Cape Breton community remembers builder known for making 'baby barns'

CBC

24-06-2025

A Cape Breton community is remembering a man who was a community builder in more ways than one.
Murdock MacLeod brought needed supplies to Cape North in the 1970s, with the creation of Cabot Building Supplies — the area's first hardware store.
He was also part of a group that started the Cabot volunteer fire department in the 1950s to provide needed emergency services to people living in rural and remote northern Cape Breton.
But over the last few decades, MacLeod became best known for making his "baby barns," said Kimber MacLeod, who built these small sheds alongside her grandfather at the family business.
"He was quite the man, probably my best friend," she said. "I never met a harder worker in my life. It could be pouring rain outside. Nobody would want to go out and do anything. And you know, you'd look out and here's Grampy hammering away."
MacLeod probably built roughly 300 to 400 barns for people near Cape North over the decades. He was in the process of constructing a new barn in February when he died of complications related to pneumonia. Kimber MacLeod said her grandfather died one day shy of his 92nd birthday.
"He could throw one of them together in no time," she said. "He was a steady worker. He worked at his own pace, but he didn't take very many breaks. We couldn't keep up with him.
"It's been rough going from having him by my side all day every day working together."
Stephane Poitras, a local campground owner, first met Murdock MacLeod when he moved to the area seven years ago.
"The guy's just a local legend," Poitras said. "Every time I saw him work, he'd always have a pouch and a hammer and everything was done by hand. I thought the guy was going to live well into his hundred years for sure because he's always active and always out and working every day and ... he never took a break.
"If I can reach that guy's age and do exactly what he's doing at that age, I'll be very happy for sure."
Chief of the Cabot volunteer fire department, Kyle Rambeau, said MacLeod helped build their station after the closure of a local gypsum quarry.
"They got a water truck from the quarry, got together with some guys … and built the first fire truck with their bare hands basically. And, you know, just pieced together what they could to give some sort of emergency response at that time for the area."
Members of MacLeod's family are now using the last of his baby barns to hold a fundraiser.
Murdock's Last Baby Barn is a ticket raffle that will provide new uniforms and emergency equipment for Cape North's firefighters.
Rambeau said using MacLeod's last piece of work to help support the fire crew means a lot to their membership.
"We've never had a chance to kind of have uniforms and to kind of take a uniformed picture together," he said. "It would be good for pride among membership and just overall morale among the department."
Kimber MacLeod said her grandfather would likely get a chuckle out of their fundraising plans.
"He would say, 'What in the name of God are you doing that for?' But I think he would get a real kick out of it," she said.
"He would have loved to have seen the ticket sales and know how much we could actually raise for the members. I think he would have really enjoyed it."