Description of Historic Place

Ross House Museum, built in 1852-55, is a modest Red River frame dwelling set in the Joe Zuken Heritage Park in the Point Douglas area of Winnipeg. The City of Winnipeg's designation applies to the building on its footprint.

Heritage Value

Ross House Museum is a rare and outstanding example of a Red River frame dwelling, which was built by one of the Red River Settlement's prominent Metis families and for a period doubled as Western Canada's first post office. Made almost entirely of hand-carved logs, the structure is a simplified expression of the Georgian style of architecture commonly used in the settlement. Its robust facades of oak timbers and glass windowpanes imported from England enhance the otherwise modest appointments. The house, called Brookbank, was erected by William Ross, who had served the local Council of Assiniboia as a sheriff, jailer, magistrate and councillor and in 1855 became its first postmaster, a role he carried out from his residence until his death in 1856. Members of his family continued to occupy the premises into the early 1900s. Subsequently relocated and restored, the building is operated as a museum by the Manitoba Historical Society.

Source: City of Winnipeg Council Meeting Minutes, August 11, 1980

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the dwelling's unpretentious Georgian architecture include:
- the simple, symmetrical, box-like massing, 1 1/2 storeys high, with a cedar-shingled hip roof punctuated by single gable dormers on each of the smaller ends
- the Red River frame construction featuring walls of massive squared logs set horizontally between vertical members with dovetail joins
- the multi-paned rectangular double-hung windows throughout, many with nine-over-six-pane sashes, some with original 19th century glass, and all with simple wooden surrounds and sills painted to contrast with the logs
- the details, including the fieldstone base, the intact wooden doors throughout, many with original hardware, a brick chimney, etc.

Key elements that define the house's straightforward interior layout, finishes and details include:
- the formal main-floor plan, with each room connecting directly to the next without corridors, and the open attic and the wide, uneven wood plank floors throughout and plank ceilings with exposed beams
- the unfinished attic accessed through a hatch in the kitchen ceiling, reached via a basic wooden drop-down staircase lowered and raised on a pulley system
- the historically accurate colour palette, including most rooms with beige walls, tan floors and chocolate brown ceilings, and one room with a green ceiling and trim
- the modest yet functional details, including the walls of clay, lime and horse or bison hair plaster, mouldings, etc., and the furnishings and artifacts belonging to the Ross family, including desks, chairs, postal implements, a Carron stove, etc.