Description of Historic Place

Storage Building 8 at Bar U Ranch, is a simple, one-storey structure with a medium-pitch gabled roof and a small shed-roofed entrance porch. The building has a single door, and a single window high in the rear gable end. The walls are of round log construction, with squared dovetail-notched corners. The roof of Building 8 is supported by pole rafters braced with collar ties and tied with ceiling joists lapped and nailed near mid-span. The roof is covered with cedar shingles and has two wood ventilation stack vents and a larger cupola on the ridge near the front of the building. The interior stud walls are sheathed with boards in order to line the walls with insulating sawdust, and the interior stud wall partitions lined with boards divide the building into functional areas. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Storage Building 8 is a Classified Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations and its architectural and environmental values.

Historical Value
The Bar U Ranch complex is one of the best examples of the development of the ranching industry in Alberta and its importance in the development of Canada. An integral component of the historic grouping associated with the community center focused on Pekisko Creek, Storage Building 8 had an important functional role in daily life as the Ranch was being established. Constructed before 1892 it is associated with George Lane, a prominent Alberta cattleman, hired at the Bar U in 1884 to serve as the ranch foreman and ran the ranch between 1902 and 1925. The building is also associated with Patrick Burns who purchased the Bar U in 1927 to add to his vast cattle empire. Recognized as the kingpin of the meat processing industry in western Canada during the mid-1920's, Burns has been designated a person of national significance.

Architectural Value
Storage Building 8 is a very good example of a simple, function-oriented approach to construction characteristic of basic structures built as preliminary shelters or as outbuildings during the early stages of settlement in western Canada. The grouping of which it is a part has a strong aesthetic impact due to the squat massing of the buildings, their tight cohesive arrangement and the interplay of varying roof slopes.

Environmental Value
Storage Building 8 is part of a cohesive complex of buildings arranged to great functional effect and reinforces visual character of the Bar U Ranch. Situated on the edge of Pekisko Creek in close proximity to the other two storage buildings, the relationship of the three buildings to grade is distinctive, with the middle building sitting very low and the westernmost building sitting higher than the other two buildings. It is also a component of the collection of pre-1927 buildings, which contribute to the landmark value of the complex as one of the region's most important early ranch sites.

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

Storage Building (Building 8), Bar U Ranch, Longview, Alberta. Heritage Character Statement 92-017.

Character-Defining Elements

The following character defining elements of the Storage Building 8 should be respected, for example:

Its very good simple, function oriented design and approach to construction in its massing, construction techniques and materials as manifested in:
- Its simple one-storey structure.
- Its medium-pitch gable roof supported by pole rafters collar ties and tied with ceiling joists lapped and nailed near mid-span.
- Its walls of round log construction with squared dovetail-notched corners.
- Its small shed-roofed entrance porch.
- Its roof cladding.
- Its ventilation stack vents.
- Its cupola.
- Its interior stud walls and partitions.

The manner in which Storage Building 8, as part of a cohesive complex of buildings, reinforces the present visual character of the Bar U Ranch.