Description of Historic Place

The exuberant Gabel's General Store,
a wood-frame structure built in 1929-31, sits prominently at the crossroads of the hamlet of Ladywood
and Highway 12, across from a church and school on opposite corners, with a few neighbouring residences
and farms dotted along the highway. The site's provincial designation applies to the two-storey
building and the lot on which it sits.

Heritage Value

Gabel's General Store is one of Manitoba's
finest remaining examples of the kind of commercial establishments that served many small communities
in the early twentieth century. Designed by Roy Millbrant of Beausejour, and built by Steve Chipelski,
the store, with its distinctive boomtown facades and impressive intact interior, recalls the construction
materials, layout, finishes and details that characterized this building type. Operated by storekeepers
Henry and Mary Gabel, who also lived in the building, the old store is now a museum, artist's studio
and residence. The structure remains a landmark in the area, and is a visible reminder of Ladywood's
past.

Source: Manitoba Heritage Council Minutes, October 30, 1991

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the site include:
- prominent placement
of the building at the northeast corner of Highway 12 and Ladywood's main cross-street, with the
front oriented to the south

Key elements of the store's boomtown commercial style include:
- its
basic unaltered rectangular shape clad in drop siding, with a gable roof, two dormer windows located
on the east and west sides, and a one-storey lean-to shed on the east side
- the false-fronted facade,
including a stepped-gable pediment, first-floor wraparound verandah and second-floor built-in verandah
with shed roofs, intricate verandah bracket details, a centre door flanked by multi-paned display windows,
triangular window caps, otherwise plain trim, etc.

Key elements that define the building's original
functions, and its association with the Gabels, include:
- the interior open-space main-floor plan with
supporting fir columns, maple floors, tongue-and-groove ceiling, walls of wood dropped siding with plain
built-in shelving units, randomly placed varnished wood display cases and store furnishings, including
a vault with the name H. Gabel imprinted on the door, etc.
- the living quarters, including the rear
main-floor kitchen and living room and second-storey bedrooms