Description of Historic Place

The Garage and Fire Hall, also known as Building 16, faces a large, open yard in a historic, non-operating, placer gold mining facility in the Klondike River valley. The building is a long, narrow, wood-frame structure clad with corrugated metal siding and topped by a gable roof. The building’s front gable has two pairs of large, double doors that open into an elongated rectangular space. A third set of double doors, located along the west elevation, opens into a smaller area. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Garage and Fire Hall is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental values.

Historical Value
The Garage and Fire Hall, as part of the Bear Creek complex, is associated with the corporate phase of the Yukon’s gold mining history. In 1931, it served as a dormitory. Its most recent function was a garage, before which it was a fire hall. As such, the building is also an example of the response to the need for fire protection and vehicle storage when the mining facility was undergoing renewal and expansion in the 1930s.

Architectural Value
The Garage and Fire Hall is valued for its good, simple aesthetic design. The functional nature of its design is evidenced in its rectangular form with large double doors in the front that open into an elongated space, and another set of double doors on the west elevation that open into a smaller area. The wood-frame construction exhibits good workmanship and the appropriate use of materials such as its metal cladding, interior shiplap sheathing, and the metal covered gable roof.

Environmental Value
The Garage and Fire Hall maintains an unchanged relationship to its site and reinforces the character of its industrial setting at the Bear Creek Compound (change to Bear Creek complex). 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; Garage and Fire Hall (Building #16), Bear Creek Compound, Yukon, Heritage Character Statement, 89-008.

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements of the Garage and Fire Hall 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 other buildings on the site, including its rectangular shape, its gable roof, its corrugated metal siding and roof covering, and its wood-frame structure;
- its three sets of double doors, and their relationship with the three vehicle bays in two separate sections, and its arrangement of windows;
- its interior shiplap sheathing;
- 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 Garage and Storage Building (Building 15) to the east.