These two defunct and decrepit elevators are all there ever were in Creston. The Creston Valley, being the only area in south central BC enjoying a flat, fertile valley bottom of any size, still sees cultivation of wheat, oats, barley, and canola. Even though it's not Saskatchewan or Alberta, one should not be surprised to see grain elevators here.
The southerly (red) one of the two was, through its operational life, an Alberta Wheat Pool Elevator, built in 1936 beside a United Grain Growers (white) elevator which was erected the previous year. The UGG elevator, when built, was operated by the Midland & Pacific Grain Company. They both remained in use, though privately in later years, until the early 1990s.
In 1971, as local farmers shifted to the cultivation of non-grain crops, the UGG elevator closed and was sold into private hands, while the Wheat Pool elevator remained open until its closing in 1982.
Of possible interest is a collection of photos, including archival photos, on the elevators'
Heritage Register Page which include many interior views of the "
mechanisms for the operation of the red elevator".
Creston Grain Elevators
Description of Historic Place
The Creston Grain Elevators are two side by side wood-frame vertical agricultural structures with gable roofs, approximately six storeys high. They sit on two urban lots on Northwest Boulevard near the intersection with Pine Street in downtown Creston, BC.
Heritage Values of the Historic Place
Acclaimed landmarks on Creston’s downtown skyline, the town’s pair of wood grain elevators are valued as significant historic sites, as iconic symbols of Creston and the Creston Valley’s agricultural heritage.
Additionally, the Creston elevators hold provincial and national significance, representing half of the last four surviving wood grain elevators in BC which had at least twenty four still standing in the 1950s. They are increasingly rare surviving representations of a historic agricultural building that is considered the emblem of the Canadian grain industry, a structure which has all but vanished in the last few decades all over the country. In their survival as a pair, and on such an accessible, visible location in the heart of downtown Creston - their value is higher than the majority of other surviving elevators which are often isolated examples in remote locations.
Built in 1935 (white elevator - Midland & Pacific) and 1936 (red elevator - Alberta Wheat Pool), the elevators are tied to the historic reclamation efforts of the Creston Flats along the Kootenay River around the turn of the 20th century to establish agricultural lands, and specifically to the diversion of the Goat River in 1934-35, the intervention which finally kept the flats safe from floods. They are directly associated with the first significant yield of grain off the Flats in 1935 which brought an economic and development boom to Creston.
The elevators stand testament to the struggles and resilience of the local grain industry as it faced the obstacles of the Canadian Wheat Board’s restrictive quota policies. The elevators functioned busily as shipping depots for grain (wheat, barley, oats and rye) until 1971 when in light of these restrictive policies, farming in the area shifted to non-grain crops. That year, the Pacific and Midland elevator was sold to private ownership - ceasing to handle public grain - and 10 years later in 1982, the Alberta Wheat Pool elevator closed as well.
Their design, following a standard plan for square elevators and featuring traditional 2 x 6 wood crib construction, is valued as an excellent illustration of the 1920-30s Prairie Country Elevator Plan ‘Standard Tall’, the vernacular model erected in the two grain growing areas of BC - the Creston Valley and the Peace Region. Their intact interior mechanisms - headworks and ‘leg’ with belt and cups, gerber, bindicator, distributing spouts and pipes, storage bins, hopper scale, grain pits and motors provide rare insight into the workings of grain distribution from farms to rail in Canada from the 1890s to the 1980s.
Even though in the last four decades they have no longer functioned as public grain elevators, were minimally used for storage and finally vacated, the local community has mobilized to protect them from demolition whenever a threat was raised. Their importance to the community and to visitors alike is also evident in that they continue to be the most photographed, illustrated and painted landmarks in the Creston Valley.
Character Defining Elements
- Original location at the foot of Pine Street between Northwest Boulevard and the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks overlooking the Creston Valley Flats
- Industrial/agricultural form, massing and design as per the ‘Standard Tall’ elevator plan introduced by the United Grain Growers Ltd. in 1917 and defined by:
- Five-storey wood-crib-wall structure (40’ x 40’ footprint) topped by a two-storey ballon-frame cupola (20’ x 40’ footprint). The wood-crib-wall construction, as evident on the interior, consists of 2x6 members laid flat and spiked together on the lower bin walls and 2x4 members laid flat and spiked together on the upper bin walls.
- Narrow shiplap siding on the exterior
- Flared siding at the base over the concrete foundation
- Cedar shingle roofs
- Minimal eaves with stacked facia boards on the Red elevator and an angled facia board o
the White elevator
- Monitor style roof (a general front gable roof form featuring a significant drop between the upper roof and the lower planes)
- Wood-frame delivery bay (driveway) with shed roof on the street facing elevations
- Sliding doors at each end of the driveways
- Original window openings with original window assemblies on the Red Elevator
- Original window openings found on the White elevator with original openings and assembles on the driveway
- Trackside folding loading platform and sliding door
- Extant internal mechanisms for the operation of the elevators including:
- headworks and ‘leg’ with vertical conveyor belt and cups, rope pull man-lift, bin levers, gerber, bindicator, distributing spouts and pipes, storage bins, hopper scale, grain pits and motors
From the RDCK Heritage Register