Drager

History

Robert Drager was born on this property in 1939. His family moved to the property in the late 1910s or early 1920s, when his father purchased the property. Robert said that his father lived there before his father and his mother got married. Robert’s father moved to this area from Wetaskiwin, bought a place south of Lougheed, and then purchased this property. The house in the yard is a Canadian Pacific Railway-built house.

While Robert was growing up the barn was used for all types of livestock: horses, cattle, pigs, chickens. In later years Robert Drager retrofitted the barn so that he could house chickens inside and did so until about 2010. He continues to use the barn presently as a cattle shelter. The barn uses frame construction with platform framing.

Drager, Robert. Personal communication. 29 Jun. 2016.

: This frame shows the east face of the barn. This barn had eight large stalls arranged in a very unique way. The sliding door on the more northern portion of this face allows access to four stalls that run east-west.

This frame shows a close up of the barn’s loft. There was no hay storage above the stalls that run east-west but there was hay storage above the stalls that run north-south. Meaning that there was hay storage in the loft space where the 3-pane window is. The two cut-outs above the yard light were part of the original barn design. Robert Drager says that they lead to a wire coop for chickens or even pigeons.

This frame shows the rest of the east face of the barn and some of the southern half.

The southern door gives access to the stalls that run north-south. The door used to be a sliding door like the one on the eastern face.

This frame shows one of the stalls that runs north-south. The wall in background of this frame is the eastern wall of the barn and the wall to the right in this frame is the southern wall. This stall is, for the most part, original. The stall just north of this one has been enclosed and modified for chickens. It is one of the two chicken coops in the barn.

This frame shows a portion of both of the stalls that run north-south on the western side of the barn. The area to the right, that is enclosed with a piece of plywood is the retrofitted chicken coop that will be pictured in the next frame.

The “chicken coop” was made from the western half of the east-west running stalls. The stalls still have complete mangers from the original construction. The piece of red plywood in the center of this frame is used to cover the entry door into the barn that is on the north side of the barn.

This frame shows the rest of the east-west stalls. It is the east-west running stalls that create the saltbox roof shape.

The white portion of this frame is where the sliding door on the east face of the barn is. The wall to the right in this frame is the north side of the eastern stalls that run north-south. Above those stalls is the hay loft.

: This frame shows the west and south faces of the barn from the outside again. The shed on the west side of the barn was an addition made many years after the barn was built and is for use as a cattle shelter.

: This frame is a close up of the loft door on the west side of the barn. This is the door that would have been used to bring hay up and into the loft.

: This frame is of the northern side of the shed and the eastern face of the barn.

: The north side of any barn is more prone to deterioration due to weather. The door on the right side of this frame allows entry into the north set of stalls and the walkway in front of them. The walkway would have been used to take hay from storage, out in this grassy area, into the mangers inside the barn.