Marr Residence, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

One of the oldest buildings in Saskatoon, the Marr Residence, constructed circa 1884, embodies the material conditions of the first major Euro-Canadian settlement in the area. It was built for Alexandra and Margaret Marr on land acquired from the Temperance Colonization Society, which created a prosperous agricultural community with the assistance of Chief Whitecap (Wapaha Sa) and the Dakota from Moose Woods (Whitecap Dakota First Nation). 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 that was entirely free from liquor. This spoke to its origins within the broader temperance movement, which gained prominence in Canada during the 19^th 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 Euro-Canadian settlers to arrive at the site in the early 1880s. 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. 

During the North-West Rebellion of 1885, the Dominion government dispatched troops to western Canada, 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 cared for casualties and, as a result, Marr Residence bears witness to the origins of Canadian military nursing.