Description of Historic Place

The Garage with Servant’s Quarters at Moorside, sits nestled among the trees at the Mackenzie King Estate in Gatineau Park. It is a one-and-a-half-storey gable roofed building with central dormers on two sides. There is a garage on the ground storey and a residence at the upper level. The walls are clad in shiplap, and wood planks are applied in a grid pattern on the second storey. The small balcony located above the wooden garage doors and the small paned casement windows add to the building’s aesthetic appeal. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Garage with Servant’s Quarters is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental values.

Historical Value
The Garage with Servant’s Quarters, located at Moorside, is directly associated with Canada’s 10th Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Moorside was closely associated with the political life of Canada during Mackenzie King’s lifetime. It represents a highly personalized portrait of the former Prime Minister and provides insight into his interests, tastes, and acute sense of the Romantic. It is also associated with many other major political figures who came to visit Mackenzie King and it is believed to have been the scene of many formal and informal political meetings. Even when the Farm replaced the Main House as the Prime Minister’s residence in the early 1940s, he would bring his honourable guests to admire his artistic accomplishments on the Moorside property. The large estate, inclusive of three separate sites, Kingswood, Moorside and the Farm, was regarded by Mackenzie King himself as his true legacy to the Canadian people.

Architectural Value
The Garage with Servant’s Quarters is valued for its good aesthetic and functional design. Its design was replicated from the previous Garage and Servant’s Quarters (1922) that Mackenzie King built at Kingswood, which demonstrated some attempt at novelty in design and lifted it above the basic Ontario and Québec cottage type. Mackenzie King also added a few decorative flourishes to the basic cottage form, which give the design a slightly less rustic character and suggest the more genteel and refined air of an English country cottage.

Environmental Value
The Garage with Servant’s Quarters reinforces the picturesque character of its country estate setting in Gatineau Park and is a familiar building within the immediate area.

Sources: Marc de Caraffe, Le domaine Mackenzie King, Kingsmere, Parc de la Gatineau, Quebec, Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office, Building Report, 84-015; Mackenzie King Estate: Kingswood, Gatineau Park, Québec, Heritage Character Statement, 84-015.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Garage with Servant’s Quarters should be respected.

Its good aesthetic and functional design, and good craftsmanship and materials, for example:
- the one-and-a-half-storey massing with a gable roof and central dormers on its sides;
- the wood construction clad in shiplap siding and the wood planks applied in a grid pattern at the second storey;
- the small balcony above the garage doors on the second level;
- the small paned casement windows and their arrangement;
- the wood double garage doors;
- the interior layout, which consists of a garage space on its ground level with a residence at the upper storey.

The manner in which the Garage with Servant’s Quarters reinforces the present picturesque character of its country estate setting and is familiar in the area, as evidenced by:
- its overall scale, design and materials, which harmonize with its landscaped and natural surroundings and complement the adjacent buildings at the estate;
- its familiarity in the immediate area due to its associations with a former Prime Minister of Canada;
- its visibility to visitors due to its location in Gatineau Park at Mackenzie King Estate.