McKinney House
Boissevain area,
NE 31-2-20W

Designation Date: March 7, 1996
Designation Authority: The R.M. of Morton
Present Owner: privately owned

The former William John and Mary Ann McKinney House was constructed in 1904 by mason R.G. Currie and carpenter Ellis Maguire, both Boissevain district pioneers. The house was located just to the south of the Old Boundary Commission Trail, the main route between Boissevain and Max Lake in the Turtle Mountains. The McKinney House became a popular community and social centre and soon the 11 members of the McKinney family became accustomed to visitors stopping in on the way to an outing at Max Lake. The house is in the "four-square" style, a North American design that was popularized in pattern books between 1885 to 1940. The house was constructed of moulded concrete blocks manufactured on the homestead. Concrete blocks, a material used throughout Manitoba, enjoyed a brief period of popularity from about 1890 to 1905.