Since the 19^th century, William B. Troop’s octagonal Troop Barn has been a landmark along highway 1 at Granville Centre, in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Its scale as well as its shape was a mysterious yet poignant dot in the Annapolis Valley’s iconic landscape. As one of two remaining octagonal barns in Nova Scotia, it became designated as a historically significant structure in 1984 and remained untouched and protected for twenty-five years. Ultimately, in 2008, a lack of effort and funding led it to the brink of collapse, and it was deregistered as a heritage building to make way for its eminent demolition.

In an act of architectural rebirth, a team led by Brian MacKay-Lyons and Robert Cram disassembled its heavy timber frame, and transported it across the province to Upper Kingsburg, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia in 2009. It was reconstructed in this current location in one week during the 11^th annual Ghost Architectural Laboratory by thirty-five international professional architects, architectural students, engineers, and builders in June of 2009.

Today the structure is nestled in a valley at the edge of the sea, overlooking the LaHave Islands. This is an adaptive reuse project which has idealized the inherited artifact and adapted it to a new set of site and program conditions.

The new program integrates the original stable below with a new venue for community gatherings above. As an integral and celebrated part which greets visitors to the Shobac Campus in Kingsburg, the new/old Troop Barn has been used for a variety of community activities such as exhibitions, conferences, weddings, retreats, movie nights, dinners, concerts, road hockey games, and as a gathering space for the community.

‍