Description of Historic Place

Originally built in the neo-Roman style, the Doiron Store is a two-storey rectangular building constructed in 1911 to house the business of Dosithée and Sara Doiron. It is located on Main Street in the heart of the town’s business district.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Doiron Store as an important local historic place resides in its association with the commercial and professional success of an Acadian family in an urban setting during the 1880s to 1920s. A businessman, storekeeper, and municipal councillor, Dosithée Doiron (1859-1937) was involved in community affairs from the mid 1880s on. His business acumen was typical of the dynamic entrepreneurs of the region, who made their mark on the urban centre that Shediac was becoming at the time. His wife, Sara Gaudet, was one of the first Acadian women to manage a business in that area. She was innovative in the fashion boutique sector, much like Ombéline Poirier and later Léonie Doiron-Williams.

Heritage value is also attributed to this site because of the sobriety of its neo-Roman style architecture. Despite numerous modifications, this two-storey rectangular massing, built of stone and brick, retains the simplicity of its original lines, as well as certain elements unique to the commercial building of the time, such as its recessed central door and flat roof. Beginning in the 1930s, the ground floor was occupied by the telephone exchange, a shoe store, a barber shop, and lastly a restaurant, while the upper floor housed various businesses and offices.

Source: Registrar's Office - Shediac Town Hall, file #21

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements associated with the neo-Roman architecture of the Doiron Store include:
- two-storey rectangular massing;
- flat roof;
- stone and brick siding;
- cornice crowning the top of the main façade;
- recessed central door;
- symmetry of the openings on the main façade;
- original dressed stone basement.