Description of Historic Place

The Troberg Residence, also known as Building No. 67, is located in the Bear Creek Compound and is surrounded by trees in a historic, non-operating, placer gold mining facility in the Klondike River valley. This rectangular building is a combination of log and wood frame construction and is topped by a gabled roof with a large, shed dormer on each side. The front elevation is protected by a deep roof overhang supported by wood brackets. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Troberg Residence is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental value.

Historical Value
The Troberg Residence, as part of the Bear Creek Compound, is associated with the corporate phase of Yukon’s gold mining history. Its early log construction and original use as the facility’s Gold Room link it with the Canadian Klondike Mining Company. The building also illustrates how the site’s buildings were moved and adapted to meet changing requirements as a result of the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation’s renewal and expansion program in the 1930s.

Architectural Value
The Troberg Residence is a utilitarian structure with a good aesthetic design. The gable roof with large shed dormers on each side, enhance the residential appearance of the building and distinguish it from the other residential buildings at the compound. Its good craftsmanship and appropriate use of materials is evidenced in the log and wood frame construction, including the gable roof with an overhang, wood brackets and shed dormers.

Environmental Value
The Troberg Residence maintains an unchanged relationship to its site and reinforces the character of its remote, residential setting at the industrial Bear Creek Compound. The structure is familiar to those within the area.

Sources: Joan Mattie, Bear Creek Industrial Complex, Bear Creek, Yukon Federal Heritage Building Review Office Building Report 89-008; Troberg Residence (Building #67), Bear Creek Compound, Yukon, Heritage Character Statement, 89-008.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Troberg Residence should be respected: the simple and functional nature of its design, and its overall good workmanship and appropriate use of materials; its residential form and proportions, which, although modified following its relocation, distinguish it from the other residential buildings on the site; its combined log and wood-frame 1-1/2 storey structure and exterior materials: its exposed saddle-notched log walls, its horizontal siding above the roof line, its gable roof with an overhang and wood brackets, and its shed dormers; the arrangement and detailing of the windows and doors and their surrounds; the domestic nature of its remote site, with its surrounding trees, and its remote spatial relationship to the main grouping of Bear Creek buildings.

Heritage Character Statement

Disclaimer - The heritage character statement was developed by FHBRO to explain the reasons for the designation of a federal heritage building and what it is about the building that makes it significant (the heritage character). It is a key reference document for anyone involved in planning interventions to federal heritage buildings and is used by FHBRO in their review of interventions.

The Troberg Residence (Building #67) is a log structure dating to 1916 that apparently served as the Gold Room of the Canadian Klondike Mining Company. After 1939, it was moved to a remote corner of the site and converted to a residence by the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation (YCGC), which had established a service facility for its gold mining operations at the Bear Creek industrial complex. Operations at the facility ceased in 1966, and the property was acquired by Parks Canada, the present custodian, in 1975.

Reasons for designation

The Troberg Residence is a 'Recognized' Federal Heritage Building because of its historical, architectural, and environmental values:

As part of the Bear Creek Compound, the Troberg Residence is associated with the corporate phase of Yukon's gold mining history. Its early log construction and apparent original use as the facility's Gold Room link it with the Canadian Klondike Mining Company, but it also illustrates how the site's buildings were moved and adapted to meet changing requirements as a result of the YCGC's renewal and expansion program in the 1930s.

The Troberg Residence is simple and functional in design, and exhibits good workmanship and appropriate use of materials. It has a 1-1/2-storey rectangular log construction up to the roofline and a wood-frame structure above. Its gable roof has a large shed dormer on each side, and these, as well as the upper portions of its end gables are clad with horizontal wood siding. Unlike most of the other buildings on the site, its front façade is its long elevation, rather than in the end gable. It is protected by a deep roof overhang supported by wood brackets. The ground floor has three large rooms, including a kitchen with a side door, around a central opening with stairways leading upstairs and down to the basement.

Although surrounded by trees and located away from the cluster of buildings around the large open yard, the Troberg Residence reinforces the residential character of this functionally obsolete but remarkable intact village-like mining service facility, with its 80 structures and several landscape features relating to large-scale mechanical placer mining.

Character-defining elements


The following character-defining elements of the Troberg Residence should be respected:
· The simple and functional nature of its design, and its overall good workmanship and appropriate use of
materials.
· Its residential form and proportions, which, although modified following its relocation, distinguish it from the
other residential buildings on the site.
· Its combined log and wood-frame 1-1/2 storey structure and exterior materials: its exposed saddle-notched
log walls, its horizontal siding above the roof line, its gable roof with an overhang and wood brackets, and its
shed dormers.
· The arrangement and detailing of the windows and doors and their surrounds.
· The domestic nature of its remote site, with its surrounding trees, and its remote spatial relationship to the
main grouping of Bear Creek buildings.