Description of Historic Place

The Mess Hall and Bunkhouse, also known as Building 22, faces a large, open yard in a historic, non-operating, placer gold mining facility in the Klondike River valley. The building is a two-storey, wood-frame structure that is clad with horizontal wood siding and surmounted by a metal covered, gable roof. A small porch protects the building’s main entrance. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Mess Hall and Bunkhouse is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental value.

Historical Value
The Mess Hall and Bunkhouse, as part of the Bear Creek Compound, is closely associated with the corporate phase of the Yukon’s gold mining history. The building illustrates a response to the need to provide new and improved residential accommodation for the expanded crews of men working at the facility as a result of the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation’s renewal and expansion program of the 1930s.

Architectural Value
The Mess Hall and Bunkhouse is valued for its very good functional design as evidenced in its layout, which illustrates its communal residential function. The ground floor has four common spaces, including a recreation area, a mess hall, a kitchen, and a pantry. The design of the upper floor represents an improvement over earlier standards of accommodation with its ten bedrooms, a central corridor, and auxiliary space with cubicles and an interior stair at one end. The wood-frame construction exhibits good workmanship and the appropriate use of materials such as wood cladding, and metal covered roof.

Environmental Value
The Mess Hall and Bunkhouse 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 area.

Sources: Joan Mattie, Bear Creek Industrial Complex, Bear Creek, Yukon Federal Heritage Building Review Office Building Report 89-008; Mess Hall and Bunkhouse (Building #22), Bear Creek Compound, Yukon, Heritage Character Statement, 89-008.

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements of the Mess Hall and Bunkhouse should be respected.

Its simple and functional nature of its design, and its overall good workmanship and appropriate use of materials, for example: the features of its form, construction, and materials that unify it with the site’s other buildings, including its rectangular shape, its gable roof, its horizontal wood siding painted grey with white trim, its metal roof covering, and its wood structure; the arrangement and detailing of its doors and windows, its porches, and its covered stair; the layout of the ground and upper floors, which illustrates its communal residential function; the built-in equipment and storage features in the kitchen and pantry; its compatible relationship; due to its form, materials, detailing, and colour scheme; with the other structures and landscape features of the site, in particular with the General Manager’s Residence (Building 20).

Heritage Character Statement

Disclaimer - The heritage character statement was developed by FHBRO to explain the reasons for the designation of a federal heritage building and what it is about the building that makes it significant (the heritage character). It is a key reference document for anyone involved in planning interventions to federal heritage buildings and is used by FHBRO in their review of interventions.

The Mess Hall and Bunkhouse (Building #22) was constructed before 1934 by the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation (YCGC) as part of a renewal and expansion program at the Bear Creek industrial complex, a service facility for the YCGC's mining operations. It accommodated some of the crews needed to run the Bear Creek facility and dredging operations. Besides the installation of a walk-in refrigeration room in 1948, the building has changed very little since its construction. Operations at the Bear Creek complex ceased in 1966, and the property was acquired by Parks Canada, the present custodian, in 1975.

Reasons for designation

The Mess Hall and Bunkhouse is a 'Recognized' Federal Heritage Building because of its historical, architectural, and environmental values:

As part of the Bear Creek complex, the Mess Hall and Bunkhouse is associated with the corporate phase of Yukon's gold mining history. It illustrates a response to the need to provide new and improved residential accommodation for the expanded crews of men working at the facility as a result of the YCGC's renewal and expansion program of the 1930s.

The Mess Hall and Bunkhouse is simple and functional in design, and exhibits good workmanship and appropriate use of materials. It is a rectangular two-storey, wood-frame structure that is clad with horizontal wood siding, painted grey, with white trim, and surmounted by a gable roof covered with metal. Its main entrance in the south gable, facing the open yard, is protected by a small porch. Its north gable wall has a projecting covered outdoor stairway from the second floor and a porch at the ground floor level. The side elevations have a regular pattern of windows on both levels. The ground floor has four main spaces: a recreation area, a mess hall or dining area, a kitchen, and a pantry with a walk-in refrigerated space. The kitchen retains several built-in features, such as an institutional stove and large sinks, and there are large storage bins in the pantry. The upper floor has ten bedrooms, a central corridor, and an auxiliary space with cubicles and an interior stair at one end. Because it provided bedrooms rather than an open dormitory, the Mess Hall and Bunkhouse represented an improvement over earlier standards of accommodation.

The Mess Hall and Bunk House reinforces the residential character of this functionally obsolete but remarkably intact village-like mining service facility, with its 80 structures and several landscape features relating to large-scale mechanical placer mining. Due to its residential function, its large size, and its late construction, it was located north of the open yard, with most of the other residential buildings, but behind the General Manager's Residence (Building #20).

Character-defining elements

The following character-defining elements of the Mess Hall and Bunkhouse 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 unify it with the site's other buildings, including its
rectangular shape, its gable roof, its horizontal wood siding, painted grey, with white trim, its metal roof
covering, and its wood structure.
· The arrangement and detailing of its doors and windows, its porches, and its covered stair.
· The layout of the ground and upper floors, which illustrates its communal residential function.
· The built-in equipment and storage features in the kitchen and pantry.
· Its comfortable relationship ' due to its form, materials, detailing, and colour scheme ' with the other
structures and landscape features of the site, in particular with the General Manager's Residence (Building
#20).