Description of Historic Place

The Kerrobert Court House is a Municipal Heritage Property comprising one block within the Town of Kerrobert. The property consists of a two-storey brick building completed in 1920, situated within a landscaped greenspace.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Kerrobert Court House lies in its architecture. The building is one of a series of ten courthouses designed the Department of Public Works under the supervision of Maurice Sharon, Provincial Architect between 1916 and 1929. Large courthouses were built in Yorkton, Kerrobert, Prince Albert, Weyburn and Estevan while Gravelbourg, Shaunavon, Wynyard, Melfort and Assiniboia received more modest buildings sharing a prototypical design. The Yorkton Courthouse, Sharon’s first, exhibits the elaborate Beaux-Arts style evident in previous courthouses constructed in Saskatchewan. A Colonial Revival style was adopted for the remaining buildings, which reduced construction costs and solved several technical problems without detracting from the grandeur expected in a judicial building. The Colonial Revival style buildings incorporated sloped roofs, rain gutters integrated with projecting metal cornices, central cupolas with attic ventilation and brick cladding trimmed with stone.

The Kerrobert Court House, the second of Sharon’s ten, is the first to demonstrate the transition from Beaux-Arts Classicism to a Colonial Revival style. Neo-Classicism is still evident in the columns and pediment surrounding the entrance, which displays the Ionic order. The emergence of Colonial Revivalism is apparent, however, in the pitched roof, the simplified façade, the moulding and the simplified decorative elements. Of particular note is the placement of crests on the façade. While earlier courthouses feature the coat of arms of the British Empire in a superior position to the shield of arms of Saskatchewan, the Kerrobert Court House is the reverse, which reflects an emerging provincial identity. Unlike other small judicial districts, which during Sharon’s tenure received small courthouses sharing the prototypical design, Kerrobert received a building capable of housing multiple courts simultaneously, demonstrating the optimism of the provincial government at the conclusion of the First World War. The building is situated on a large landscaped lot in the centre of town, reflecting its status as an important public building. The Kerrobert Court House has become a symbol of Kerrobert itself.

Source:

The Town of Kerrobert Bylaw No. 676.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Kerrobert Court House lies in the following character defining elements:
-those elements which express the Neo-Classical architecture, such as the pediment and columns, the end pavilions, and the metal cornice;
-those elements which express the Colonial Revival architecture, such as the hip roof and symmetry;
-those elements which express the courthouse's status as a public building, such as its scale and massing, use of Claybank Brick and Tyndall Stone, the crests, the grand marble staircase, the courtroom fixtures and the landscaped grounds;
-those elements which reflect the building’s status as a landmark in the community, such as its siting on its original location.