The Searle Grain Company elevator stands alone at the north end of the row, built in 1932. The Alberta Wheat Pool and the United Grain Growers elevators are side-by-side, forming the south end of the row. One was built in 1920 by United Grain Growers, the other in 1940 by the Wheat Pool. The UGG elevator had been bought by the Wheat Pool in 1928.
Rowley Grain Elevator Row was placed on the Alberta Register of Historic Places on November 12th, 2003.
Rowley Grain Elevator Row
Description of Historic Place
The Rowley Grain Elevator Row is a historic row of grain elevators and auxiliary buildings in the hamlet of Rowley. The site includes the United Grain Growers - Alberta Wheat Pool twinned grain elevators, the Searle Grain Company Grain Elevator, an engine shed, a fuel shed and two office buildings.
Heritage Value
The heritage value of the Rowley Grain Elevator Row lies in association with the dominant method of storing and transporting grain in Alberta throughout most of the twentieth century. It is also valued as an icon of Alberta's agricultural and social history.
The Searle Grain Company Grain Elevator site is comprised of a single elevator structure built by the Searle Grain Company in 1932, with an office and small fuel shed. It is an early example of the Prairie Vernacular industrial style of railroad structure built to a "standard tall" plan with a grain storage and handling capacity of 44,000 bushels. The structure is an excellent example of crib construction and retains a high degree of integrity with respect to its original design elements, machinery, and material. It is the oldest known extant example of an elevator constructed by the Searle Grain Company in Alberta.
The United Grain Growers-Alberta Wheat Pool Grain Elevator site is comprised of a single elevator constructed by the United Grain Growers in 1920 that was twinned when the Alberta Wheat Pool constructed a single elevator adjacent to it in 1940. The twinned elevators are accompanied by an office building and power-house. Both elevator structures are very good examples of the Prairie Vernancular style and were built to a standard square plan designed by the United Grain Growers in 1917. They retain a high degree of original integrity with some alterations made to accommodate the twinning in 1940. The site complex is a very good example of a twinned elevator complex that shows the materials and mechanical systems used within a two-decade period. The United Grain Growers component is the oldest known extant example of an elevator constructed by the United Grain Growers in Alberta.
Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of the Rowley Grain Elevator Row include such features as:
Landscape:
- driveway providing access to both elevators;
- walkway between driveway and elevator office;
- visual and spatial relationships between site and rail right-of-way and adjacent approach road, between the twin elevators, between the twin elevators and the Searle Grain Company Grain Elevator Site Complex Provincial Historic Resource, and between the twin elevators and the hamlet's nearby main street;
- vestiges of rail bed.
Searle Grain Company Grain Elevator:
- mass, form, and style;
- thick, wooden, windowless shaft crowned by gable roofed cupola;
- crib construction;
- wood plank construction drive shed with south end access doors;
- original design elements, fixtures, and machinery, including the conveyor belt and cups, man-lift with rope pulley system, gerber wheel, hopper scale, and truck scale.
- Searle company logo visible on east, west and south elevations
Office:
- mass, form, and style;
- exterior sheet metal cladding;
- original windows and doors;
- gasoline powered engine;
- one interior wall clad with original metal siding.
Fuel shed:
- mass, form, and style;
- location roughly 20 feet from grain elevator;
- horizontal wood siding.
United Grain Growers - Alberta Wheat Pool Grain Elevator Twin elevators:
- mass, form, and style;
- thick, wooden, windowless shafts crowned by gable roofed cupolas;
- crib construction;
- wood frame windows;
- extended driveway;
- original design elements, fixtures, and machinery in the elevators, including drive shed with lower "boot" tank and grate, truck scales, man-lifts, hopper scales, gerber wheels, grain chutes, upper floor mezzanines, and grain bin levers;
- Alberta Wheat Pool logos on the north, south, and east walls.
Office:
- mass, form, and style;
- wood siding;
- original windows and doors.
Engine shed:
- mass, form, and style;
- wood frame construction;
- original design elements, fixtures, and machinery.
From the Alberta Register of Historic Places