Smith/Arthur Farm Elevator
NE 25-14-12W
Gladstone area

Designation Date:  July 13, 2004
Designation Authority:  R.M. of Westbourne
Present Owner:  privately owned

The Smith/Arthur Farm Elevator, ca. 1905, is a rare surviving example of a type of grain handling facility constructed on large progressive farms to make the storage of crops more efficient and less labour-intensive. The substantial building echoes the form of the earliest prairie line elevators and has sturdy walls of thick boards attached to heavy studs on narrow centres. It was designed to receive and, with the aid of mechanical equipment, store grain in separate main- and upper-floor bins. A system of chutes fed grain from upper to lower bins, making it accessible from the centre aisle. The structure, sans its elevator mechanism, continues to be used for grain storage, its tall cupola, a prairie icon with its narrow rectangular massing and sharp gable roof, visible from the nearby highway over some of the surrounding shelter belt.