Description of Historic Place

Building 10, also known as the Academic Building 1, is located at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Cornwallis. It is a low, single-storey, wood frame structure designed with an E-shaped plan and intersecting gable roofs and is distinguished by its clock tower crowned by a lantern and surrounded by a roof walk. Sited on a grassed slope, Building 10 faces a two-hectare parade ground, and forms part of an enclosed ring of military structures constructed during the Second World War. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

Building 10 is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental values.

Historical Value
Building 10 is closely associated with the theme of training in naval ordnance with the Canadian Forces. As a gunnery school, Building 10 was one of the first naval training sections transferred from Halifax to the new Cornwallis base. The buildings on the base, constructed in 1942-1943, are representative of the phenomenal expansion of Canada’s naval training program during the Second World War, and with the establishment of Canada’s principal naval training facility. The construction of HMCS Cornwallis had an immense impact on the development of the Annapolis Basin and the local economy which has benefited over the years.

Architectural Value
Building 10 is a very good example of the simplified classical style broadly used in temporary wartime buildings in Canada. The characteristic features of this distinctive building type are the low massing, the symmetrical E-shaped plan, and the intersecting pitch gable roofs. Its good functional design and quality craftsmanship are reflected in the wood based design and construction approach adopted by the military in response to temporary circumstances restricting the use of masonry and steel.

Environmental Value
Building 10 maintains an unchanged relationship to its site and reinforces the wartime character of its historic-streetscape setting on the base. It is a familiar building on the base.

Sources: Edgar Tumak, Buildings 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 26, Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office, Building Reports 92-112, 93-001, 93-002, 93-009, 93-097; Academic Building No.1 (No. 10), CFB Cornwallis, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, Heritage Character Statement, 93-097.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of Building 10 should be respected.

Its simplified classical style, functional design, and quality craftsmanship, for example:
- its simple, low, single-storey massing and symmetrical E-shaped plan with intersecting gable roofs, a two-stage clock tower crowned by a lantern with a low pyramidal roof and weather vane surrounded by a roof walk;
- its wood frame construction clad in siding;
- its symmetrical arrangement of door and window elements;
- its shallow concrete foundation;
- its interior double-loaded corridors and surviving corridor plan.

The manner in which Building 10 maintains an unchanged relationship to its site, reinforces the wartime character of its historic-streetscape setting on the base and is familiar, as evidenced by:
- its ongoing relationship to its grassed slope site at the west end of the parade ground;
- its specialized military design which harmonizes with and forms part of a grouping of buildings built in 1942-1943 that enclose and face the parade ground;
- its familiarity, visibility and physical prominence within the base area by virtue of its distinctive roof silhouette, clock tower and its elevated site.