Key Number:	HS 69670
Site Name:	Scandia - Alberta Pool Elevator Co. - Elevator
Other Names:
Site Type:	0416 - Mercantile/Commercial: Storage Elevator

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			15	15	4

Address:	N/A
Number:	N/A
Street:	N/A
Avenue:	N/A
Other:
Town:	Scandia
Near Town:

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

Style:	Single Wood Elevator
Plan Shape:
Storeys:
Foundation:	Basement/Foundation Wall Material: Concrete
Superstructure:
Superstructure Cover:
Roof Structure:
Roof Cover:
Exterior Codes:	Elevator: Associated Buildings: Outhouse & Storage
Exterior:	The structure containing the grain bins rests on a concrete foundation and is built of rough cut 2x6 and 2x4 boards laid flat in a cribbed construction. The roofs and the enclosed driveway are of standard timber frame construction covered with cedar shingles and the elevator exterior is sheathed in cedar siding. The office is a timber frame structure on a concrete foundation and is capped with a gable roof. To mitigate fire hazards, both the exterior walls and roof and interior walls and ceilings of the office and adjoining engine room are clad in pressed metal. A brick chimney provided exhaust for the engine.
Interior:	Elevator No.1 is a tall wood structure designed for transshipping and storing grain. The elevator consists of a thick windowless vertical shaft housing a "leg" or belt with cups for lifting grain into deep storage bins in the elevator. The monitor roofline penthouse at the top of the elevator houses a distributor box, a system of chutes operated by cables from below to direct grain sorted by type and grade into the storage bins. A shed-roof driveway contains scales for weighing rain-laden wagons or trucks, and a "boot tank" beneath the scale floor into which grain would be dumped for elevation into the bins. A spout could feed grain from the bins into trucks or to waiting rail cars on the tracks alongside the elevator. In an agent's office beside the elevator, accounts were kept and a gasoline engine powered the elevator leg through a series of belts enclosed within a walkway to the elevator. This elegantly functional design is identical to that of grain elevators across the prairies.
Environment:	N/A
Condition:	Good (1997)
Alterations:	Restoration. The original fabric and workings of the buildings have been retained except for the cupped conveyor belt or leg and the "man lift" which carried personnel up into the elevator. The office is well preserved and serves as an exhibit in the E.I.D. Historic Park. Maintenance and restoration work by the park includes the replacement of broken windows and repair and painting of the cedar siding on the elevator, repairing of the walk-way, and straightening and reinforcement of the driveway entrance, walls and roof.

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Construction Started	1927/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
Elevator
Owner:	Owner Date:
EID Historical Parkand Museum Alberta Pool Elevator Co.	1927/01/01

Architect:	N/A
Builder:	N/A
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	Designated as Registered Historic Resource and now part of museum site. Building has undergone restoration. HISTORIC SUMMARY ALBERTA WHEAT POOL ELEVATOR, SCANDIA This grain elevator No.1 was built in the winter of 1927-1928 coinciding with the arrival of a CPR branch line into the Scandia District. Although the area had been settled some years earlier, the arrival of a rail line and an elevator made the business of farming in this section of the Eastern Irrigation District much simpler and more viable. Operated by the Alberta Wheat Pool, the elevator also reflects the role of the co-operative movement and farmers' organizations in changing grain marketing on the Canadian Prairies. when the CPR abandoned the Scandia section of branch line in 1977-78, the elevator went out of service. It has, however, been preserved as an important part of a local historical park. The history of this elevator is intimately tied to the local history of this agricultural region. It reflects both the last great period of branch line development by railways in Alberta and the more recent history of rail line abandonment and elevator closure in smaller rural communities. Grain elevators are distinctive and unique to the western grain-producing regions of Canada and the United States.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Provincial Historic Resource	2008/09/30

Register:	N/A

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places:	4665-0602