Description
Dan Goodland Downstairs Root Cellar is located at Cow Calf Hill, across from Bird Island Sanctuary in the Maberly area of the Town of Elliston, NL. It is built into the hillside and is the lower of a pair of cellars known as the Twin Cellars or the Upstairs-Downstairs Cellars. The designation is confined to the footprint of the structure.
Statement of Significance
Formal Recognition Type
Municipal Heritage Building, Structure or Land
Heritage Value
Dan Goodland Downstairs Root Cellar has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Elliston due to its historic, aesthetic and cultural value.
Built in 1915, Dan Goodland Downstairs Root Cellar has historic value given its age and because it survives from a time before modern day refrigeration was the norm in rural Newfoundland. Such structures were heavily relied on for storing and preserving foodstuffs.
Dan Goodland Downstairs Root Cellar has aesthetic value as a good example of utilitarian design and functionality. Root cellars such as this were common in rural locations to store vegetables and other food items. They were built to moderate temperature and humidity. Dan Goodland Root Cellar is of the type that is built into the side of a hill, the most prevalent kind in the Maberly area. It has a wooden front door of vertical board, surrounded by exposed stone construction. It is otherwise surrounded by the natural hill and covered in sod. Dan Goodland Downstairs Root Cellar also has aesthetic value as a component of the cultural landscape of Elliston. It is one structure in a larger, community-wide collection of root cellars that makes the community’s landscape remarkable. Together with the Jim Goodland Upstairs Root Cellar built by Dan’s brother, it is part of the distinctive formation known as the Twin Cellars or the Upstairs-Downstairs Cellars.
Still in use, Dan Goodland Downstairs Root Cellar also has cultural value in Elliston. Root cellars have a connection to a subsistence economy where people farmed, hunted, fished and gathered the raw ingredients for much of their family’s own food. Once so commonplace, root cellars have become symbolic of the history of subsistence in rural Newfoundland and particularly of the Town of Elliston, which declared itself Root Cellar Capital of the World in 2000.
Source: Town of Elliston Town Council Meeting Minutes of 2007/04/10
Character Defining Elements
All those exterior elements related to the age and aesthetic values of the cellar:
-exposed stonework on front;
-type, size, material and placement of door;
-dimensions;
-the general rugged appearance, with sods;
-hillside location;
-built in hill construction;
-and proximity to the Jim Goodland Upstairs Root Cellar.
Location and History
Community
Elliston
Municipality
Town of Elliston
Civic Address
Cow Calf Hill, Main Road, Maberly
Construction (circa)
1915 - 1915
Builder
Dan Goodland
Style
Other
Location
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