Description of Historic Place

Building B-39 stands on an open site facing the parade square at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Kingston. It is a two-storey concrete structure clad in white stucco whose original flat roof is topped by a hipped roof. The two-storey, primary elevation features a projecting central portico supported on square columns. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

Building B-39 is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental values.

Historical Value
Building B-39 is associated with the massive construction and modernization program undertaken by the Department of National Defence after the Second World War. This program was part of a move towards a permanent peacetime army, and was in keeping with military commitments in Korea and western Europe. In the 1950s Building B-39, as part of the McNaughton Barracks, was used as a staging and training location for Canadian peacekeeping operations.

Architectural Value
Building B-39 demonstrates good aesthetic qualities as seen in the modernistic style combining Prairie style with Neoclassicism. The Department of National Defence staff developed the new and improved standard design for a 250-man barracks within a formally planned complex. The building is highly functional and exhibits good craftsmanship and materials.

Environmental Value
Building B-39 reinforces the present formally planned character of McNaughton Barracks within CFB Kingston and is a familiar landmark to local residents.

Sources: McNaughton Barracks – 4 Buildings, CFB Kingston, Barriefield, Ontario. Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office Report 93-116 (Notes); McNaughton Barracks, No. B-39 (Sherman Hall), CFB Kingston, Ontario, Heritage Character Statement 93-116.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Building B-39 should be respected.

Its role as an illustration of the expansion, modernization and diversification of the Canadian military in peacetime as reflected in: its exemplary role for new standards of military accommodation of its period.

Its standard design completed in a modernistic style combining Prairie-style and neoclassicism using good quality materials and craftsmanship as evidenced by: the building’s symmetrical and horizontally emphasis; the articulated corner accents, the emphasized and elaborated principal entrance with projecting portico and the recessed entrance of classical derivation; the wrap-around continuity of the belt courses; the concrete construction with white painted stucco cladding; the regular, horizontal window openings.

The manner in which Building B-39 reinforces the McNaughton Barracks setting within CFB Kingston and is a familiar local landmark, as evidenced by: its large scale, concrete and stucco materials and formal symmetry that harmonizes with the other buildings facing the parade square; the formal symmetry of its location and orientation addressing the principal open space of the McNaughton Barrracks; its visibility and familiarity given its prominent freestanding location and ongoing use as a barracks that makes it a well-known building in the area.

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.

Reasons for Designation

Building B-39, McNaughton Barracks (Lewis Hall) is a 'Recognized' Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental values:

Historical value :
Building B-39, McNaughton Barracks (Lewis Hall) is associated with the massive construction and modernization program undertaken by the Department of National Defence for all military services after the Second World War. The two primary themes for this association are: (1) the creation of a permanent peacetime army as a consequence of postwar foreign policy; and (2) the expansion and transformation of the military services to meet specific national commitments in the early years of the Cold War, beginning with mobilization for service in Korea and in western Europe, and later in the 1950s, as staging and training location for peacekeeping operations in Africa.

This barracks block, part of a quarters and mess complex, was an early component of the transformation of the former firing range at Camp Barriefield into the McNaughton Barracks portion of CFB Kingston. Unlike many major new military structures of the period that were designed by private architects, the building design was developed by DND staff as an exemplar of a new standard design for a 250-man barrack block or mess, with standards of accommodation improved over previous dormitory-hall arrangements. In its original operation, Lewis Hall shared food services with a second block building (B-37, Sherman Hall) at a 500-man mess (B-36, demolished).

Architectural value:
Lewis Hall is a two-storey concrete structure clad in white-painted stucco. The originally flat-roofed mass of the block remains evident beneath an added hipped, shingle-clad roof, whose broad eaves overhang the articulated corners of the main elevation. A flat-front pedimented gable sits above the original central portico, with a lower roof behind. The overall effect is a modernist hybrid of neo-classical formalism and Prairie-style accents.

The principal south-facing elevation is a symmetrical composition, centered on a double-height, flat-topped portico of six classically-arrayed rectangular pillars between end walls atop a short flight of steps, the whole standing out from the front wall and above the original roof line, protecting a principal entrance recessed from the front wall. With the exception of correspondingly recessed southwest and southeast corners that provide formal counterpoints to the horizontal emphasis of the broad main frontage, the elevations on all faces comprise two storeys of horizontal window openings on continuous lintels, accented by continuous projecting horizontal box-profile mouldings that wrap around the building. The originally multi-paned windows for each barrack room comprised an A-B-A arrangement of a fixed central unit bracketed by two narrower double-hung sash windows, since replaced by single-pane units in a functionally similar but evenly spaced A-A-A configuration.

The building plan is an elongated U, punctuated by a single-storey, central pavilion on the court (north) side. The internal plan comprises double-loaded corridors with four-person rooms on both sides, and shared shower- and washrooms at the corners. The interiors are generally finished with varied terrazzo floors, acoustic-tile ceilings and painted plaster walls, and with built-in wood-veneered furnishings in the barrack rooms. The common room, located behind the main central staircase, opposite the main entrance, is a large high-ceilinged room with windows on three sides facing an open lawn. Its principal interior feature, a full-height fieldstone-clad fireplace block projects into the room from the south wall. The interior is finished in a mid-century modernist recreational style, with checkerboard patterned linoleum-tile flooring, wooden paneling, and the original asymmetrical fireplace arrangement on a quarry-tile plinth clearly evident, though no longer functional.

The building shares its architectural character with the adjacent Sherman Hall (B-37) and nearby surviving elements of the early period of McNaughton construction.

Environmental value :
Building B-39 is part of a grouping at the western end of a relatively flat plain of mowed grass, laid out in a widely spaced grid plan of roadways, paved parking areas and building sites. Its front elevation, facing east, defines in part an incomplete formal quadrangle with building B-38 (Grant Building), a secondary architecturally defined open space of the McNaughton Barracks plan. The building is at the same time an essential part of a less formal but functional ensemble to the south with the adjacent Sherman Hall (B-37) and the now demolished 500-man mess.

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements of Building B-39, McNaughton Barracks (Lewis Hall) should be respected :

Its role as an illustration of the expansion, modernization and diversification of the Canadian military in peacetime is reflected in:

' its exemplary role for new standards of military accommodation of its period;
' its high standard of robust, durable construction;
' the formal and functional relationship of building elevations to internal arrangements; and
' its formally symmetrical orientation to its site, contributing to the definition of the formal grid configuration of the base plan and a secondary open space.

Its combination of architectural modernism and functionalism in a durable and economical form as manifested in:

' the symmetrical plan and horizontally emphasized massing of the building;
' the symmetrical main (south) elevation, with its articulated corner accents and the emphasized and elaborated principal entrance, with the projecting portico and recessed entrance of classical derivation;
' the general horizontal emphasis on all elevations, reinforced by the wrap-around continuity of the belt courses; and
' the hybrid modernistic style, a distinctive combination of aspects of, both Prairie-style and neoclassicism.

The manner in which it reinforces the formally planned character of the setting as evidenced in :

' its freestanding siting;
' the formal symmetry of its location and orientation addressing a secondary quadrangular open space of the McNaughton Barracks plan; and
' its relationship to a partially surviving functional building group.