This barn in the Municipality of Prairie View was photographed in the early 1980s by staff of the Manitoba Cooperator newspaper as part of a series on rural architecture. The original description was as follows:
When the T. E. Doran family of Isabella was digging the large root cellars for their new barn in 1919, they found an arrowhead in the excavations. The Arrowhead Farm has been part of the Doran family since that day and is currently operated by E. P. Doran. Built in the bank barn tradition, this view of the 96×56-foot structure shows the earth ramp leading up to the east doors and the second-level storage where enormous amounts of feed were once stored for the horsepower of an earlier era. The root cellars were used to store feed for people—with the two of them each 40 feet long, 4.5 feet wide and seven feet deep. In addition, a 16-foot-deep cistern was located in the barn’s lower level.
The Doran family is maintaining the 62-year-old barn in top condition, converting it to a hog operation in the mid-1960s. Material for the structure was railed from British Columbia to Isabella which is four miles south and one mile east of the farm site. The original owners had decided to get the structure up in a hurry, hiring 13 carpenters to build the barn. Original value is estimated to be about $12,000. One of the most unusual features of the Arrowhead barn is the arched skylight directly above the sliding doors of the driveway. Unlike many bank barns that had the earth ramps piled directly against barn walls, the Arrowhead barn was of the modern version which provided a bridge between the driveway and wall, and prolonged the life of the wood-framed structure.
The barn went out of use in 1995 or 1996, and fell into disrepair, finally collapsing in late 2005 or early 2006. Parts of its windows were salvaged, reassembled as a complete window, and put on display at the Isabella Museum. The site is still owned and occupied by members of the Doran family.
Doran Barn (early 1980s)
Source: Robert HainstockSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.32510, W100.90236
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Manitoba Co-operator Rural Buildings Series
Co-operator barn series revival, Manitoba Cooperator.
We thank Bernice Still (Isabella Museum) and Kevin Doran for providing information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 6 February 2023
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