Recognized Federal Heritage Building

Junior Ranks Quarters (Building T-114)

Essa, Ontario

General view of the Junior Ranks Quarters, showing the general horizontal emphasis.

General view of the Junior Ranks Quarters, showing the general horizontal emphasis.

Photo: Department of National Defence / Ministère de la Défense nationale

Built
1952
Recognized
1995
By
Government of Canada

The register’s text, word for word

Description

The Junior Ranks Quarters building, also known as Building T-114, is located on the parade square at Canadian Forces Base Borden. The stucco-clad building is a large structure with a flat roof behind a low parapet wall. The primary elevation features a projecting central portico with six pillars behind which a recessed principal entrance comprises three pairs of wooden paneled doors. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage value

The Junior Ranks Quarters building is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental value.

Historical Value

The Junior Ranks Quarters building is associated with the massive construction and modernization program undertaken by the Department of National Defence (DND) at the end of the Second World War. More specifically, the building is associated with the creation of permanent peacetime armed forces as well as the expansion and transformation of the military services to meet specific national commitments in the early years of the Cold War. This barracks block was an early component of the post-Second World War expansion at the base built to accommodate a wide variety of new housing.

Architectural Value

The Junior Ranks Quarters building are a good example of a military building that combines architectural modernism and functionalism in a durable and economical form. Characterized by its symmetrical plan, flat roof and horizontal emphasis, the overall effect of the building is of a modernist hybrid of formalism and Prairie-style accents. It was a project developed by DND staff as an exemplar for the new standards of improved accommodations that followed the Second World War.

Environmental Value

The Junior Ranks Quarters building maintains an unchanged relationship to its site and is compatible with the present character of its military setting at Canadian Forces Base Borden. The building is familiar at the base.

SourceCanadian Forces Base Borden, Ontario, Federal Heritage Building Review Office Building Report (SCR) 94-088; Junior Ranks Quarters, Building T-114, Canadian Forces Base Borden, Ontario, Heritage Character Statement, 94-088.

Character‑defining elements

The character-defining elements of the Junior Ranks Quarters should be respected.

Its modern style and functionalism in a durable and economical form, for example:

  • the symmetrical plan and horizontally emphasized massing of the building;
  • the symmetrical main elevation, with articulated corner accents and the emphasized and elaborated principal frontage, with its projecting portico and recessed entrance;
  • the general horizontal emphasis on all elevations, reinforced by the flat roofscape and parapets and the wrap-around continuity of the projecting belt courses.

The manner in which the Junior Ranks Quarters building maintains an unchanged relationship to its site, is compatible with its military setting and is a familiar building at Canadian Forces Base Borden, as evidenced by:

  • its ongoing relationship to its site on the western frontage of an open parade-square lawn;
  • its overall design, scale and materials which maintain a relationship to the matching building T-115 and are compatible with similar buildings at the base;
  • its visibility vis-à-vis its scale and location which makes it a familiar building at the base.

End of the register’s text

Location

Essa, Ontario, Canada

44.27966° N, 79.90046° W

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Nearby

All 9 places in Essa

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From the Canadian Register of Historic Places, as last updated on December 12, 2025. The register’s text is shown word for word.