National Historic Site of Canada

Royal Flying Corps Hangars National Historic Site of Canada

Essa, Ontario

Also known as Royal Flying Corps Hangars, Hangars-du-Corps-Royal-d'Aviation

Aerial photo of Royal Flying Corps Hangars, 1988.

Aerial photo of Royal Flying Corps Hangars, 1988.

Photo: Agence Parcs Canada /Parks Canada Agency, 1988.

Built
1917
Recognized
1989
By
Government of Canada

The register’s text, word for word

Description

The Royal Flying Corps Hangars at Canadian Forces Base Borden, near Barrie, Ontario, face the runway in a ribbon-like line. Of the original fifteen built on Canada's first military aerodrome during World War I, eight survive. Some of these single-storey timber-framed buildings have been rehabilitated for alternate uses, including a museum. The official recognition refers to the buildings on their footprints as of 1989.

Heritage value

The Royal Flying Corps Hangars were designated a national historic site of Canada in 1989:

  • by virtue of their place in the development of Canadian Military Aviation,
  • because they are the earliest known surviving examples of their functional building types.

The Royal Flying Corps Hangars were built in 1917 as temporary quarters for Canada's first military aerodrome. Witnessing the transition of the Royal Flying Corps (1916-17) to the Canadian Air Force (1920) and then to the Royal Canadian Air Force (1924), the hangars have since housed air training schools and a variety of other uses, including a museum. The heritage value of the Royal Flying Corps Hangars NHSC resides in their associated history as illustrated by their functional design, form and composition and their siting as an assembled grouping.

SourceHistoric Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, February 1989, November 2001.

Character‑defining elements

Key features contributing to the heritage value of this site include:

  • the rectangular footprint of each hangar;
  • their single-storey massing under a low bowed roof with a lower shed-roofed addition;
  • access through huge four-panel horizontally sliding end doors whose rail extends beyond the façade supported by tripods or posts;
  • their large banks of side windows supplying natural light;
  • their shed-like addition for tool storage;
  • their barrier-free interior provided by structural wood lattice-bow trusses supported on timber posts reinforced with diagonal timber braces;
  • surviving evidence of the three hangar remains;
  • the repetition of a similar element in a consistent pattern and spacing along the runway apron;
  • continuity of longstanding access and circulation patterns;
  • their setting in a ribbon-like line mirroring airfield contours;
  • their site on the southwestern boundary of Camp Borden.

End of the register’s text

Location

Essa, Ontario, L0M, Canada

44.26667° N, 79.88333° 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.