Description of Historic Place

Ashbourne’s Lower Trade General Store is a one-and-a-half storey, wooden mercantile building with a steeply pitched gable roof. Constructed circa 1900, it is located in Twillingate, NL. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

Ashbourne’s Lower Trade General Store has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Twillingate due to its historic, aesthetic and cultural value.

Ashbourne’s Lower Trade General Store has historic value due to its age and association with several prominent mercantile firms. The first business owner known to have used the store was Harry Howlett, who was listed as a general dealer in Twillingate in 1904. Howlett also owned schooners which he outfitted for the Labrador fishery, bought fish and transported freight and passengers. The store may predate Howlett’s use, as Harry’s grandfather William Byrne Sr. and his uncle William Byrne Jr. were merchants and traders in Twillingate and Howlett may have acquired the store when the Byrnes left Twillingate. Harry was in partnership with his brother Will until 1913, when Will relocated to St. John’s and Harry entered into an agreement with the Earle mercantile firm. He transferred most of his business in Twillingate to the Earles, except for premises at Howlett’s Island, where the store was located. He also stayed on as a manager for the Earles for a while. In 1915 the Earles sold their Twillingate business to the prominent Ashbourne firm and around the same time Harry Howlett moved to St. John’s. In 1926 he sold the store on Howlett’s Island to the Ashbournes and it was moved to Farmer’s Arm, where it became part of what was known as “Ashbourne’s Lower Trade.” In 1951 the building was moved from the waterside of the Ashbourne premises to the road side. The store was moved once more in 1986 for use as a net loft and once again in 2011 to be used as a museum. Although it is a small, unimposing structure, Ashbourne’s Lower Trade General Store has historic value as the only surviving piece of infrastructure in Twillingate from the Howlett and Earle firms, and as the only surviving building from the Ashbourne’s Lower Trade. As such it is a physical reminder of a time when Twillingate was the economic hub of Notre Dame Bay and its merchants conducted lucrative local and international trade.

Ashbourne’s Lower Trade General Store has aesthetic value as a good representative example of traditional outport mercantile construction. Built with a steeply pitched gable roof and made of wood, the main façade of the one-and-a-half storey store displays characteristics of a retail store, including two large multi-paned windows with plank shutters and double doors at the entrance. It is clad in narrow wooden clapboard, with plain trim around doors, windows and at the corners, returns on the eaves and wooden roof shingles. The design and style of the structure are utilitarian in nature and representative of the type of architecture associated with mercantile buildings from the time period.

Ashbourne’s Lower Trade General Store has cultural value as it represents a time in Twillingate’s history when the community was a flourishing economic and social centre for the surrounding region. International business was conducted from the shores of this harbour and Ashbourne’s Lower Trade General Store is a physical reminder of the prosperity of businesses involved in the fishery and related industries throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Source: Town of Twillingate Regular Council Meeting Motion 10-133 June 14, 2010.

Character-Defining Elements

All those elements which represent the historic, aesthetic and cultural value of Ashbourne’s Lower Trade General Store, including:
-number of storeys;
-steeply pitched gable roof;
-wooden roof shingles;
-return on the eaves;
-narrow wooden clapboard;
-corner boards;
-window size, style, trim and placement;
-plank shutters on windows;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior doors, and;
-massing, dimension, location and orientation of building.