Panel #5

Panel #5  1900 - 1920

In countries where winter is bitterly cold, pioneers were forced to build a snug home quickly with the materials at hand.  The preferred home was  often a sod house.  The sod was first cut into strips, and then a spade was used to lift the blocks.  It took about 1 acre of sod to build a house.  Some sod houses were dug into the ground so they were only partly above the surface.  The floor area would be a hard clay packed surface. Sod houses accommodate normal doors and windows.  The structure was a well-insulated but damp dwelling that was very inexpensive.  These homes required frequent maintenance and were vulnerable to rain damage.  The outer walls were covered with a clay mixture consisting of straw and clay, or manure.  Canvas or plaster often lined the interior walls.   Every sod house was built by hand and they varied in design with the whims of their owners. 

 Homesteaders, who had the means, built a frame house on their land.  As time went on, the houses grew larger and reflected the prosperity achieved by some.  Although not very elaborate, these wooden shacks were a step up from a sod house. 

The arrival of the First World War brought heartache and pain, but it also brought a big round of inflation.  Grain prices were also inflated.  A few good crops and the good prices of the mid-teens brought unequaled prosperity to farmers.  The time was ripe to replace the settlement shacks, and log and sod houses with permanent houses. 

The catalogues and mail order played a big part in making this transition occur.  The Eaton’s Catalogue was especially influential. The first Eaton’s house  was an attractive eight room house. It was a simple two story gable-end design with a full verandah and back porch.

The dining room and parlor in this design was repeated in many of the dozens of Eaton’s designs over the next 22 years.  The compete lumber package including windows, doors and frames was $945.00 and was shipped directly from the BC lumber mills.  A prime and well known example of an Eaton’s Catalogue House is the house of Daisy Hill (as seen in the mural behind the sod house).