Description of Historic Place

Located in a remote arctic area Warehouse No.1 is a one-storey, rectangular, steel framed, medium-pitched metal roof structure covered in steel cladding. The walls are composed of metal pre-fabricated panels. On the main gabled façade are an overhead door, a window and a personnel door. The windows are framed in metal and the doors are steel. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Warehouse No.1 is a Classified Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental value.

Historical Value
The Warehouse No.1 at FOX-M main station, provides one of the best illustrations associated with the continental air-defence programs during the Cold War, the opening of the Canadian Arctic to Federal Government programs and services, the growth of Hall Beach, an important Arctic community, and its role in establishing and maintaining a Canadian military presence in the Canadian Arctic. As part of one of four main stations constructed for the (Distant Early Warning) DEW Line, the Warehouse No.1 was part of a joint US-Canada effort to monitor Artic airspace through an innovative radar and radio system designed to provide advance warning to North American military authorities of a possible air attack from the Soviet Union. FOX-M also served as a regional communications hub, supply center and administrative base for 8 to 10 auxiliary and intermediate stations and the Warehouse was used to store supplies and equipment.

Architectural Value
The Warehouse No.1 is a good example of a functional military structure. Its utilitarian design reveals a unified design concept that resulted from a skillfully planned, expertly executed and highly funded building program. It is distinguished by its rectangular simple utilitarian form and very good solid construction. Its high quality materials and test pre-fabricated components are part of a design program that responded directly to both military considerations and to the remote Artic location of the site. Its concrete foundation and floor supported by an open structural steel deck and the gravel pad in the building area also demonstrates a competent engineering solution for building in permafrost conditions that set a standard for construction across the Canadian North.

Environmental Value
The Warehouse No. 1 is situated on the airfield sector of the FOX-M DEW Line station and is set within a tightly formed line of three warehouse structures. As part of the set of structures built in the first five years of the station’s operation, this arrangement of buildings is of strategic value in maintaining and establishing the technological/ military character of the site in its military-industrial complex setting. The DEW Line station is well known in the adjacent community of Hall Beach and visitors to the hamlet are often treated to a visit to the station.

Sources:
FOX-M, Hall Beach, Nunavut, Federal Heritage Building Report 99-021.

Warehouse, FOX-M Station, Hall Beach, Nunavut, Heritage Character Statement, 99-021.

Character-Defining Elements

The following character defining elements of Warehouse No.1 should be respected, for example:

Its functional military structure, its rectangular utilitarian form, solid construction and high quality materials responsive to both military and climactic conditions as manifested in;
-Its simple utilitarian rectangular, one storey, steel framed structure covered by a medium-pitch metal roof.
-The main gabled façade containing an overhead door, a window and a personnel door and the two personnel doors on the opposite gable end.
-Its walls composed of metal pre-fabricated panels and all openings framed in metal and doors clad with steel.
-The building’s concrete foundation and floors supported by an open structural steel deck raised about one metre above ground level.
-The gravel pad as the primary landscape feature to provide a barrier between buildings and the permafrost and to create a level surface for vehicle and personnel moving among the buildings.

The manner in which Warehouse No.1 establishes the technological/military character of the site in its military-industrial complex setting.