Description of Historic Place

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Detachment Garage is a one-and-a-half storey, hipped roof building in the Rustic style and embellished with Tudor-Revival details. Located in the Waterton townsite on a spacious corner lot, it is distinguished by its roof dormers, wide garage door and side stairs that lead to the main entrance on the upper storey. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The RCMP Detachment Garage is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental value.

Historical Value
The RCMP Detachment Garage is directly associated with the RCMP’s role of law enforcement in the National Parks. It illustrates the symbolic importance of the Mounted Police and helped to reinforce their popular image within Canada and the National Parks. The Detachment Garage also reflects a transitional period in the force when the use of horses was declined in favour of motorized transport as a result of the improvement of park roads by the 1930s.

Architectural Value
The RCMP Detachment Garage is a very good example of the rustic architectural aesthetic with a Tudor-Revival motif, adopted by the National Parks system in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It was purpose-built to meet the specific needs of the RCMP in the park. The plans were designed by the National Parks Branch headed by W.D. Cromarty who was a direct contributor to the development of Waterton Lakes and this distinctive phase of architecture within the Park. It exhibits very good quality craftsmanship and materials.

Environmental Value
The Detachment Garage was constructed to the west of the detachment building to provide accommodation for horses, motorcycles and a car. Along with the Detachment Building, it is situated over three spacious lots that were chosen to provide prominent and elevated siting. The relationship with the building to its site remains unchanged. The building’s prominent site makes it a regional landmark and its natural building materials and design reinforce the rustic character of its mountain park setting.

Sources:
RCMP Detachment Building and Garage, Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Heritage Character Statement, 87-082.

James De Jonge, RCMP Detachment Building and Garage, Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Federal Heritage Building Report, 87-082.

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements of the RCMP Detachment Garage should be respected:

Its rustic aesthetic appearance, very good quality craftsmanship and materials, for example:

-The rectangular plan, one-and-a-half storey frame structure.
-The hipped roof with a hipped dormer on its north elevation and whose south
dormer has a gabled roof and door to the upper storey loft.
-The walls of stucco and the fieldstone chimney.
-The window and door arrangement.

The manner in which the RCMP Detachment Garage maintains an unchanged relationship to its site and reinforces its mountain park setting, and is a regional landmark within Waterton Lakes as evidenced by:

-Its unchanged relationship with the RCMP Detachment Building and its spacious site.
-Its aesthetic appearance, which reinforces the rustic character of the mountain park
setting.
-Its prominent location on an elevated site at the corner of Waterton Avenue and
Cameron Falls Drive.