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The Winnipeg Architecture Foundation will be presenting a lecture this week on a distinctive figure in the city’s architectural history.
The works of David Wynyard Bellhouse are still readily seen throughout Winnipeg today, with prominent examples including the Henderson Building in the Exchange District, St. Edward’s Roman Catholic Church on Arlington Street and several prominent houses in the Armstrong’s Point neighbourhood. These buildings represent the wide range of influences that Bellhouse brought with him to Canada from England, where he studied architecture at the royal academy schools after serving as an apprentice.
“He's also reputed to be the first professionally trained architect to enter western Canada,” says David Bellhouse, the great-grandson of the architect and the author of David Wynyard Bellhouse: Biograpy of a Winnipeg Architect who will be giving the lecture.
The wide range of influences is, to Bellhouse, one of the key elements of his great-grandfather's work in Winnipeg and what makes his buildings such interesting parts of the city. “He did not stick solely to any one school of design,” says Bellhouse of his great-grandfather's ouevre. “He had Edwardian classical revival houses in Armstrong’s Point, and he built churches that range from Tudor revival to Italian Romanesque revival.”
Part of the reason for Bellhouse’s wide range of ideas and inspirations was his family background. His father came from money, and travelled around Europe extensively with his children, which in turn left an impression on the inspiring architect. This influence combined with his experience farming near Cypress River, Manitoba when he first came to Canada added to his architectural desire to build a lasting legacy.
David Bellhouse’s lecture on the works of David Wynyard Bellhouse will take place at 12 p.m. on August 27 at 101-177 Lombard Street in the Exchange District. More information can be found at the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation’s website.