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Dr. McMillan Residence
Claresholm
Other Names:
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Doctor McMillan Residence
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Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Dr. McMillan Residence is a one and one-half storey, east-facing structure built on a cruciform plan. The main façade features a prominent bay window and a hip-roofed open porch supported by Tuscan columns. This porch historically gave entry to a medical office. The residential entrance to the home is located on the north side of the house, sheltered by a glazed-in porch. A modern garage addition attached to the rear of the house is not visible from the street. The Dr. McMillan Residence is located on a double lot at 4811 - 2 Street West, in downtown Claresholm.
Heritage Value
The heritage value of the Dr. McMillan Residence rests in its association with the history of medical care in Alberta. It is further significant for its architecture as an example of a structure purpose-built to accommodate both residential and professional functions.
The Dr. McMillan Residence is significant for its association with the evolution of medical care in Alberta. Built in 1916, the building was used by three successive doctors as a home and medical office, complete with an operating room and x-ray machine, for twenty-four years. The building reflects a shift in health care delivery in early twentieth-century Alberta as doctors moved away from home visits and instead ran their practices out of dedicated offices. While some doctors established practices in professional buildings, many built offices in their homes, both out of convenience and the general belief that patients accustomed to receiving care in their own homes would be more receptive to new offices if they were opened in a domestic environment. Such home offices were very common in both urban and rural Alberta from the early 1900s until the 1940s when medical care was further centralized into purpose-built professional clinics occupied by multiple doctors. The Dr. McMillan House thus reflects an important transitional stage in the evolution of medical care in Alberta.
The building is further significant as an example of a structure that combined a professional office with its primary function as a family home. While such home medical offices were relatively common, the Dr. McMillan Residence is distinguished as a structure that was designed and built to accommodate both functions rather than being built as a house and later converted to this dual purpose. The building’s floorplan was typical of home-based offices in this period, with the medical practice kept separate from the building’s domestic space and accessed through the building’s main front entrance. The building’s exterior presents as strictly residential, with only the bifurcated pathway leading to separate entrances suggesting the building’s dual functions. The Dr. McMillan Residence is thus an outstanding example of the type of building where many Albertans received medical care in the first half of the twentieth century.
Character-Defining Elements
The heritage value of the Dr. McMillan Residence is conveyed through such features as its:
Exterior
- form, scale and massing;
- front porch with original wood columns and entablature;
- medium pitch, cross-gable roof with eave returns;
- bay window on front façade;
- original fenestration;
- enclosed, glazed porch on northeast side;
- corbeled brick chimneys; and
- bifurcated configuration of front pathway.
Interior
- original floorplan;
- interior wainscotting and millwork;
- built-in furnishings; and
- wood and tile flooring.
Location
| Street Address: |
4811 - 2 Street W |
| Community: |
Claresholm |
| Boundaries: |
Plan 147N, Block 12, Lots 5 and 6 |
| Contributing Resources: |
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ATS Legal Description:
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
157N
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12
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4, 5
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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50.0243013 |
-113.5839922 |
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UTM Reference:
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Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
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Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Province of Alberta |
| Designation Status: |
Provincial Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
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Historical Information
| Built: |
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| Period of Significance: |
N/A |
| Theme(s): |
Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life : Science
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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: |
4665-1425 |
| Designation File: |
DES 0077 |
| Related Listing(s): |
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| Heritage Survey File: |
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| Website Link: |
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| Data Source: |
DES 0077 |
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