Description of Historic Place

The Kinasao Lutheran Bible Camp Log House is a Municipal Heritage Property located one kilometre west of the Town of Christopher Lake in the Rural Municipality of Lakeland No. 521. The designation applies to a two-storey, gambrel-roof, log structure located within the Kinasao Lutheran Bible Camp compound on the eastern shore of Christopher Lake.

Heritage Value

The Kinasao Lutheran Bible Camp Log House is of heritage value for its architecture. Built in the 1920s or early 1930s, the property consists of log construction exemplifying Rustic style design. Built for a mink breeder-farmer who originally owned the property, the structure is comprised of round logs and wood-shingle-clad gables flared at the base. Distinguishing the structure further is its gambrel roof with flared eaves. The structure is a conscious example of Rustic style design, built to convey a pioneer aesthetic, rather than as a pragmatic, vernacular, and purely functional composition. The house recalls the popularity of the Rustic style in the cottage county north of Prince Albert, especially after the establishment of Prince Albert National Park in the vicinity in the late-1920s.

The heritage value of the Log House also lies in its historical association with the Kinasao Lutheran Bible Camp. The building has been a distinctive landmark of the Bible camp since the camp was established on the property in 1940. The building first served the camp as a girls' dormitory and administration building from 1940 until the 1960s, and then as a meeting room and staff lounge. With the camp serving approximately 25 Lutheran congregations in the region, over the years the Log House has become a well-known site to generations of young people.

Source:

Rural Municipality of Lakeland No. 521 Bylaw No. 10-1999.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Kinasao Lutheran Bible Camp Log House resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements of the building related to its architecture, such as its construction of round logs, rectangular two-storey form, gambrel roof with wood shingles, and overhanging wooden-shingle-clad gables with flared bases;
-those elements related to the use of the building as part of the Bible camp, such as its central, focal-point location within the camp.