Description of Historic Place

The Calpin/Myers Property consists of a two-storey wooden house and a one-storey wooden shop. Located on Water Street in Bay Roberts, NL, the house was constructed in the mid to late 1800s and the shop was built in 1932. The designation is confined to the footprint of the buildings.

Heritage Value

The Calpin/Myers Property has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Bay Roberts due to its aesthetic and historic value.

The Calpin/Myers Property is aesthetically valuable as it is a good surviving example of a mid to late nineteenth century home and a mid twentieth century mercantile premises. The house has a steep gable roof pierced by a low pitch roof, 2 two-storey bay windows, a central front door with stoop porch and a linhay on the rear facade. Other features include narrow wooden clapboard, wide corner boards and wooden eavestroughs. The original house may have had a steep gable roof, with later modifications resulting in its present form. The shop was built in 1932 and served as a general store until the 1960s. It is a representative example of the boomtown style of commercial building, featuring a false wooden front rising above the roofline to make the building appear taller. The shop is clad in narrow wooden clapboard and has a central double door topped with a transom window, two large display windows and mock columns on the front corners.

The Calpin/Myers Property has historic value due to its age. The house is said to have been built in the 1850s by John Hurd. In the late 1800s the house was moved to its present site on Water Street and was bought by Thomas Calpin. Thomas and his wife Caroline lived at this property until 1916, when they moved in with their daughter Helena Calpin Myers on Cable Avenue. Thomas and Caroline passed away that same year and their daughter Helena later purchased the family home, living there until her death in 1988 at the age of 98. The house is still owned by descendants of Thomas Calpin. The shop was owned and operated by Helena and Roy Myers from 1932 until the early 1940s, when Susie Windsor took over its operation as a dry goods store until the early 1960s.

The Calpin/Myers Property has historic value due to its connection with Thomas Calpin, who was a local blacksmith and inventor of the Calpin Patent Anchor. In the 1880s, Thomas started to promote the anchor he had designed, first by copying it on the back of invoices sent out by his business, and later through promotional tours. The anchor was patented in Canada in 1884 (Canadian Patent No. 20,645) and in 1886 he travelled to the United States and Canada on-board the S.S. Portia to further promote the anchor. Advertisements for the anchor describe it as “Compact and useful for fishing craft from the largest ship to the smallest dory. Just the thing for trap or trawl anchors and, when on the bottom, cannot be swept or tripped by chains or cables of other crafts, having no stock or top flukes to hitch. When in the boat lays flat on the deck; nothing to hitch lines or sheets, or trip or stumble over. And last, but not least, a fifty-six pound anchor has been proved to hold a greater strain than a hundred weight common anchor.” Reportedly, the anchor was well received and copies were sent to England, but little else is known of the success of Calpin’s invention.

Source: Town of Bay Roberts Regular Council Meeting Motion 2009-443 July 7, 2009.

Character-Defining Elements

All those elements which represent the aesthetic value of the house, including:
- steep gable roof pierced by low pitch roof;
- chimney number, style and placement;
- number of storeys;
-narrow wooden clapboard;
- corner boards;
- wooden eavestrough;
- window size, style, trim and placement;
- 2 two-storey bays in front façade;
- size, style, trim and placement of exterior doors;
- size and style of stoop porch on front facade;
- size and style of linhay on rear façade, and;
- dimension, location and orientation of building.

All those elements which represent the aesthetic value of the shop, including:
- flat roof;
- boomtown front;
- chimney style and placement;
- number of storeys;
-narrow wooden clapboard;
- corner boards;
- mock columns on the front corners;
- window size, style, trim and placement;
- central double door, and;
- dimension, location and orientation of building.