Key Number:	HS 72433
Site Name:	1937 Battle River Hospital
Other Names:
Site Type:	1503 - Medical: Hospital or Infirmary

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			9	23	5

Address:	Centre Street & 1 Avenue North
Number:	N/A
Street:	Centre N
Avenue:	1 N
Other:
Town:	Manning
Near Town:

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

Style:
Plan Shape:	Rectangular
Storeys:	Storeys: 1 1/2
Foundation:	Basement/Foundation Wall Material: Stone
Superstructure:
Superstructure Cover:	Composition: Plaster or Stucco
Roof Structure:	High Gable
Roof Cover:
Exterior Codes:
Exterior:	One and one-half storey, rectangular-shaped building with a small extension at the rear. It has a jerkinhead roof with large shed-roofed dormer windows. There are ground floor entries with wooden valances at the front and side, and two rear entrances, one at ground level and the other on the second storey, which is accessed by a reconstructed wooden staircase. Its exterior walls are covered with buff-coloured stucco and features red-brown wooden trim and imitation half-timbering in the gables. - rectangular shaped footprint with a smaller extension at the rear; - fenestration pattern of the first storey echoed on the basement level; - buff-coloured stuccoed exterior walls with red-brown painted wood trim; - imitation half-timbered gables, with three ganged windows in the front gable and a doorway flanked by windows in the rear gable; - shingled, jerkinhead roof with large shed-roofed dormer double windows; - stone rubble foundation
Interior:	- balloon frame wood and joist construction; - central hall layout on both floors; - notably wide hallways and doorways on the first floor; - hardwood floor on main floor and linoleum flooring on second floor; - green-painted walls with white-painted wooden trim.
Environment:	Located in the town of Manning, which developed largely because of the hospital's presence.
Condition:	N/A
Alterations:	N/A

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Construction Started	1937/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
"The Old Hospital" Gallery & Museum Hospital	1937/01/01
Owner:	Owner Date:
Te Town of Manning

Architect:	Gordon Wynn
Builder:	N/A
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE The building was constructed in 1937 as a United Church missionary hospital. It remained in use as the town of Manning’s only hospital until 1955 when it was replaced by a new municipal hospital. This hospital building has a clear connection to the early settlement period in the northern Peace River area. It reminds us that missionaries were still active in the north at this time and that basic services, which were all well established in more southern area, were still being established. In addition, the activities of the United Church as a missionary organization are not well known or well researched giving this building some additional historical interest. * * * Constructed in 1937 as a United Church missionary hospital, it served as the town's only hospital until 1955 when a new municipal hospital was constructed. At the time this hospital building was constructed, the northern Peace River area was just being opened to settlement and it represented perhaps the last agricultural frontier in Canada. Services in these remote communities were sparse and many were still being provided by missionary organizations. This hospital reflects the early settlement history of the Manning area and reveals the difficulties faced in such a remote area in providing basic services long established in the south. It also reminds us of the ongoing role of the United Church in missionary activity in Canada well into the mid-20th century. (Site Information Summary, September 1992). * * * D-1621 - BATTLE RIVER HOSPITAL, MANNING HISTORICAL CONTEXT: When the Dominion government began to consider what to do with the vast number of soldiers expected to enter the workforce following their service in World War, it hit upon a scheme to try to locate as many veterans as possible on the land. A Soldiers Settlement Board was set up and special incentives given to veterans to begin farming. Certain tracts of surveyed but unsettled land were identified for the Board's exclusive use. Several such tracts were on the Battle River Prairie, west of the Peace River and about 75km north of Peace River, where a number of townships had been surveyed during the war. Shortly after the war's conclusion therefore, the small number of settlers already in the area were joined by a growing number of veterans and regular homesteaders. By 1921, the district had an estimated population of 500. A tiny community called Battle River Prairie emerged off the Notikewin (formerly Battle) River. In 1924, the store and post office was re-named Notikewin and moved to the site of present day Notikewin, some 8km to the north. For supplies, most of the settlers during the 1920s used the facilities at Peace River. Commercial transportation on the Peace River with the D.A. Thomas and other boats was common. Winter wagon roads were opened in the winter. One major concern however was medical. By the Public Health Nurses Act of 1919, visits were made by registered nurses with mobile clinics to remote locations such as Notikewin, but these could not accommodate emergency situations. Throughout the 1920s, stories of untreated accidents and death on the Prairie appeared in the Peace River Record, and there was a growing demand for a regular physician to be appointed by the government to some point on the Battle River Prairie. During the agricultural boom years of the late 1920s, more settlers made their way to the Prairie, and the small communities of Hotchkiss and North Star were born. Finally, in 1928, it was decided to sponsor a permanent nurse for the district, and nurse Mary Little was assigned to the Prairie, with a small house built for her on the Notikewin River, midway between North Star and Notikewin. In 1929, she was replaced by Dr. Mary Percy, who was recruited from England in response to an ad in the British Medical Journal. In 1931, she married Frank Jackson of Keg River and moved to that local. Several other nurses then served the Battle River Prairie until 1937, when a new hospital was built off the Notikewin River and a resident physician, Dr. Arthur Doige, was assigned to serve in it. The 1930s had seen a continuing influx of settlers on the Prairie, many coming from the drought areas of southeastern Alberta. As a result, there had been growing pressure for a hospital. Much of it came from the Women's Missionary Society of the United Church of Canada, which began to collect promissory funds for a hospital. Finally, in response to a compelling application to the provincial Department of Health drawn up by Helen Turner and Mary Percy Jackson, the government agreed to contribute the same amount needed to support a district nurse if the WMS would build the hospital and secure a resident doctor. With support in place all the way from Dixonville to Keg River, sufficient funds were finally in place to begin the structure, and work began on the Battle River Hospital in the fall of 1936. The site chosen was on the bank of the Notikewin River, on the road midway between North Star and Notikewin, on land donated by John Robertson. Most labour and building supplies for the new hospital were volunteered, with construction supervised by W.D.C. Buchanon. The Chair of the Building Committee was H.A. Inglis. The balloon frame structure appears to have been built according to a general design made available to the WMS and approved by the provincial government. Work continued that winter, when possible, and into the following spring and summer. Finally, on 4 September 1937, the new eight bed hospital was officially opened. It was an all inclusive facility at first, with space provided for an operating room, a waiting room, and a kitchen. The second floor was largely given over to living accommodation for the three nurses. Electricity was provided by an external Delco gas engine. The first doctor, Arthur Doige, lived in a separate cabin. Serving a hinterland of about 4,500 people, the Battle River Hospital was reported by the WCS to have accommodated about 1,100 patients during its first five years of operation, in addition to many more out-patients. Over time, extra fixtures and equipment were added, most of them volunteered, such as the new X-Ray unit, installed in 1944. Also in 1944, a new three-room cottage was built for Dr. Doige, who now had a wife, and, in 1945, a separate residence was built for the nurses. This allowed the second floor of the hospital to be made over into a nine-bed maternity hospital. The small community to grow up outside the hospital became known as Aurora. When the Mackenzie Highway was pushed through in 1947, Aurora became a government construction and maintenance center, quickly eclipsing both North Star and Notikewin in size. In 1951, it was incorporated as a village with over 400 people. With continuing post war growth in the area, the old hospital was soon recognized to be too small for the district, and so, in 1955, a new municipal hospital was built. With this, the old hospital continued to serve the new one as an auxiliary until 1959, when it was purchased by Gertrude Dempsey. It then began to serve as a residence for children of broken homes, managed by June and Leonard Clare. In 1976, the Town of Manning purchased the property with the idea of retaining it as a local historic site. It was then leased to several tenants until a hospital historical committee was formed, and work was begun on restoring and renovating the building. In 1993, the building was declared a Registered Historic Resource. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The historical significance of the Battle River Hospital lies in its provision of structural evidence of a northern regional hospital serving a vast hinterland, in this case a rural population of about 4,500 people who had settled on land all the way from Dixonville to Keg River, a distance of about 140 km. The building is also important in exemplifying the growth of settlement on the Battle River Prairie, where the war veterans and other settlers who had come to the district in the aftermath of World War I, and the wave of settlers of the late 1920s, had been joined by many drought devastated farmers from southeast Alberta during the Depression. * * * Description of Historic Place The Battle River Hospital is a one and one-half storey, rectangular-shaped building with a small extension at the rear. It has a jerkinhead roof with large shed-roofed dormer windows. There are ground floor entries with wooden valances at the front and side, and two rear entrances, one at ground level and the other on the second storey, which is accessed by a reconstructed wooden staircase. Its exterior walls are covered with buff-coloured stucco and features red-brown wooden trim and imitation half-timbering in the gables. Built between 1936 and 1937, the hospital's exterior has been restored to its original appearance. The interior has been restored to its appearance in the late 1940s. The Battle River Hospital building is centrally located in Manning on Second Avenue SW and is situated on one irregularly shaped lot. Exterior Characteristics - small scale and residential appearance; - rectangular shaped footprint with a smaller extension at the rear; - fenestration pattern of the first storey echoed on the basement level; - buff-coloured stuccoed exterior walls with red-brown painted wood trim; - imitation half-timbered gables, with three ganged windows in the front gable and a doorway flanked by windows in the rear gable; - shingled, jerkinhead roof with large shed-roofed dormer double windows; - stone rubble foundation; - location in the town of Manning, which developed largely because of the hospital's presence. Interior Characteristics: - balloon frame wood and joist construction; - central hall layout on both floors; - notably wide hallways and doorways on the first floor; - hardwood floor on main floor and linoleum flooring on second floor; - green-painted walls with white-painted wooden trim. Designed by architect Gordon Wynn, the Battle River Hospital represents a particular type of small rural hospital built in Alberta during the inter-war period. There is a replica of the late 1940s sign over the front door with the words "BATTLE RIVER HOSPITAL W.M.S. United Church of Canada."

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Provincial Historic Resource	2009/03/11

Register:	N/A

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places:	4665-0760