Marr Residence
Backgrounder
The second oldest building in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the Marr Residence, constructed in 1884, reflects the experiences and conditions for many early settlers of that community. More specifically, it is part of the history of the Temperance Colonization Society, which established the first major European settlement in the area, facilitated by cooperation with the resident First Nations population. Marr Residence is the only survivor of three houses that were part of a field hospital established during the North-West Rebellion of 1885.
Formed in Ontario in 1882, the Temperance Colonization Society sought to create a utopian society, where liquor was neither sold nor manufactured. This spoke to its origins within the wider temperance movement, which gained prominence in Canada during the 19th century and blamed alcohol for many social ills. The Temperance Colonization Society had the support of the government of the day as part of a larger scheme to settle the West and reflected the government’s intention to recreate the best features of Anglo-Canadian civilization therein. The society quickly recruited 3,100 would-be colonists and requested over 800,000 hectares of land from the Dominion government.
Alexander and Margaret Marr, and their children, were among the first European settlers to arrive at the site in the spring of 1883. Their house, the eighth or ninth to be built in the new community, was begun in the summer of 1884, with lumber floated downriver from Medicine Hat. The one-and-a-half storey, wood-frame house, built in a vernacular Second Empire style with a distinctive mansard roof and dormer windows, was one of the largest in the village at the time of its construction when completed.
During the North-West Rebellion of 1885, the Dominion government dispatched troops, including a medical contingent, and Saskatoon was chosen as a field hospital site due to its proximity to both the fields of battle and the navigable South Saskatchewan River. The hospital was set up in three of Saskatoon’s largest homes, one of which was the Marr Residence, with a staff that included eight doctors and six nurses. This was the first time in Canadian history that nurses were employed by military field forces, and as such Marr Residence is directly associated with the origins of Canadian military nursing.
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Related product
Marr Residence, City of Saskatoon (Library and Archives Canada).
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