Description of Historic Place

The Stave Falls Power House is a large rectangular building constructed of reinforced concrete and steel, located in Mission, British Columbia. The south elevation has three rows of paired windows; the north elevation has one row. The building is sited between the steep banks of the Stave Falls gorge, on a switchyard tailrace deck.

Heritage Value

Built in phases between 1909 and 1925, the Stave Falls Power House is valued for its historic, architectural and cultural significance.

The Stave Falls Power House is important for its age and for its continuing use as a generating station along the Stave River. It is one of three stations in a hydroelectric system begun by Western Canada Power and continued by its successor, the B.C. Electric Railway Company.

The historic place is important for its association with the use of a relatively new hydroelectric technology, first used at Niagara Falls, Ontario in 1889. By 1913, Stave Falls was supplying power to 1,157 customers in the Lower Mainland and by 1926 it was the largest source of power in the B.C. Electric system. In 1927, Alouette Lake was diverted by a tunnel to Stave Lake, and Stave Falls Power House became the first automated powerhouse in the entire Commonwealth.

The Power House is important for its association with a number of important men who provided vision, expertise and funds to ensure that the project went forward successfully. These included: John Hendry, Vancouver's lumber and railway baron, who supplied the necessary finances; Robert F. Hayward, the General Manager of Western Canada Power; and electrical engineer William R. Bonnycastle, designer of the intake dam and first building phase.

The Stave Falls Power House is important for its architectural design, which has a richness and elegance rarely found in industrial buildings. The Western Canada Power Company constructed the first portion in 1909-12 to accommodate two turbine units and two generator units. Phase one of the building was designed with Italianate style elements. The second portion was added in 1916 to accommodate two additional units. The B.C. Electric Railway Company, which merged with the Western Power Company in 1921, constructed the next section in 1925 to provide room for a larger fifth unit. Phases two and three have Gothic Revival style elements. Despite the differences in architectural design influences, the overall impression is one of integration and unity.

The main generator hall is an impressive space that is the heart of the Power House. The setting for the large turbines and generators is both monumental and elegant. The concrete arches in relief on the upstream wall, clerestory windows and exposed steel trusses are a graceful reflection of the circular turbines and reinforce the rhythm of the large machinery from above and below. The interior space and the equipment tell the story of how water was turned into electricity, and illustrate the progress of generator technology as one walks from east to west through the Generator Hall.

The Stave Falls Power House has provided electrical power to the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley for most of the twentieth century and has contributed considerably to the area's ability to prosper during the early years of urbanization. This building is also significant for its rehabilitation in 2001 as a public educational centre.

Its longevity and nearly one hundred years of power production could only have been achieved through the work of the operators, mechanics and electricians who passed on their knowledge from one generation to the next. The Stave Falls Power House is a physical reminder of all the people who built and maintained the building and who cared for the machinery, at first with the Western Canada Power Company, then with the B.C. Electric Company, and finally with B.C. Hydro. The building tells their stories as much as it tells the story of electricity.

The building is a monument to British Columbian and Canadian enterprise, built entirely by Canadians using Canadian materials. It is a remarkable symbol of the power of science over nature; one that has endured in the face of changing technology.

Source: District of Mission Archives and Library

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of Stave Falls Power House include:

Building in general:
-Impressive monolithic structure
-Architectural richness unusual in an industrial building
-Location on the narrow and steeply-banked course of the Stave River
-Poured-in-place concrete wall
-Expressive pilasters that punctuate the structural bays
-Repetition of windows
-Clear cornice line
-Loosely Italianate style of phase one of building
-Loosely Gothic Revival style of phases two and three of building
-Stepped parapets at each gable end

South elevation:
-Clear cornice lines at both roof levels
-Switchyard tailrace deck with one tower
-Line of lamp standards and steel railings that mark the south edge of the deck
-Vista looking south
-Segmented structural arches of lower portion of deck

North elevation:
-Penstock deck
-View to intake dam
-Penstocks snaking downwards from the dam to the underside of the deck and building

Interior:
-Main Generator Hall
-Large, column-free space
-Elegant proportions
-Poured-in-place concrete walls with an internal steel frame that supports a steel truss roof structure which produces spans of 21 m.
-West and east walls poured against the modified rock faces of the river canyon
-Clerestory windows
-Graceful relief arches on north wall
-Exposed steel trusses in the ceiling
-Mezzanine gallery along west wall
-Generators and turbines
-Penstock No. 5
-Travelling ceiling crane
-Set of steep stairs in southeast corner
-Evidence of progress of generator technology
-Generators and other machinery
-Control room and its equipment
-High tension room
-Historic urinals