Description of Historic Place

The MacGregor Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) Water Tower is a tall, octagonal wood-frame
structure once used to provide water for steam engine operation. It was moved from MacGregor in 1987
to the Manitoba Agricultural Museum in Austin. The municipal designation applies to the building.

Heritage Value

The
MacGregor CPR Water Tower (1904) is one of only two surviving examples of the 75 "Standard Number
One Plan" water towers that once served the steam locomotives that powered the expansion of European
settlement in Manitoba. Once gravity-filled from Jackson's Lake, 15 miles west of the Village of
MacGregor, the tower holds a cedar-lined tank with a capacity of nearly 182 thousand litres. The tank
is held 22 feet in the air to provide the pressure needed for rapid filling of locomotives preparing
to embark on the climb up the Manitoba Escarpment. Rendered obsolete by the diesel engine, the tower
served the CPR until 1957. Although it was moved in 1987, the tower retains excellent exterior integrity
and many interior features.

Source: R.M. of North Norfolk By-Law No. 799/2012, 9 April 2013

Character-Defining Elements

Key exterior
elements that define the MacGregor Water Tower's utilitarian character and standard CPR design include:
-
its tall narrow octagonal massing with a shallow octagonal roof and concrete foundation
- the horizontal
wood siding, set between vertical corner boards and painted in the standard CPR rusty maroon colour
-
the wood door
- functional features such as the water level indicator, consisting of a sliding ball affixed
to a rooftop pole and connected to a float inside the tank, and the pipe and spout for filling locomotive
boilers

Key interior elements that define the tower's heritage character and railway function include:
-
the open ground floor
- the cedar tank and the framework that supports it, composed of heavy timbers
set upon concrete bases and strengthened with cross-braces
- many of the pipes, valves and controls for
filling and using the tank