Description of Historic Place

The Tractor Garage is a rectangular, one storey building with a gabled roof covered with cedar shingles. The exterior walls are sheathed with beveled siding. Double sliding doors on the north façade accommodate entry and storage of vehicle and farm equipment. The colour scheme barn red walls and white trim keeps with tradition across the Prairies and visually links the strucure to the other buildings on site. The Garage is set on a flat grassy area central location in the Bar U Ranch. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Tractor Garage is a Classified Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental values:

Historical value:
The Bar U Ranch is one of the best examples of the national theme of ranching in Alberta, and its importance in the development of Canada. As a functional component of the Bar U Ranch, the Tractor Garage is important for its contribution as a storage building illustrating the ranch’s use of specialized farm vehicles by this period. The building is also associated with Patrick Burns, who purchased the Bar U Ranch in 1927 to add to his vast cattle empire. Burns who is recognised as the kingpin of the meat processing industry in western Canada during the mid-1920s, has been designated a person of national significance.

Architectural value:
The Tractor Building is a very good example of agricultural storage facilities and early 1900s building practices at the Bar U and in the region. Its value lies in its functional design and form, simple massing, common construction details, exterior finish, and interior layout. It has a character of simplicity and functionality.

Environmental value:
The Tractor Garage is part of a cohesive complex of buildings arranged to great functional effect in an exceptional ranch site.. The Tractor Garage contributes to the character of the Bar U Ranch.

Sources:
Edward Mills, Historic Bar U Ranch Headquarters, Longview, Alberta. Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office Report 92-017

Tractor Garage (Building 7), Bar U Ranch, Longview, Alberta. Heritage Character
Statement 92-017

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements of the Tractor Garage should be respected, for example:

Its agricultural storage building type and good quality materials and craftsmanship as manifested in:
- the light frame structural system.
- the gabled roof clad with shingles.
- the exterior and interior horizontal boards.
- the large sliding vehicle doors on the front elevation.
- the two twelve light sash windows and the two six light sash windows.

The manner in which the building reinforces the ranch setting.