Description of Historic Place

Situated in the Bear Creek Compound, the Engineering Office, also known as Building 19, faces a large, open yard in a historic, non-operating, placer gold mining facility in the Klondike River valley. The rectangular, wood-frame structure is clad with horizontal wood siding, and its gable roof is covered with corrugated sheet metal and with a boxed ventilator. A small front porch with a peaked roof supported by paired posts enhances its front elevation. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Engineering Office is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental value.

Historical Value
The Engineering Office, as part of the Bear Creek Compound, is associated with the corporate phase of Yukon’s gold mining history, in particular the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation’s renewal and expansion program of the 1930s. Designed as an office building and subsequently used as a residence, it exemplifies the practice of converting the site’s buildings to meet changing needs.

Architectural Value
The Engineering Office is valued for its good, simple aesthetic, functional design, and materials. The functional nature of its design consists of a rectangular structure whose layout is a simple arrangement of bedrooms and other rooms along a central corridor. The building’s good workmanship is demonstrated in its wood-frame construction clad in the appropriate materials such as the horizontal wood siding and the metal, gable roof.

Environmental Value
The Engineering Office 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; Engineering Office (Building #28), Bear Creek Compound, Yukon, Heritage Character Statement, 89-008.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Engineering Office 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 simple rectangular shape, its gable roof, its horizontal wood siding, painted grey, with white trim, its corrugated sheet metal roof-covering, its wood-frame structure, and its rooftop ventilator; the simple but distinctive detailing of its front porch and the arrangement and the arrangement and detailing of its windows and doors; 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 residential buildings at the north end of the yard.

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 Engineering Office (Building #19) was constructed by the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation (YCGC) before 1936 at Bear Creek industrial complex, a service facility for gold mining operations. It originally served as an office building, but this function was relocated to the Engineering Office (Building #28) after 1940, when the latter building was reconstructed in the Bear Creek complex. By 1942, Building #19 was converted to serve as the Engineers' Residence. 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 Engineering Office / Engineers' Residence is a 'Recognized' Federal Heritage Building because of its historical, architectural, and environmental values:

As part of the Bear Creek complex, this building is associated with the corporate phase of Yukon's gold mining history, in particular with the YCGC's renewal and expansion program of the 1930s. Designed as an office building and subsequently used as a residence, it exemplifies the practice of converting the site's buildings to meet changing needs.

The Engineer's Residence is simple and functional in design, and exhibits good workmanship and appropriate use of materials. Its one-storey rectangular form is clad with horizontal wood siding, and its gable roof is covered with corrugated sheet metal and topped with a boxed ventilator. A small front porch with a peaked roof supported by paired posts enhances its front elevation. It possesses a wood-frame structure, and its layout is a simple arrangement of bedrooms and other rooms along a central corridor.

The Engineers' Residence reinforces the residential and industrial character of this functionally obsolete but remarkably intact village-like mining service facility, with its with 80 structures and several landscape features relating to large-scale mechanical placer mining. Located at the north side of the open yard, it is part of the mainly residential ensemble that contrasts with the trade, warehouse, and administration buildings opposite.

Character-defining elements

The following character-defining elements of the Office Building 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
simple rectangular shape, its gable roof, its horizontal wood siding, painted grey, with white trim, its
corrugated sheet metal roof-covering, its wood-frame structure, and its rooftop ventilator.
· The simple but distinctive detailing of its front porch and the arrangement and the arrangement and detailing
of its windows and doors.
· 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 residential buildings at the north end of the
yard.