Michelsen Farmstead | |
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General information | |
Architectural style | Victorian |
Town or city | 533 2nd Ave. & 6th St. Stirling, Alberta |
Country | Canada |
Coordinates | 49°29′53″N 112°31′30″W / 49.498°N 112.525°W |
Construction started | 1902 |
Completed | 1912 |
Demolished | Provincial Historic Site Museum |
Client | Stirling Historical Society & Village of Stirling |
Technical details | |
Structural system | Wood |
The Andreas Michelsen Farmstead was originally built as a two-room house in 1902 by Andreas Michelsen. In 1912, an addition to the home was made, resulting in a total of seven rooms, and little has changed since. The homestead consists of a 1 1/2-story Victorian-style farmhouse with a wraparound porch, and various outbuildings including a barn, granary, calving shed, coal shed, machine shed, storage cellar, corrals and pens, and an outhouse. Landscape elements on the property include a dugout, cistern and filter, and garden. The farmstead is located at the corner of 2nd Avenue & 6th Street, on the west half of four blocks in the northwest corner of the National Historic Site of Stirling, Alberta.
The home remained in the Michelsen family until 1995 when the village, in partnership with the Stirling Historical Society, bought the homestead to turn into an interpretative center. The homestead was registered as a Provincial Historic Resource and added to the Alberta Register of Historic Places. The Stirling Historical Society has since restored the property to its original 19th-century style, and the farmstead is now a museum, depicting life as it was from 1900 to the 1930s. Each summer, the Historical Society holds day camps for children and an old-fashioned harvest dance, which is held on the grounds of the Michelsen Farmstead every October.