Heritage Farm and Village
Outdoor
North Battleford
Heritage Farm and Village
We have 100 acres (40 hectares), with over 30 homes and businesses representing the boom years of the 1920s – and a farmstead.
The Heritage Farm and Village is closed for the season, and reopens on May 1.
Village Scavenger Hunt
Imagine yourself as a settler arriving to Canada in the 1920s, searching for a better life on the prairies. Your journey begins at the railway station and takes you around the village in order to get a job and buy the McLaren farmhouse. Along your journey you will visit the Grey Schoolhouse, Marjan Shoe Shop, Co-Op and more! Pick up the scavenger hunt at the Visitor Services desk to begin your travels.
1158 Locomotive
The middle of nowhere took on real meaning for immigrants to Canada’s Last Best West in the early 20th century. Most newcomers were delivered to the heart of this vast continent by train. The locomotive and cars on the rails at the WDM North Battleford symbolize the unrivalled importance of rail transport in the story of Saskatchewan settlement in the early 20th century. The WDM North Battleford’s Type 4-6-0 locomotive was built in 1913, for the Canadian Northern Railway. In the early years it was used in mainline passenger service. Locomotives like this gained the nickname workhorse of the prairies.
After years hauling passengers on the prairies, it was relegated to freight and branch line work. When Canadian Northern amalgamated with the Canadian National Railway (CNR) system in 1919, this locomotive was part of the deal. It was a switching engine in the yards at Blue River, British Columbia when it was pulled out of service in after a working life of nearly 50 years.
The boxcar was synonymous with emigration from the United States. Land in the USA was taken up before Canada’s west was settled. Americans, with need for more land, looked to Canada for a fresh start. They loaded their provisions onto boxcars headed northwest into Canada’s Last Best West. The Museum’s boxcar was built in 1929 by Canadian Car and Foundry in Montreal, Quebec and last used at Lloydminster.
Stock cars were also called into service by American farmers immigrating to Canada. They brought their cattle along on the trek, a ready-made start to establishing a herd in their new home. Stock cars also shipped cattle to market. The Museum’s stock car was built in the late 1920s for the CNR.
Flatcars, too, were called into service for delivery of farm equipment, whether owned by American immigrants or sent new from eastern factories to western distributors and sellers. The Museum flatcar is a straightsill type, a CNR piece last used in Jasper, Alberta. The caboose was built by Canadian Northern in 1912 and rebuilt in 1942. It saw its last service in the Great Lakes region of Ontario, and was taken out of service in 1991.
Rail travel and transport is at the heart of Saskatchewan’s settlement story. The railway ate up the miles that separated west from east, people from their homelands, and manufacturers from their markets. In addition to people, the railways brought letters and newspapers from home, supplies that lined general store shelves across the prairies, merchandise ordered through catalogues, and farm equipment from the East. The rail took farm produce to distant mills and markets.
Blacksmith Shop
At the blacksmith shop, blacksmiths sharpened plowshares, replaced horseshoes, repaired wheels and shaped iron into tools and replacement parts. Metal was heated in a forge, where bellows forced air through the fire to heat the iron. Tongs were used to hold each malleable, red hot item on the anvil while the blacksmith hammered it into the desired shape with his sledge. It was then plunged into a nearby tank of water to harden it.
Visit our blacksmith shop during special events to see our blacksmiths at work.
If you are interested in learning more about blacksmithing, you are invited to sign up for the Introduction to Blacksmithing course in Saskatoon.
Brinkhurst Barn
This barn (WDM-1986-NB-1) was built around 1914 for Sid Brinkhurst’s farm near North Battleford. Sid came to Saskatchewan from England in 1906 at the age of 17. Upon arriving in Saskatchewan, he lied about his age so he could file a claim for a homestead. He moved multiple times within Saskatchewan, mostly because of issues with water access on the land he had been granted, before settling on the piece of land where this barn was built, southwest of North Battleford. The barn was moved to the WDM in 1986.
This barn is a typical Gambrel style barn, the most common style of barn on the Canadian prairies in the early 20th century. The presence of a large barn like this indicated a thriving farm. Many prairie farms thrived between 1911 and 1918 because of good crops and high demand due to the First World War.
CNR Railway Station
This railway station (WDM-1973-NB-13906 ) was built in 1913 in Prince as part of the Canadian Northern Railway (CNR) expansion from North Battleford to St. Walburg. In 1928, the station was upgraded to add station agent living quarters to the existing freight and passenger shelter. The station was in use until 1953. After its closure, the building caretaker, Martin Zary, continued to live in the building with his family until he died in 1957.
The building was then left empty until 1967 when it was moved to the WDM. In partnership with CNR, the WDM renovated the interior residential areas between 1967 and 1970. The freight and passenger shelter is in its original condition.
Specs
Based on CNR station pattern 100-4. The 1928 upgrade used CNR station pattern 100-220.
This style of building was commonly used in communities of under 100 people.
Doctor’s Office and Drug Store
When Saskatchewan became a province in 1905, health care resources like doctors, nurses, drug stores and hospitals were few and far between. Saskatchewan grew quickly between 1905 and 1925 – from 195,000 to 828,000 people in just 20 years. The number of towns and villages ballooned from 79 in 1905 to 448 in 1925. Tens of thousands lived on farms.
Our village at the WDM in North Battleford represents Saskatchewan in the 1920s. By this time towns and villages offered more services, more people had telephones and many had cars. But diseases like tuberculosis were common, as were communicable illnesses like diphtheria, whooping cough and scarlet fever. This shop holds both the doctor’s office and the drug store.
Doctor’s Office
Doctors would not spend every day in the office; they would also be called out to accidents and illnesses and to deliver babies out in the country. In previous years, doctors travelled by horse and buggy in summer or by horse and sleigh in winter; but by the mid-1920s, they might have a car, at least for summer calls.
If a patient was short of cash, they might be paid with eggs, a chicken or two, or a roast of beef. But, if the doctor was one of the Saskatchewan’s new municipal doctors, they might have been paid a retainer by the town. For example, in 1915, the small town of Holdfast, near Last Mountain Lake, was in danger of losing its doctor after a year of bad crops. People were too poor to pay for medical services so the rural municipality decided to pay Dr Schmitt a retainer of $1500 to convince him to stay. This was the first time in North America that tax dollars were used to pay a doctor. The idea caught on and by 1927 there were 13 municipal doctors in towns like Beechy, Chamberlain and Senlac. In the 1930s, when times were tough, there were even more municipal doctors who had a guaranteed annual salary. This system, and those that were built on it, changed Saskatchewan health care and helped lead to today’s Medicare system.
Drug Store
The opening of a drug store was another welcome health care resource in small communities where people often had only home remedies to treat wounds or illnesses. The drug store in the 1920s was a place of wonder. There were lotions and potions and patent medicines meant to cure everything from catarrh to cramps. Many of the patent medicines, Lydia Pinkham’s for one, contained a liberal portion of alcohol. And during Prohibition when bars were closed, the druggist could legally sell liquor for medicinal purposes only.
Prescriptions back then were different, often requiring the druggist to mix a potpourri of ingredients to make an ointment, an elixir or a liniment. The druggist would use a mortar and pestle to blend substances together. Today’s pharmacists aren’t called upon to do this very often.
The drug store usually offered other things people needed: stationery, photographic supplies, veterinary medicine, candy, shaving gear and cosmetics, maybe even sheet music and phonograph records. Sometimes it rivalled the general store for the variety of merchandise it offered. Merchants in the 1920s displayed their wares behind the counter or in glass cases. Customers did not help themselves as they do today – that was the job of the clerk or owner.
Grain Bin
The grain bin (WDM-1998-NB-16) was purchased in 1918 by Levi Bousquet from the T. Eaton Company catalogue, for the Bousquet family farm near Wilkie. Levi sold the bin in around 1950, and it changed hands a few times before being donated to the WDM in 1998.
The bin is made of galvanized steel with a central opening for a grain auger, an entry hatch in the roof, a single door entry on the front and a steel floor. Round steel grain bins like this became common across the prairies in the 20th century. This bin is an early example. Prior to this, grain bins were either wooden and square or rectangular, or were dug into the ground.
This round style of grain bin is still in use today, though hoppers are generally added on the bottom of modern bins.
Specs
Steel floor provided better protection from rodents and insects, as well as from ground moisture.
Grain Elevator
This grain elevator (WDM-1983-NB-156) was built in just three weeks in 1928 by a team of 18 men, for a construction cost of $14,000. The elevator was originally located northwest of Hafford. A town soon grew around the elevator, and residents voted to name the town Keatley after the man who ran the local post office.
The elevator stands 21 meters (70 feet) tall and has a capacity of 33,000 bushels of grain. The elevator was in operation until 1980 when it was decommissioned. It was moved to the WDM in 1983, but the annex, which had been added in 1952, was not moved with it.
By the early 1930s, there were 5,758 grain elevators in Saskatchewan, the highest at any point in Saskatchewan’s history. The number has steadily decreased over the years and today fewer than 1,000 elevators remain.
Specs
The red paint on the elevator was, along with white, the standard colour for Wheat Pool elevators until the 1960s, at which point other colours began to be used.
38 power lines had to be cut to move the elevator to the WDM grounds. 30 SaskPower staff members volunteered to help with the move.
Grey Schoolhouse
Constructed in 1905 by Barr Colonists near Maymont, the Grey Schoolhouse (WDM-1973-NB-13901) represents a typical one-room schoolhouse on the Canadian prairies. The schoolhouse opened on November 6, 1905, with Annie A. Arkely as the first teacher. 21 were students in attendance. Attendance at the school peaked in 1920 with 32 students. The schoolhouse was named in honour of Governor General Earl Grey.
In addition to being a school, the building was used for Anglican, Presbyterian and later United Church services. It also hosted community dances and Junior Red Cross events in both World Wars and was used as a polling station for elections. In 1918, during the influenza pandemic, the church was closed for a month and a half. Schools were a central point of community life in the first half of the 20th century.
The school was in operation until 1957, when it closed due to low enrollment. The building was moved to the WDM grounds in 1961.
Specs
Built in a Second Empire style.
Front entry was added in 1951, including a cloak room and an indoor washroom (using pails, indoor plumbing was never added to the schoolhouse).
Electricity was added to the school in 1954.
Hamelin Family House
Constructed between 1913 and 1919, this house (WDM-1973-NB- 13902 ) originally stood at 1202 Victoria Street, North Battleford. The original occupants were Dr. Joseph Jules Hamelin and his wife Marie Louise Stella Danis. They moved to Mortmartre from Quebec in 1908 and settled in North Battleford in 1910.
Dr. Hamelin was a well-respected medical doctor in North Battleford. He was instrumental in the creation of the town’s first hospital in 1913, served as a city councillor for 11 years, alderman for 10 years, and was elected president of the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1949.
The Hamelin family lived in the house until the 1950s. By 1960, it was owned by SaskTel and moved to the WDM grounds in 1970. This house highlights the history of French-Canadian migration to and settlement in the prairies and the French-Canadian history of the North Battleford region.
Specs
The house is a Transitional Colonial Revival style house and has common Arts and Crafts features such as the stucco siding with wood trim and window boxes.
The original mouldings are present in an upstairs closet.
Harris Family House
This house (WDM-1988-NB-58) was built in 1915 by Richard Barlow Harris for his wife Hattie (née Borden). The couple moved to Saskatchewan from Nova Scotia in 1906 for the sake of Richard’s health. Shortly after arriving in Fielding, Richard opened a successful hardware and general store.
In 1915, Richard’s health deteriorated and he took up farming on the advice of his doctor so that he could spend more time outdoors. He began to purchase parcels of land near Fielding, intending to move onto one of the farms with a pre-existing house on the land. Shortly before the couple planned to move, a fire broke out and burnt the house to the ground.
With no house to move to, Hattie began to draw up plans for a new one and hired a contractor from North Battleford to build it. Hattie and Richard moved into the house in the fall of 1915 with their children.
The Harris family remained in this house until 1981, when Richard’s grandson left the farm, leaving the house empty. It was donated to the WDM in 1988.
Specs
Architectural Style: Arts and Crafts and Georgian Revival with Nova Scotian influences.
Layout is Georgian style, with four main rooms downstairs flanking a central hallway.
Original mouldings, doors, and registers throughout the house.
Holy Trinity Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church
This church (WDM-1973-NB-13900) was constructed in 1909-1910 by Ukrainian immigrants to the Hafford district. Community members donated time, land and materials to facilitate the construction of the church. The interior was completed around 1917 and expanded, with an extension at the front of the church, the choir loft and a vestry at the back.
Many parishioners would walk as far as four miles each way to attend church services and then stand for the entire service which was about three hours long. There were benches around the sides for the elderly to sit on. The church was in use until 1968 when it was closed and moved to the WDM North Battleford.
The establishment of a formal Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church organization in Canada occurred eight years after this church was built, making this an early example of a Ukrainian Greek Orthodox church in Canada. There was pressure for Ukrainian Greek Orthodox to assimilate into Catholic or Russian Orthodox practice, and the dedication the community put into constructing this church highlights the community’s commitment to their own practices.
Specs
Built in a cruciform footprint, this church has a mixture of Byzantine and Gothic design elements.
The linoleum in the nave of the church is from around 1937.
J. Marjan Shoe Shop
This single-story brick building (WDM-1991-NB-11) was built by an unknown builder as a shoe repair shop commissioned in 1932 by Jakob (Jake) Marjan and his wife Leokadia (Lottie) (née Martin). The brick façade, though simple, features ornate Art Deco geometric designs on the cap and the square columns on either side of the front of the building. The deep-set door and windows evenly spaced in the front balances the appearance of the building.
After Jake retired in 1979 after 50 years of business, several other businesses used the building until 1991 when it was slated for demolition to make way for a new mall in downtown North Battleford. The Western Development Museum (WDM) acquired the building instead, and in September 1991 it was moved to the WDM North Battleford grounds.
In 2024, a new permanent exhibit honouring Jakob’s shop was installed in the newly renovated interior of the building, featuring original artifacts from the shop, an interactive guessing game and Jakob’s life story.
McLaren Family House
Construction on this farmhouse (WDM-1987-NB-25) began in 1914, when Jim McLaren ordered a railcar of lumber to build the kitchen on his homestead near Rockhaven. The rest of the house was completed in 1915 and shortly after Jim married Luella (Ella) Pearl Mawhinney. Ella gave birth to the first of their ten children in the house in 1917, and at least three more of their children were born in the house throughout the years.
The house was never wired for electricity while it was lived in. The McLaren family used a wind charger to charge a battery which could then light the house.
One of the younger children, Harold, lived on the farm with his mother until around 1970. After this, Harold and Ella continued to live on the farm in the summers but spent their winters in town until 1972 when Ella died. The house sat vacant until 1987 when it was moved to the WDM North Battleford.
Specs
This house is a Vernacular Farmhouse wood frame Transitional Gothic Revival style 1 ½ story house, also called a “Gothic Vernacular Farmhouse.”
Originally had a porch with glass windows but was altered by the WDM to be an open porch when the house was moved to the WDM in 1987.
Original location of the house was on S.E ½ of 6-43-19 West of the 3rd.
North-West Mounted Police Outpost
Constructed around 1887, this building (WDM-1973-NB-13905) was used as a stopover house for travelers until the mid-1890s. In 1895, it was converted into barracks for the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP). It was used until 1909 when the detachment was closed, and the land was converted to a farm. In 1917, the land was taken over by the Soldier Resettlement Board with the goal of housing a returning soldier in the building. It was inhabited by a soldier from 1918 until 1924 when ownership returned to the Soldier Resettlement Board.
Records are unclear as to whether the building was occupied or left empty between 1924 and 1940. In around 1941, Helena and Elphege Carignan purchased the land and lived in the building while farming there until 1956.
The building was moved to the WDM in 1967.
Specs
Built in Second Empire style with features such as peaked windows and doorframes.
Rural Municipality Office
This building (WDM-1973-NB-13907) was originally constructed as a vernacular one-room schoolhouse near Roecliffe, an area originally settled by Barr Colonists. The school opened around 1910 but few details are known about its construction.
In the early days of the school, teachers would board with local families. By the mid-1940s, teachers lived in North Battleford and commuted to school. In 1961, a trailer was installed in the schoolyard for the teacher to live in.
After several closures and re-openings in the 1930s and 1940s, the school was in operation until 1964. It was moved to the WDM in 1967. By 1969, the WDM renovated it to represent a municipal office instead of a school.
Specs
When the school first opened, its clock was set by the whistle of the 9:00 am train heading to Saskatoon.
During the Depression, it was too expensive to replace the flag outside the school, so it was replaced with a painted piece of tin.
Wainscoting around the interior of the building and the floor are original.
St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church
The congregation of St Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church was established on June 13, 1918. Construction of the church began in the same year and was completed in 1921. The tower at the front of the church (WDM-1974-NB-1136) is built in the style of some Polish buildings from the 16th and 17th centuries. Inside the church, the ceiling, painted with images of stars and clouds, was inspired by a church in Warsaw, which many congregants had attended before coming to Canada.
The church shared a priest with seven or eight other churches, so services were held every six to eight weeks on a rotating schedule. Services were conducted in Polish and Latin. The congregation began to shrink in the 1960s and 70s and services were reduced to just once a year, on the Sunday closest to the anniversary of the church’s founding. The church was moved to the WDM in 1974, on the condition that the congregation could hold mass in the church every year on St. Anthony’s day (June 13).
Specs
The church served a large area, covering a 50-mile radius.
The rotating schedule of church services meant that congregants traveled to a different church every week.
Hymns were sung in Polish while the sermon and benediction were read in Latin.
St Luke’s Roman Catholic Church
Constructed in 1910 by the Oblate Fathers (OMI) in Fielding, St. Luke’s Roman Catholic Church (WDM-1973-NB-13904) is an example of a commonly used layout for churches and public buildings such as schools in Saskatchewan at the time. The church was served by a parish priest who, in the 1920s, served eight communities at once.
The exterior of the church is original, but the interior was redone in 1965, shortly before it was moved to the WDM in 1967.
Specs
The church was likely specifically designed for OMI, as similar churches were built in neighbouring communities.
In 1925, the parish priest for Fielding also served the communities of Richard, Denholm, Hafford, Bear Lake, Radisson, Maymont and Rabbit Lake.
St Mary’s Anglican Church
In the early 20th century, 50 young catechists traveled from England to Prince Albert to study, and then dispersed across the region to establish Anglican churches. This church (WDM-1973-NB-13908), St. Mary’s, was established by one of those students in 1908 with funds from the Anglican Church in England. It was constructed by community volunteers in Lilac.
Built in the gothic revival Canterbury Cathedral style, which was specifically designed for the Canadian prairies, the church was designed to hold about 50 people. The construction of the church was done in such a way that the east wall could be removed to expand the sanctuary should more room be needed. By 1908, there were 50 Canterbury Cathedral style churches on the Canadian prairies. These churches were designed to be easily recognizable as Anglican churches so that passersby would know the denomination of the church.
The church closed in 1960 and was moved to the WDM grounds in 1965.
Specs
The gothic windows are another typical feature of Canterbury Cathedral churches.
The original setup of the church had no pews, only chairs for congregants to sit in. Most of the artifacts in this church date to the 1950s.
Telephone Office
“You’re never alone when you have a phone,” claimed an early newspaper advertisement. Isolated on their farms, rural families in Saskatchewan during the 1920s relied on telegraph and telephone, postal and newspaper services to connect them to the world outside their farm gate.
The Telephone Exchange and Post Office in the Village offers Museum visitors a chance to sample a taste of rural life in the 1920s. A vintage telephone in a replica telephone booth presents a wonderful opportunity for museum visitors to experience.
By picking up the earpiece and speaking into the mouthpiece, visitors can be connected to the Co-Op Store or the John Deere dealership. Or the operator at the switchboard can direct the call to the merchant’s home on the other side of the village. The distant, hollow sounding transmission gives visitors a first-hand impression of what making a phone call would have sounded like in the 1920s. The operator plugging the dangling cords into the correct jacks shows at a glance how the telephone connection is made.
The first phone call in Saskatchewan dates to 1882, only six years after Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for his invention. By 1905, Saskatchewan had about 2000 telephones. Several subscribers shared a telephone line. These were known as party lines. If the line was in use, you had to wait your turn.
Early service in Saskatchewan was provided by privately-owned companies until the Department of Telephones was set up in 1908. Under government regulations, the government could provide service to urban communities including trunk lines for long distance services. In rural areas, provision was made for telephone districts with boards to be elected by the residents of the communities. At their peak, between 1922 and 1927, there were 1,214 rural telephone companies in Saskatchewan. As late as 1933, there were 1,169 cooperative telephone companies in existence in Saskatchewan. The last company, the East Borden Rural Telephone Company, was assimilated by SaskTel in 1989.
The North Battleford Telephone Office relied on the cooperation of many people. Telephone lines were installed by SaskTel. WDM volunteer Charlie Baker, a lineman for the Richard rural telephone company during his career years, played a lead role in developing the new exchange. He cleaned and refurbished the switchboard, donated items from his own collection, and assisted Museum staff to arrange and prepare the new office. Another WDM volunteer, Ed Risling, constructed the telephone booth. SaskTel Pioneers contributed knowledge, advice and support. The effort and cooperation of all combined and resulted in an exciting place for Museum visitors.
