Description of Historic Place

Cumberland Drug Store is a two-storey, stucco-clad commercial building with a prominent cornice. The building has residential units above and at the rear. It is located on the south side of Dunsmuir Avenue in downtown Cumberland, B.C.

Heritage Value

Constructed in 1933, Cumberland Drug Store has historical value for its association with Cumberland's Big Fire of July 13, 1933, which destroyed almost two blocks of buildings on Dunsmuir Avenue and is testament to the rapid revitalization of Cumberland's commercial street after the fire. The original Lang's Drug Store was destroyed in the fire and was replaced by the subject building.

Cumberland Drug Store holds historical value for its association with long-term business owners Robert Campbell Lang, with Roy Clement and his son, Addison ("Add") Clement and with John Leung. Lang was owner of the property from 1922 to 1940 and a well-known pharmacist in Cumberland and Courtenay. He was President of the Courtenay Rotary Club and the Cumberland Board of Trade, helped found the Cumberland Boy Scouts, was a member of Courtenay City Council, and was President of the BC Pharmaceutical Association in the 1940s.

Roy Clement and Add Clement ran the store from 1933 until 1954 with James ("Jim") Dick and owned the store until 1960. Add Clement was a member of many Comox Valley organizations and was named Citizen of the Year in 1991 by the Comox Valley and Cumberland Chambers of Commerce for his long-standing dedication to volunteer causes. John Leung opened a family-run grocery in the building in 1974 (Leung's Grocery, 1974-1988) coinciding with the time when the federal government took over the costs of senior citizens drugs and running a pharmacy was no longer sustainable.

Designed by Frederick J. Mitchell of Victoria, who also designed McKinnon's (2717 Dunsmuir Avenue), the subject building has architectural and aesthetic value for its Revival-era commercial design with apartments, which represents the architectural trends of the 1930s and is also important for representing the typical configuration of early small town and neighbourhood commercial building designs.

This historic place has socio-economic value for its continued commercial use as a drug store from 1912 until 1974, and for its continued residential use since 1933, providing affordable rental units in Cumberland's downtown to this day. Its continued and ongoing commercial use since 1974 is valued as a testimony for Cumberland's diverse mom-and-pop businesses, including, amongst many, Leung's Grocery, Bits and Pieces Hardware, 2nd Stop Books, Village Crafts, Bev's Quilts and Crafts, Moon's Records, and today, B-Side Studio.

Finally, this historic place holds scientific and environmental value for its traditional construction techniques, for its historic, locally-sourced, low energy-intensive materials - their quality, durability and repairability - and for its embodied energy, the total energy expended over the building's lifecycle.

Character-Defining Elements

The elements that define the heritage character of Cumberland Drug Store are its:

- Continuous commercial use since 1912
- Continuous residential use since 1933
- Original location on the south side of Dunsmuir Avenue, between Second Street and Third Street
- Original commercial siting on the lot, right at the front and side property lines
- Commercial form and massing, with apartments above and behind
- Two-storey, wood-frame structure

Architectural elements associated with the Revival architectural style, including:

- Flat roof form o Parapet with raised corners in line with pilasters below
- Stucco cladding and corner pilasters o External brick chimney (west elevation)
- Front facade sheet metal cornice with decorative motifs at corner pilasters
- Large storefront windows with recessed entry
- Storefront signage (blade sign perpendicular to the facade)
- Recessed corner (east elevation) with original entrance door for apartments above
- Original window openings on all elevations (except for storefront)