Description of Historic Place

The building at 2 Museum Street, commonly known as the Turner House, is situated on the east side of Museum Street, between Front Street and Centre Road, in the remote northern community of Moose Factory. The Turner House is one of several buildings within the confines of the Moose Factory Centennial Park Museum, which is a site commemorating the history of the area as a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) trading post. The one-and-a-half-storey, clapboard-clad building was constructed in 1863-64 and originally served as a residence for the family of Joseph Turner, a retired HBC employee.

In June 1983, ownership of the Turner House was transferred to the Ontario Heritage Trust, thereby conferring protection to the heritage elements of the house. The Turner House is also part of a National Historic Site that was designated in 1957 to commemorate the early operations of the HBC.

Heritage Value

Located on the east side of Museum Street between Front Street and Centre Road, the Turner House is situated in the old fur-trading centre of Canada's oldest continually occupied English-speaking community. Although the house has been relocated from its original site, its current position within Centennial Museum Park reflects the historical setting typical of HBC workers' houses, with the front of the house facing the river. The Turner House is situated west of two other relocated buildings, the McLeod House (1889-90) and the Sackabuckiskum House (1926), and forms part of a row of workers' houses that chronologically reflect three separate eras in the housing of HBC employees. Guided by historical precedent, the houses contain small yards suitable for growing vegetable gardens and are spaced far enough apart to minimize the danger of spreading fire. Other historic resources existing within the Centennial Park boundaries include the HBC Blacksmith's Shop (1849-51), the HBC Powder Magazine (1865-66), and the HBC Cemetery (c.1802).

The Turner House is significant for its association with Joseph Turner, an employee who worked for 64 years at the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) post at Moose Factory. Believed to be the son of Philip Turner, a distinguished British surveyor, and a Cree woman from the HBC Brunswick House post, Joseph joined the HBC at the age of 15 as a steersman on canoe expeditions. He later learned the trades of coopering, carpentry, and sailing to ensure that he was in constant demand, but it was his reliability and honesty that lead him to become indispensable to HBC officers. Turner eventually achieved the position of interpreter for the HBC Chief Trader (the highest rank achievable by a man of mixed ancestry) and the HBC built him this house upon his retirement in 1864. Following Joseph Turner's death in 1865, the house continued to be used as a residence until the late 1930s when it was moved to the Mission grounds and served as a Bible Study Hall. The frequent movement of buildings such as the Turner House was common around this time, as several homes would be shifted to new locations each year using logs as rollers and a team of oxen or horses. Despite being relocated four times prior to acquisition by the Ontario Heritage Trust in 1983, the house remained in the ownership of the Turner family until it was moved to the Centennial Park Museum. The house is currently operating as an interpretive museum site by the Moose Factory Tourism Association and is open to visitors during July and August. It is the oldest known HBC worker's house remaining in Canada.

The Turner House employed shipbuilding techniques in its construction. This technique is exclusive to Moose Factory, where most of the 18th and 19th century buildings were constructed by shipwrights. It is characterized by laying horizontal squared logs one over the other, pinning them together with steel spikes, and then chinking the joints with oakum, a tar a jute fibre mixture used chiefly for caulking joints in the hulls of ships. Due to the harsh climate of the area, the house was covered with clapboard siding and possessed a compact design that made it easy to build and heat. Heat from the first floor woodstove radiated through the main floor and rose naturally to the second floor where it would warm the bedroom loft. The most distinguishing feature of the Turner House is the presence of the horizontal board cladding that adorns the roof. In 19th century Moose Factory, roofs were often covered with pine boards such as these, as few men could be spared from shipbuilding operations to engage in the time-consuming undertaking of splitting shingles.

Source: Trust Property Files, Ontario Heritage Trust

Character-Defining Elements

Character defining elements that contribute to the heritage value of the Turner House include its:
- traditional HBC design and construction techniques using local materials and labour
- small rectangular footprint derived from the 5m and 6m lengths of its walls
- exterior clapboard siding used as weatherproofing
- overall lack of ornamentation
- asymmetrical placement of window openings on the front and rear elevations and the symmetrical placement of window openings on the gable ends
- multi-paned fixed windows
- understated main entrance (recreated windowless board door) on the south elevation
- horizontal board roofing
- wooden ladder on the northern slope of the roof
- arrangement of rooms on two separate stories with the ground floor divided into a kitchen and a bedroom, and the second floor used as a sleeping loft
- one inch thick tongue-and-groove interior partition held in place by wooden cornices and baseboards
- unpainted floor boards on the first and second storeys
- floor hatch leading from the kitchen to a previously existing cellar
- exposed ceiling joists of the first floor
- exposed rafters and roof sheathing of the second storey
- 'L' shaped corner stair without handrail
- reproduced window and door trim based on vestiges found in the house
- mix of original décor (mahogany stained walls and ceiling) and secondary decor (salmon-coloured walls, ceiling, and woodwork)
- location within the historic fur-trading centre of Moose Factory
- positioning relative to the river
- setting on a communal plot of land devoid of fences or trees
- relationship with the HBC workers' houses and other historic buildings of the Centennial Park Museum