Description of Historic Place

Located in the Bear Creek Compound, Warehouse No. 1, also known as Building 27, faces a large, open yard in a historic, non-operating, placer gold mining facility in the Klondike River valley. This rectangular building is clad in wood and metal siding and covered by a metal-covered gable roof. The front of the building is distinguished by a pair of large doors. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

Warehouse No. 1 is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental value.

Historical Value
Warehouse No. 1, as part of the Bear Creek Compound, is associated with the corporate phase of Yukon’s gold mining history, in particular the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation’s renewal and expansion program of the 1930s. The building also illustrates the importance of warehouses and other storage facilities at remote mining facilities, where it was necessary to keep large stocks of materials and supplies on hand.

Architectural Value
Warehouse No.1 is a good aesthetic design of a building that was constructed to provide storage for the large quantity of materials and supplies at a remote location. The small office that serves as a link to the adjacent Engineering Office and the three interconnected storage areas with a central passage and high windows are evidence of its good functional design.

Environmental Value
Warehouse No.1 maintains an unchanged relationship to its site and reinforces the character of its industrial setting at the 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; Warehouse No.1 (Building #27), Bear Creek Compound, Yukon, Heritage Character Statement, 89-008.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of Warehouse No. 1 should be respected.

Its simple aesthetic, functional design, and good craftsmanship and materials, for example: the simple and functional nature of its design, and its overall good workmanship and appropriate use of materials; the features of its form, construction, and materials that unify it with the site’s other buildings, including its rectangular shape, its metal-covered gable roof, the horizontal wood siding on its front elevation, and the corrugated metal siding on its other elevations; the functional configuration of its three interconnected storage areas, with their central passage and high windows; the small shipping office, which also serves as a link to the adjacent Engineering Office (Building 28); its comfortable relationship – due to its simple form, materials, detailing, and colour scheme – with the other structures and landscape features of the site, particularly the Engineering Office (Building 28).

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.

Warehouse No. 1 (Building #27) was constructed by the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation (YCGC) as part of a 1930s renewal and expansion program of the Bear Creek industrial complex, a service facility for the YCGC's gold mining operations. By 1936, it was in use as one of a group of warehouses and open sheds providing storage for the large quantity of materials and supplies kept on hand at this remote location. When the Engineering Office (Building #28), relocated from the Arlington Camp, was reconstructed next to it in 1940, a one-storey addition was built to serve as a link between the two structures and a shipping office. Operations at the Bear Creek complex ceased in 1966, and the property was acquired by Parks Canada, its present custodian, in 1975. In 1982, Warehouse No. 1 was stabilized and repaired, and its front section was modified to provide environment-controlled storage space for artefacts.

Reasons for designation

Warehouse No. 1 is a 'Recognized' Federal Heritage Building because of its historical, architectural, and environmental values:

As part of the Bear Creek complex, Warehouse No. 1 is associated with the corporate phase of Yukon's gold mining history, in particular the YCGC's renewal and expansion program of the 1930s. It also illustrates the importance of warehouses and other storage facilities at remote mining facilities, where it was necessary to keep large stocks of materials and supplies on hand.

Warehouse No. 1 is simple and functional in design, and exhibits good workmanship and appropriate use if materials. Its elongated rectangular form is topped by a gable roof. Its front elevation, like that of the Engineering Building to which it is connected by a one-storey link, is clad in horizontal wood siding, painted grey, with white trim, but its side and rear elevations are clad in vertical corrugated metal siding. Its roof is covered with corrugated metal. A pair of large equipment doors provides access at the front, and a large sliding door opens onto a loading dock at the rear. Due to its storage function, the windows are small and high. The interior is composed of three consecutive spaces connected by doors, with double rows of wood posts from front to back forming a central passage that separates the storage space on each side. The front room has been equipped with an environmental-control system and continues to be used for the storage of artefacts.

Warehouse No. 1 reinforces the industrial character of the Bear Creek Compound, a functionally obsolete but remarkably intact village-like mining service facility, with its 80 structures and landscape features relating to large-scale mechanical placer mining. Like the other main buildings on the site, it faces the open yard. It enjoys a functional and visual link with the adjacent Engineering Office (Building #28).

Character-defining elements

The following character-defining elements of Warehouse No. 1 should be respected:
· The simple and functional nature of its design, and its overall good workmanship and appropriate use of
materials.
· The features of its form, construction, and materials that unify it with the site's other buildings, including its
rectangular shape, its metal-covered gable roof, the horizontal wood siding on its front elevation, and the
corrugated metal siding on its other elevations.
· The functional configuration of its three interconnected storage areas, with their central passage and high
windows.
· The small shipping office, which also serves as a link to the adjacent Engineering Office (Building #28).
· Its comfortable relationship ' due to its simple form, materials, detailing, and colour scheme ' with the other
structures and landscape features of the site, particularly the Engineering Office (Building #28).