Description of Historic Place

The Fourth Street Store Building is a two-storey, Boomtown style structure located in one of Nanaimo's oldest neighbourhoods, just west of the downtown core. The historic place is confined to the building footprint.

Heritage Value

Built around 1910, the Fourth Street Store Building represents a type of building that was once common throughout the city but had all but disappeared by the 1950s. By that time, the small corner store, typically staffed by a family who also lived in the building, was in decline and would soon be almost wholly replaced by supermarkets, shopping centres and chain outlets. In substantially original condition, this building is the most intact early commercial-residential building in the Harewood area.

The Fourth Street Store Building is an excellent example of a simple, vernacular Boomtown or False-front style structure. The false front facade increased the apparent size of the building and provided ample space for a large painted sign while the large windows at the ground level provided a showcase for goods display.

The height of the Fourth Street Store Building, particularly in relation to the smaller residential buildings that surround it, and its siting very close to the street, make it a neighbourhood landmark.

Source: City of Nanaimo, Development Services Department

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Fourth Street Store Building include:
- all of the elements of vernacular Boomtown architecture as expressed in the simple and symmetrical massing, boomtown false front facade, horizontal lapped wooden siding, and double-hung wooden sash windows.
- the building's location in one of the city's oldest neighbourhoods and its siting at the streetline.