Description of Historic Place

The Cereal Forage Building in the Nappan Experimental Farm, also known as Building No. 29, consists of a compact, two-and-one-half storey, rectangular, wood-frame building clad in white clapboard siding with corner boards, and capped with a gambrel roof with three dormer windows and a returned eave. Abutted by a low, one-storey wing to the south, the building is located on an interior roadway, within a compound of farm and research buildings at the Nappan Experimental Farm. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

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

Historical value:
The Cereal Forage Building is associated with federal involvement in agricultural research and support to the agricultural sector through the establishment of a system of experimental farms. As the only building constructed on the Nappan Experimental Farm between the late 1920s and late 1940s, the building reflects the continued importance of agriculture to the local economy, and the continued federal support for agricultural research.

Architectural value:
The Cereal Forage Building is a good example of the model farm buildings promoted by the federal government in the experimental farm system. As an adaptation of the barn form to meet the functional requirements of an office/research facility, the building displays a more residential scale and larger sized windows than would normally be found on this type of farm building. As a model farm building, it displays a very good level of craftsmanship in the handling of the exterior ornamental elements.

Environmental value:
The Cereal Forage Building reinforces the agricultural character of the Nappan Experimental Farm by virtue of its distinctive form, materials and its style, which it shares with the remaining group of adjacent buildings.

Sources:
Dana Johnson, Building 29 (Cereals and Forage), Nappan Experimental Farm, Nappan, Nova Scotia. Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office Building Report 01-086; Cereal Forage Building 29, Nappan Experimental Farm, Nova Scotia, Heritage Character Statement 01-086.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Cereal Forage Building should be respected.

The building’s role as an illustration of the federal involvement in agricultural research, as reflected in:
-its location, as part of the campus of buildings, on the Nappan Experimental Farm.

The building’s model farm building design, successful functional plan, and high quality craftsmanship and materials, as manifested in:
-the residential scale and proportions of the building’s gambrel roofed volume;
-the adaptation of this building type to an office / laboratory use, as evidenced by the evenly-spaced, large, multi-paned windows and dormers; and,
-the application of the ornamental detailing, such as the window and door trim, corner boards, roof returns, roof-top ventilator hood.

The manner in which the building reinforces the agricultural character of the setting as evidenced in:
- the compatible scale, materials and style vis-a-vis the remaining adjacent buildings on the farm.