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Buttermaker's House
Markerville
Other Names:
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Jackson House
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Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Buttermaker’s House is a single storey wood frame building with a square floorplan and a gabled hip roof with an offset gable at the front. The exterior is finished in wooden clapboard siding with corner boards and decorative shingles in the front gable end. It is situated on the bank of the Medicine River, on a triangular plot of land defined by Main Avenue and Creamery Way in the hamlet of Markerville. Directly across the Way is the Markerville Creamery, with which the Buttermaker’s House is associated.
Heritage Value
The heritage value of the Buttermaker’s House rests in its association with the history of the dairy industry in Alberta.
Built in 1913, the Buttermaker’s House strongly reflects the social and economic context of the dairy industry in early twentieth-century Alberta. It was constructed for William Jackson who had been recruited to work as buttermaker at the Markerville Creamery after several years’ experience in Innisfail. Jackson was strongly representative of the class of skilled artisans who oversaw butter production and quality control on a modern, scientific basis in the early 1900s as dairy production increasingly shifted from individual farms to large-scale industrial facilities like the Markerville Creamery. Jackson lived at the Buttermaker’s House and worked at the creamery for ten years, during which time he won multiple quality awards at provincial competitions and played a leading role in the Alberta Dairymen’s Association. The house was thus a residence that served the needs of Jackson and his family and also reflected the creamery’s need to attract skilled workers vital to the facility’s long-term success. The building’s overall design and high level of interior and exterior integrity clearly convey its primary domestic function, while its close proximity to the Markerville Creamery communicates its historic association with this crucial local industry and, more broadly, the social context of rural industrialization in early twentieth-century Alberta.
Source: Alberta Culture and Tourism, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. 0872)
Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of the Buttermaker’s House include its:
- Original wooden exterior elements including siding, windows, doors, soffits and fascia;
- siting in close proximity to the Markerville Creamery;
- scale, massing and roof form;
- brick chimney;
- exterior cellar access;
- original wood interior elements, including baseboards, doors and window trim and kitchen cabinets;
- hedge between the house and the street; and
- open space in the yard down to the river edge.
Location
| Street Address: |
109 Creamery Way |
| Community: |
Markerville |
| Boundaries: |
Portion of Lots 6 to 10, Block 1, Plan RN21 |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building
Landscape(s) or Landscape Feature(s)
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ATS Legal Description:
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
RN21
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1
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Pt. Lots 6-10
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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52.1233222 |
-114.1726416 |
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UTM Reference:
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Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Province of Alberta |
| Designation Status: |
Provincial Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
2019/02/12 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1913 to 1913 |
| Period of Significance: |
1913 to 1924 |
| Theme(s): |
Developing Economies : Labour
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| Historic Function(s): |
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| Current Function(s): |
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| Architect: |
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| Builder: |
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| Context: |
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Additional Information
| Object Number: |
4665-0019 |
| Designation File: |
DES 0872 |
| Related Listing(s): |
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| Heritage Survey File: |
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| Website Link: |
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| Data Source: |
Alberta Culture and Tourism, Historic Resources Management Branch, Old St. Stephen's College, 8820 - 112 Street, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P8 (File: Des. 0872) |
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