Around 1981, this barn in what is now the Rural Municipality of Wallace-Woodworth was featured in a Manitoba Co-operator series on rural buildings. The original caption for the photograph is given below.
Frederick George Taylor arrived in Manitoba 100 years ago and after enduring his first western winter, walked from Brandon to Flat Creek along the Assiniboine River valley. Picking a homestead on the banks of the river about 2½ miles west and 2½ miles north of Oak Lake, Taylor later built a massive 100-foot by 50-foot modern barn. Struck down by lightning in 1917, the barn shown below was later built on the same foundation and is used today for livestock and storage by Frederick Herbert Taylor, grandson of the original settler. Completed in 1924, the metal-covered structure features one of the largest roof cupolas still to be found atop a barn in this province. The original foundation is two feet thick and composed of local stones hauled by sleigh from a site located about four miles across the river. The wood framing and timbers are British Columbia fir. About the time the Taylor house was being completed in 1910, the family also built a dam below a natural spring in the side of the river valley. After trenching down below the frost-line, water was piped into house and barn through a gravity-fed system. The general barn condition remains excellent due to minor but regular repairs made to the bank barn foundation. The structure is used for winter sheltering of livestock and spring calving, but mainly for grain and hay storage.
As of October 2021, the barn is still in use during calving season by Stan Taylor, great-grandson of the original owner.
Taylor Barn (circa 1981)
Source: Bob Hainstock
Taylor Barn (October 2021)
Source: Jean McManus
Taylor Barn (October 2021)
Source: Jean McManus
Taylor Barn (October 2021)
Source: Jean McManus
Interior of the Taylor Barn (October 2021)
Source: Jean McManusSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.80249, W100.68832
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Manitoba Co-operator Rural Buildings Series
We thank Fred Taylor and Jean McManus for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Bob Hainstock, Ed Ledohowski, and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 17 October 2021
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