designation is limited to the footprint and envelope of the 1924 bakery building. With the exception of the interior attribute listed above, the remainder of the interior of the building is excluded. The former loading dock (now the shopping plaza) and all other buildings on the site are excluded from the designation.
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