Historic Sites of Manitoba

Brookdale Grain Warehouse (Brookdale, Municipality of North Cypress-Langford)

Submitted by B Joan Rink, Great Grand daughter of David McNaughton With many thanks to the Manitoba Historical Society for permission of this submission. For further information, go to http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/brookdalewarehouse.shtml

Brookdale Grain Warehouse showing the decrepit wooden stairs leading into the office on its southeast corner (June 2016). Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Aerial view of Brookdale Grain Warehouse (September 2020) Source: George Penner

Asmall unassuming building at Brookdale, on the CPR Varcoe Subdivision in the Municipality of North Cypress-Langford, is believed to be the last surviving example of a flat grain warehouse in Manitoba. Before the advent of tall elevators for the storage of grain on the prairies, warehouses such as these were used to store cloth sacks of grain.

The rectangular, two-storey building with gable roof was constructed in 1902 by local entrepreneur David McNaughton and its wooden walls were covered with overlapping tin panels. The main floor had a small office in the southeast corner. The rest of the building was a large room with a large south-facing door for unloading grain sacks from horse-drawn farm wagons and a north-facing door for loading them into railway boxcars sitting on the tracks that run past the warehouse. A ladder near the south door led to a second floor used for longerterm storage.

In 1904, the warehouse was purchased by local merchant John P. Lawrie and used for buying and selling grain. In 1919, Lawrie bought a hardware store from J. B. Davidson and used the warehouse to store farm and building supplies. It was subsequently owned by his son, Angus C. Lawrie (1952-1969), and later by Raymond W. “Bill” Jones (1969-1990s) and Dan Jardine (1990s-present). The building is presently unoccupied, open to the elements, and falling off its foundation. §

Brookdale Grain Warehouse (July 1993) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Grain Elevator Inventory, slide 2250