Description of Historic Place
The Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 faces a large, open yard in a historic, non-operating, placer gold mining facility in the Klondike River valley. The building is a T-shaped, wood-frame structure clad in horizontal wood siding and topped by a metal covered gable roof with a gabled rooftop ventilator. The building’s front gable has a single pair of large equipment doors, built of diagonal boards and with large horseshoe hinges. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.
Heritage Value
The Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental value.
Historical Value
The Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 is closely associated with the corporate phase of Yukon’s gold mining history. The building’s role in the maintenance and repair of heavy crawler tractors demonstrates one of the key functions of the site. The construction of the building in the 1940s, replacing an earlier repair shop, confirms the necessity to ensure that repair and maintenance shops were kept up-to-date as new dredging equipment was introduced.
Architectural Value
The Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 is valued for its good, simple and utilitarian aesthetic. The functional nature of its design consists of a T-shaped structure with two interconnecting open workshop spaces lined with shiplap siding, and equipped with an overhead traveling crane. The building’s good workmanship is demonstrated in its wood-frame construction clad in appropriate materials such as the horizontal wood siding and the metal, gable roof.
Environmental Value
The Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 maintains an unchanged relationship to its site and reinforces the character of its industrial setting at the Bear Creek Compound. The structure is familiar to those within the immediate area.
Sources:
Joan Mattie, Bear Creek Industrial Complex, Bear Creek, Yukon Federal Heritage Building Review Office Building Report 89-008; Cat Repair Shop (Building #8), Bear Creek Compound, Yukon, Heritage Character Statement, 89-008.
Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of the Bear Creek Compound, Cat Repair Shop, Building #8 should be respected.
-the simple and functional nature of its design, and its overall good workmanship and appropriate use of materials;
-the features of its form, construction, and materials that unite it with the site’s other buildings, including its simple shape, its gable roof, its horizontal wood siding, painted grey, with white trim, and its rooftop ventilator;
-the arrangement and detailing of windows and doors, and its double doors with diagonal boards and large horseshoe hinges;
-the functional configuration of its open work areas;
-the interior details that testify to its function as a repair and maintenance shop
for heavy equipment, such as its reinforced concrete floor and its travelling crane;
-its comfortable relationship – due to its form, materials, detailing, and colour scheme – with the other structures and landscape features of the site, in particular the other trade buildings nearby such as the Auto Repair Shop (Building #7).
