Forestry Farm Superintendent's Residence

The heritage value of the Forestry Farm Superintendent's Residence resides in its association with prairie settlement and the federal government's tree-planting program, which operated from this site from 1913-1966 and promoted the propagation and distribution of seedlings, horticultural research, and farm beautification. The Superintendent's Residence and its surrounding outbuildings were purpose-built to serve as the focal point of the nursery and as a model farmyard for prairie newcomers as they established their homesteads. As a result, the residence, its surrounding grounds, and ornamental plantings played a key role in shaping the prairie environment.

Heritage value also resides in the site's importance to Saskatoon residents. From its earliest days, the residence and its opulent grounds were a major recreational site for city residents; by 1930, the nursery could boast as many as 3000 visitors on a pleasant weekend, including the Governor-General and his wife, Lord and Lady Byng, in the early 1920s.

Further heritage value lies in the structure's architecture. Simple in design, the building reflects a muted Georgian influence with its brick materials, symmetrical lines and proportions, and evenly spaced windows. It comprises 2 ¼ storeys with a flat-front façade and features a complex hipped roof, which is pierced by two hipped dormers. Not typical of a prairie farm house, the Superintendent's Residence, along with its ornamental plantings and cultural landscape, continues to symbolize the original role of the nursery and is a testament to the government forestry policy that had a profound impact on the environment of the prairies.

Sources:

City of Saskatoon Bylaw No. 7122.

"Forestry Farm Park and Zoo." Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Letters to the Saskatchewan Heritage Property Review Board Hearing, April 2, 1996.