{{Short description|National Historic Site of Canada}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox historic site | name = Wilberforce Red Cross Outpost | other_name = Dispensaire de la Croix Rouge de Wilberforce | image = File:Wilberforce Red Cross Outpost.jpg | caption = The outpost in 2017 | type = | locmapin = | coordinates = {{coord|45|02|20.24|N|78|13|25.27|W|region:CA|name=Wilberforce Red Cross Outpost|display=inline,title}} | location = | area = Wilberforce, Canada | built = 1914–1916 | built_for = Private residence, before being converted into a nursing station | architect = | architecture = | governing_body = | owner = | designation1 = National Historic Site of Canada | designation1_offname = | designation1_date = 30 June 2003 | native_name2 = }}The '''Wilberforce Red Cross Outpost''', located in the village of Wilberforce, Ontario is the location of the first Red Cross health post in Ontario. It was designated as a national historic site of Canada in 2003.
== History == Prior to World War I, the Canadian Red Cross Society's work was undertaken only overseas.<ref name=":4">SARAH GLASSFORD. ''Mobilizing Mercy : A History of the Canadian Red Cross''. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-7735-4775-9}}.</ref> Around 1919, the organisation consciously changed its strategic direction to focus more on the health of Canadians.<ref name=":4" />
Wilberforce Red Cross Outpost was constructed from 1914 to 1916, initially as a private residence.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=HistoricPlaces.ca - HistoricPlaces.ca |url=https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=7740&pid=0 |access-date=2022-06-11 |website=www.historicplaces.ca}}</ref> In 1922, due to their limited funding, the Canadian Red Cross rented the building.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Wilberforce Red Cross Outpost National Historic Site of Canada |url=https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=10180 |access-date=2022-06-11 |website=www.pc.gc.ca |language=en}}</ref> From then until 1957, it was used by the Red Cross as a nursing station, a health centre, an emergency hospital, and a residence for the nurse employed on site.<ref name=":0" /> Nurses would be on call 24 hour per day, seven days per week.<ref>Miller, G. L. (2000). Mustard Plasters and Handcars: Through the Eyes of a Red Cross Outpost Nurse. Canada: Dundurn.</ref> Due to a lack of training combined with unmet needs, nurses would often operate beyond their scope of practise, in areas such as obstetrics and public health programs.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Elliott |first=Jayne |date=October 2004 |title=Blurring the Boundaries of Space: Shaping Nursing Lives at the Red Cross Outposts in Ontario, 1922–1945 |journal=Canadian Bulletin of Medical History |language=en |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=303–325 |doi=10.3138/cbmh.21.2.303 |issn=0823-2105|doi-access=free |pmid=15568264 }}</ref> From 1957 to 1963 the health post provided some medical services.<ref name=":1">[http://www.redcrossoutpost.org/ Red Cross Outpost official website], accessed 11 June 2022</ref> Nurses included Gertrude LeRoy Miller, Anne Casey, and Margaret MacLachlan.<ref name=":3" />
After refurbishment led by local historian Hilda Clark,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-08-12 |title=Community remembers the life of Hilda Clark |url=https://haliburtonecho.ca/community-remembers-the-life-of-hilda-clark/ |access-date=2022-06-11 |website=Haliburton Echo |language=en-CA}}</ref> the Canadian Minister of Heritage Sheila Copps<ref name=":1" /> designated the site as a national historic site of Canada in 2003.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> A plaque was unveiled in 2006.<ref name=":1" />
== Heritage value == The site was made a national historic site because it highlights the role of nursing and health education in remote and rural locations in Canada.<ref name=":0" /> The Canadian Red Cross program of building nursing outposts bolstered colonisation efforts and also demonstrated to government the need for healthcare in remote locations, advancing the creation of the social welfare state in Canada.<ref name=":0" /> The nursing station, as a heritage site, provides knowledge to the Canadian public about the role of the Canadian Red Cross.<ref name=":0" />
== Architecture == The two-storey building was constructed in the normal local style for private residences with timber framed walls, a truncated hipped roof, and open porch on the front above the main entrance door.<ref name=":0" /> It is situated on a quarter-acre plot between two private residences, slightly set back from Burleigh Road/Ontario Highway 648 with Dark Lake to the rear.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" />
== In popular culture == Nurse Gertrude LeRoy Miller wrote about experience working in the nursing station from 1930 to 1034 in ''Mustard Plasters and Handcars: Through the Eyes of a Red Cross Outpost Nurse.''<ref name=":3" />
== References ==
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== External links ==
* [http://www.redcrossoutpost.org/ Official museum website]{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilberforce Red Cross Outpost}} Category:1922 establishments in Ontario Category:National Historic Sites in Ontario Category:Buildings and structures in Haliburton County Category:Defunct hospitals in Ontario Category:Hospitals disestablished in 1963 Category:Hospitals established in 1922 Category:History of Haliburton County