Accommodation for senior officers emphasized their rank and privilege. At every major post there was a "Big House" which provided a commodious residence for the Chief Factor and his family. This picturesque winter scene was taken in front of the grandest "Big House" of them all. A stone structure begun in the 1830s, it featured in addition to private family apartments, guest rooms for visiting officers to Red River and a large dining hall. The house has been restored to its most elegant period when it was the residence of Eden Colvile, associate governor of Rupert's Land in the early 1850s. A visitor to Lower Fort Garry at mid-century described the "Big House as a stately old mansion with wide verandas, lofty ceilings, heavy, old fashioned furniture, with plenty of brass, even to swinging knobs on the doors, plastered walls painted green, floors bare of every thing but skins, and open fireplaces in every room".
