Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

Construction details

a. Dimensions and footings. By using the scale on the Vavasour ground plan of late 1845 (plate VII), it is seen that the dimensions of the sale shop as thereon represented were 40 feet by approximately 83 feet. The inventory of 1846-1847 gives the measurements of "Store No. 1" as 40 x 86 feet. That "Store No. 1" was the sale shop is demonstrated by the fact that the measurements given for the remaining three stores are greater and correspond almost exactly with the sizes of those structures as shown on the Vavasour plan. [38]

In 1952 National Park Service archeologists tested the site of the sale shop and found the footings at all four corners. If the excavation maps represent the findings correctly, the building was about 40 feet wide and 82 feet long. [39]

Not all of the side and end wall footings were found, but enough were located to demonstrate clearly that the footings were spaced, as usual in the Canadian type of construction at Vancouver, about ten feet apart from center to center. "All of the footings," reported Mr. Caywood, "followed the general pattern [for Fort Vancouver] in that they were of Douglas fir, some were partially burned, all were in a poor state of preservation, and those on the sides of the building were perpendicular to the log axis." [40]

b. General construction. Along with the other principal warehouses, the "Shop & Store" was generally described as being two stories high. [41] A closer observer, however, said that there was "one story complete, and one that may be called a story under the roof, and a place for storing light stuff in the roof part." [42] A glance at the Coode water color and the 1860 photograph (plates XI and XXVIII) confirms the latter description. There clearly was full head room to the top of the walls on the second floor, but the small windows, the low clearance, and the lack of a ceiling could easily lead one to describe this space as what "may be called a story." [43]

Although the exterior walls are sheathed by horizontally laid weatherboards in the 1860 photograph -- the only known picture which clearly shows construction details of the warehouses -- there can be no doubt that the sale shop was built in the usual Canadian, Red River frame, or post-in-the-sill style so characteristic of Company structures. The general shape, the spacing of the doors and windows and the hip roof all attest to the fact that beneath its clapboard sheathing the sale shop had walls of squared logs exactly like those of the adjoining "New Store." One visitor to Fort Vancouver later estimated that the upright posts of the warehouses were sixteen feet high. [44]

It is not a purpose of this historical section of the historic structures report to give a detailed description of the fabric of a typical Hudson's Bay Company warehouse, of which the "Shop & Store" was one. This is properly the function of the architectural section. It might be noted, however, that a splendid example of such warehouses survives at Fort St. James, British Columbia. Measured drawings of this structure were made by Historic Architect A. Lewis Koue on the basis of data gathered by him and the present writer during a visit to Fort St. James in 1967 (see plates LXXIX, LXXX, and LXXXI) Very detailed measurements of this same building have been made by the Technical Services Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Canada, and the resultant drawings undoubtedly would be available to the National Park Service upon completion. [45]

In this section of the report, therefore, only the specific construction details revealed by the documentary and pictorial evidence relating to the sale shop will be discussed. It might be noted, however, that the construction of all the Fort Vancouver warehouses impressed visitors as being "rough." [46] General P. H. Sheridan, describing conditions as they were in 1855, found the trading store to be nearly as rude as the other warehouses. [47]

Walls. One witness who saw the warehouses at about the time they were being demolished, testified that the walls of the stores were formed of "planks" three inches thick. [48] Undoubtedly, however, the horizontal filler timbers at Fort Vancouver were at least as thick as those at Fort Edmonton, which, as shall be seen by pictures cited in the next chapter, were about six to eight inches through.

This view is confirmed by the testimony of Thomas Lowe, who was a clerk at Fort Vancouver during most of the 1840's. Most of the buildings at Vancouver, he said, were built of timbers six inches thick, which were let into grooved upright posts forming very solid walls. Significantly he stated that these timbers were sawed. [49]

Roof. The Warre lithograph of 1845 shows, directly to the left of the bastion, a hipped-roof building which probably is the sale shop (plate IX); but the Coode water color of late 1846 or early 1847 provides the first unmistakable view of the sale shop as a hipped-roof structure (plate XI). But it has already been seen that shingles were applied to the roof during May and June, 1845, so it is virtually certain that the roof was hipped by that time.

It should be noted that with most Company structures, particularly large ones, the shingles were nailed to solid roof sheathing. On the only surviving old structure at Fort Langley, which apparently served as a trading store for a time, the roof sheathing is composed of whip-sawn planks seven inches wide and of undetermined thickness. [50] Hip boards and ridge boards were applied over the shingles.

Special note should also be taken of the fact that the roofs at Fort Vancouver did not flare out at the eaves as did those at Fort Langley, Fort Victoria, and several other posts. The technique for achieving this result is illustrated in Mr. Koue's drawings of the warehouse at Fort St. James (see plate LXXXI). See also the photograph which forms plate LXXXII of the present report.

Chimneys. No known picture of Fort Vancouver shows chimneys protruding from the roof of the sale shop or of any other warehouse at Fort Vancouver. As shall be documented later in this chapter it was general Company practice not to permit stoves or fireplaces in shops and "stores" due to the danger of fire. Hence there were no chimneys in these structures.

Exterior finish. The 1860 photograph (plate XXVIII) shows that the exterior of the sale shop, at least on the front of the structure, was covered with horizontally laid siding. No evidence as to when this weatherboarding was applied has been uncovered.

The sale shop, along with the other warehouses, was unpainted in 1851-1852. [51] It undoubtedly never was painted, except that in 1860, at least, the door and the window trim on the first floor were painted white or a very light color, as is shown by the photograph of that year. The door itself seems to have been a dark gray in 1846-1847, and the shutters were reddish brown. [52]

Doors. Both the Coode sketch and the 1860 photographs show only one door to the sale shop. It was located in the front wall, somewhat north of the center of that wall. As has already been noted, the Coode water color indicates that this door in 1846-1847 was rather simple in design, without the side lights shown in the 1860 photograph. The drawing is so indistinct that one cannot make out whether the door had a curved top, whether there was a light over it (as there seems to have been in 1860), or whether the object shown above the door is an ornament, a sign, or some type of rain shelter.

It is not known whether the front was entered through a single door or a double door. In either case, the construction probably was not much different from that observable in the surviving double door to the trade shop at Lower Fort Garry (see plate LXXXIII). The method of constructing such a door, of two thicknesses of planks, the exterior vertical and toe interior diagonal, is illustrated by the front door to the the warehouse at Fort St. James (see plate LXXXIV).

It will be noted that both the Coode sketch and the 1860 photograph show the sale shop linked to the next warehouse to the south by a covered and partially enclosed platform of some type. Although not visible in any known picture, it seems probable that there was a door in the south well of the sale shop to permit the transfer of goods from the "New Store."

If this reasoning is correct, the door most likely was double so as to facilitate the movement of the large bales and barrels received by ship from London. An example of this type of door can still be seen at the Lower Fort Garry trade store (see plate LXXXV).

One of the dangers which had to be guarded against at Fort Vancouver, though actual break-ins were extremely rare, was the stealing of goods from the shops. For this reason it is very probable that there were no doors in the rear and north walls of the structure.

According to the Coode water color there was a stop or stoop of some sort before the front door.

Windows. Both the Coode water color and the 1860 photograph demonstrate that there were seven windows on the front of the sale shop on the first floor level. Four of these were south of the front door, and three were north. These windows wore double-hung, with 12 panes each in the upper and lower halves.

The 1860 photograph shows four windows at the second story level on the front of the trade store. Spaced unsymmetrically, these openings were smaller than those on the first floor. They were covered by heavy wooden shutters. Something of the construction of these shutters can be learned from the 1860 photograph, but unfortunately the details are not clear in the picture. Probably the hinges were like those on the shutters of the surviving trading store at Fort Langley, British Columbia (see plates LXXXVI and LXXXVII), although see also the photographs of the warehouses at Fort Edmonton (plates LXXXVIII and LXXXIX).

The second-story windows probably had nine panes like those once in the warehouse at Fort St. James. [53] Or, they may have had twelve panes as was the case in at least one of the warehouses at York Factory (see plate XC). In either event, they were un doubtedly single-frame, and they may have been fixed as were their counterparts at Fort St. James.

It is also possible, however, that the second-floor windows resembled those in the surviving original building at Fort Langley. This structure, which was a residence, seems to have served at one period as a trade shop. The small windows on the upper story of this building were single, "side-hung, small paned of four panes and opened inwards. Similarly, the shutters to these windows were also single, composed of rough, ledged hoards of random widths and hung by a wrought-iron strap and gudgeon." [54]

There is a puzzling fact connected with the second floor windows, however. The Coode water color seems to show five evenly spaced windows across the front of the building on the second story. On analysis, the three southern windows match reasonably well the three southern windows shown in the 1860 photograph. But the two northern-most seem entirely different from the single northern window of 1860. Therefore, either Coode was in error, or the upper story windows were changed in location and number between 1846 and 1860. There seems to be no way of determining which possibility is the more likely. Since, as was discussed in Chapter IX on the big House, Coode evidently sometimes was not too accurate in recording window and door details, the present writer favors following the 1860 photograph in this respect.

As for the windows in the other walls of the sale shop, there is very little information available. Four known pictures provide fairly good views of the upper portion of the rear or west wall of the sale shop. These are an excellent and evidently very careful pencil drawing by George Gibbs in 1851 (plate XVII), the lithograph view of Fort Vancouver from the northwest, 1851, by Gustavus Sohon (plate XXI), the now-lost drawing of the same scene in 1855 by R. Covington (plate XXII), and a sketch made about 1860 by Lieutenant John W. Hopkins (plate XXVI). The first three agree in showing four windows at the second story level; the Hopkins sketch shows five. It can be assumed that these were of the same type as their counterparts on the front wall.

Another view of Fort Vancouver, said to date from 1854, shows the upper portion of the north wall of the sale shop (plate XX). It appears to show three or four windows at the second floor level. Unfortunately this picture is so inaccurate in many respects, particularly as to the number of windows in various structures, that it cannot be relied upon. If the practice followed at ether posts was an indication, two windows would appear to have been a generous allowance (see plate XXXII). [55]

The number of windows at the first story level of the rear and side walls is entirely unknown. Due to the fear of pilferage, they were probably few and strongly shuttered.

c. Interior finish and arrangement. There is practically no specific information available concerning the interiors of the sale shop and the other warehouses at Fort Vancouver. Thus reconstruction will have to be based largely upon what is known concerning similar structures at other Company posts.

The general, overall impression given by the warehouse interiors was one of gloom. The windows of the trade shop were described as "very small," but even so this building seemed to visitors to be "a little more cheerful" than its companions. [56] General Sheridan's remark that the sale shop was "nearly as rude" as the others seem to have applied to the interior as well as to the exterior.

Floors. The floors of the warehouses evidently were made of three-inch planks, rough and loosely laid. [57] Since the sale shop was somewhat more carefully finished, however, it is probable that the floor of the ground story, at least, was planed.

Architects planning the reconstruction of Fort langley in 1953 believed that the floor of a comparable building had been originally composed of a single thickness of "rough whip-sawn boards about 2" in thickness and about 10" in width. These boards had either a tongue or a groove along each edge for close fitting and were fixed to the beams by means of spikes." [58] The floor on the upper story of this same building consisted of 2" x 11-1/2" tongued and grooved boards. [59]

Walls. If the practice at surviving Company stores and warehouses was followed at Fort Vancouver, the interior walls were lined with planed boards or deals. At Fort St. James, for instance, the walls of the lower floor have vertical, tongue- and groove siding from floor to ceiling. The boards are not of uniform width. The siding is finished at the ceiling (actually the floor of the upper story) and around the rafters by a trim of thin, square stock, bevelled along its lower, outer edge. [60]

As will be seen by the photographs of Company trading shops referred to later in this chapter, the siding was sometimes applied horizontally, though vertical sheathing appears to have been the more common. Occasionally the edges of the boards were beaded (see plate XC). [61]

Ceilings. It seems to have been the almost universal practice of the Company to leave the rafters (which were also the joists of the second story) exposed in buildings such as sales shops and warehouses. This fact is demonstrated by surviving structures and, particularly as regards trading stores, by the photographs of Company shops referred to later in this chapter. Thus the floor planks of the second story, applied to the tops of the rafters, formed the ceiling of the ground floor rooms. This probably was the condition described by General Sherman in a somewhat ambiguous statement concerning a ceiling in the Fort Vancouver sale shop. [62]

With regard to the upper story, there is no such question. Describing the Vancouver trading store as it was in 1855, Sherman said there "was no covering above the upstairs room but the roof." [63] In other words, the ceiling was open. Since this condition is in conformity with what is known of usual Company practice, Sherman's statement may be accepted without hesitation.

Windows. At the Fort St. James warehouse the ground floor window openings are protected by a series of horizontal iron bars attached to the inside frames. These bars are round, 5/8" in diameter, and flattened at the ends to receive two bolts or screws. It is probable that similar bars were used at Fort Vancouver. [64]

Hardware. An examination of the Fort Vancouver Depot inventories makes it obvious that many items of building hardware, such as hinges, nails, locks, and padlocks, ware imported from England and carried in stock for construction purposes. [65] Archeological excavaions at Fort Vancouver have provided and will provide many examples of such standard articles.

Field visits to surviving Company buildings at Fort Nisqually, Fort Langley, Fort Kamloops (fragment of structure in local museum), Fort St. James, and Lower Fort Garry, however, indicate that some types of hardware, such as door handles, hasps, hooks, and latches, often were not of standard pattern but were individually designed by the local blacksmith. A splendid example of a warehouse latch at York Factory is illustrated in plate XCIII. Other typical hardware items are shown in the preliminary historic structures drawings for Fort Vancouver prepared under the direction of Mr. A. L. Koue and in several illustrations in the present report (see plates XCI and XCII). It will be noted that items from widely scattered posts show a remarkable similarity in design and feeling even though not identical.

Stairs. In warehouses and shops the universal Company practice, as far as can be determined from surviving old structures and from photographs of such buildings, seems to have been to construct stairs of heavy plank open treads, generally about 2-1/2 inches thick, and stringers of about 3-inch thickness. [66] There were no handrails. A splendid and typical example of a warehouse stair is preserved at York Factory (see plate XCIV).

There usually seem, however, to have been protective railings on the second floor around the stairway opening. The railing in one of the warehouses at York Factory may be taken as a typical example (see plate XCV). Another and evidently later railing at Fort St. James is also of interest. The top of the rail is a 1-1/2" x 3-1/2" plank, rounded at the upper edges. It is supported by a series of posts, 2" square, set diagonally into holes in a base board. There are corresponding holes in the rail. The 2-1/2" x 3-1/4" corner post is 34-1/2" high. [67]

Room arrangement. As far as is known, there is not a shred of information concerning the interior layout of the sale shop building. In 1866 the "Fort Colvile storehouse" -- which was distinguished from the "warehouse" — is said to have been divided by "two partition walls." The building was not much smaller than the Fort Vancouver trade shop. [68] When the sale shop at Fort Langley was moved to a different building in 1858, the new store and a baling room occupied between them the entire lower floor of the structure. [69]

The available comparative data is thus not of much help, particularly as the other Company shops about which anything is known, such as the one at Lower Fort Garry, came at the ends of the buildings in which they were located. The trading store proper at Fort Vancouver evidently was in the center of the sale shop building or near to it, since the door was almost in the middle of the east wall.

The "breadth" of the 1858 Fort Langley sale shop building already mentioned was about 40 feet, and it was intended to have the shop proper occupy this entire width. It will be remembered that the "breadth" of the Fort Vancouver sale shop building was also 40 feet, so it would not have been out of keeping with Company practice if the trading store at Vancouver extended from the front to the rear wall.

Sale shop fittings. A newcomer to the Company's field of operations in America was somewhat taken aback upon his first visit to the Fort Vancouver trading store. "It seems in a state of confusion," he wrote in his diary after he saw the array of blankets, guns, strouds, trinkets, and many other items offered for sale. [70] But twenty years later another new arrival pronounced the sale shop to be "very conveniently and commodiously fitted up." [71]

Only one specific description of the Fort Vancouver sale shop is known to the present writer, and it seems of modest utility. It is given for what it is worth.

Shortly after arriving in Oregon following a difficult overland journey in 1842, a Willamette Valley settler named F. X. Matthieu "went down" to Fort Vancouver to buy some much-needed clothes. He was able to establish credit with Dr. McLoughlin, who gave him an order for about $18 worth of goods. "Go to the office [sale shop?]," said the chief factor, "and get this filled."

"At the office [shop?]," said Matthieu many years later, "there was a little entrance, about eight feet square, and a little window into the store, where the goods were passed out. The clerk there was Doctor McLoughlin's son, whom I had seen in Montreal. He knew me, and at once opened the door inside and asked me in. 'Take all you need,' he said, 'and never mind the old man.'

"But I took only the amount of the order. But all the clothes were made for big fellows -- a great deal too big for me. So I took cloth, and got it made up the best I could." [72]

Lacking specific details concerning the Fort Vancouver sale shop, one must rely on descriptions of the trade stores at other Company posts. Robert Michael Ballantyne, once a clerk in Rupert's Land, later described in a novel the trading shop at Upper Fort Garry, evidently during the 1840's:

Its interior resembles that of the other stores in the country, being only a little larger. A counter encloses a space sufficiently wide to admit a dozen men, and serves to keep back those who are more eager than the rest. Inside this counter . . . stood our friend Peter Mactavish, who was the presiding genius of the scene.

"Shut the door now, and lock it," said Peter, in an authoritative tone, after eight or ten young voyageurs had crushed into the space in front of the counter. "I'll not supply you with so much as an ounce of tobacco if you let in another man."

Peter needed not to repeat the command. Three or four stalwart shoulders were applied to the door, which shut with a bang like a cannon-shot, and the key was turned.

"Come now, Antoine," began the trader, "we've lots to do, and not much time to do it in, so pray look sharp."

Antoine, however, was not to be urged on so easily. He had been meditating deeply all the morning on what he should purchase....

"Come now, Antoine," said Peter, throwing a green blanket at him; "I know you want that to begin with.... And that, too," he added, throwing him a blue cloth capote. "Anything else?"

"Oui, oui, monsieur. . . . Tabac, monsieur, tabac!"

"Oh, to be sure," cried Peter. "I might have guessed that that was uppermost in your mind. Well, how much will you have?" Peter began to unwind the fragrant weed off a coil of most appalling size and thickness, which looked like a snake of endless length. "Will that do?" and he flourished about four feet of the snake before the eyes of the voyageur.

Antoine accepted the quantity, and young Harry Somerville entered the articles against him in a book.

"Anything more, Antoine?" said the trader. "Ah, some beads and silks, eh? Oho, Antoine! -- By the way, Louis, have you seen Annette lately?"

Peter turned to another voyaguer when he put this question, and the voyageur gave a broad grin as he replied in the affirmative, while Antoine looked a little confused. He did not care much . . . for jesting. So, after getting one or two more articles -- not forgetting half-a-dozen clay pipes, and a few yards of gaudy calico . . . --he bundled up his goods, and made way for another comrade. [73]

More useful, perhaps, is a description of the trade store at Lower Fort Garry during the 1870's:

The sales-room is a square apartment, with no attempt at ornament, no plaster, the ceiling merely the joists and flooring of the second flat, thickly studded with nails and hooks, from which are suspended various articles of trade. Along the side walls are box shelves, nearly two feet deep. On the floor within the counter are piled bales of goods, bundles of prints, hardware, etc.; and this space within the counter comprises almost the entire room. A small area is railed off near the door sufficiently large to hold twenty standing customers. When this is filled, the remaining patrons must await their turn in the courtyard; and it is not at all an unusual sight to see from fifty to one hundred people standing quietly about outside until their time comes to be served. The best goods of all manufacturers alone are sold here. No shoddy or inferior goods are ever imported or sold by the company. Everything is purchased direct from producers and of a stipulated quality. The principal articles of trade are tea, sugar, calico, blankets, ammunition, fishing-gear, and a kind of cloth, very thick and resembling blanketing, called duffle. Coffee is rarely sold, and green tea is almost unknown, the black only being used. Raw spirits are sold to a large extent in the posts immediately contiguous to settlements. . . .

Amidst this stock of merchandise, composed in so great a part of staple articles, may be found, nevertheless, an assortment of dress goods and gewgaws over a century old -- old-time ruffs, stomachers, caps and what not; garments of antique cut and trim, articles of vertu, and apparel long since out of vogue are mixed up in a heterogeneous mass. . . . Yet doubtless, much would be found apropos to the reigning fashions; for here, too, maybe purchased the latest styles of wear upon Cheapside and Regent's Park -- kid gloves at fabulously low prices; made-up silks, Parisian bonnets, delicate foot gear, etc., with near neighbours of huge iron pots, copper cauldrons, and iron implements of grim aspect and indefinite weight, together with ships' cordage, oakum, pitch, and other marine necessities. Over this dispensary of needfuls and luxuries presides an accountant and two clerks, none of them gotten up in the elaborate costumes of the counter-waiters of civilization, but rather affecting buckskin coats, corduroy trousers, and the loudest styles of flannel shirts. [74]

From these descriptions one gathers that counters and shelves were an indispensable feature of the trade shop. That this condition was not unique to Fort Garry or a development of decades later than the 1840's is demonstrated by a few scraps of information from earlier times. During the construction of Fort Nisqually in 1833, for example, the following entry was made in the post journal on September 23: "Pierre Charles has been making a cou[nter for] the store. . . ." Three days later further information appeared: "Pierre making shelves in the store." [75]

But knowledge of the mere fact that there undoubtedly were counters and shelves in the Fort Vancouver sale shop does not provide much guidance for the reconstruction of those features. Once more we must look to the practices at other posts.

Some idea of the fittings of a Company sale shop may be derived from the instructions and specifications which Chief Factor James Douglas, at Victoria, sent to J. M. Yale, who was in charge of Fort Langley, on April 27, 1858:

I now send a supply of deals to complete the Fort Langley sale shop, and also a person named . . . Adams, who has contracted to do all the work, at his own expense according to the Contract and specifications herewith, for the sum of. . . .

The plan of the counter and interior arrangements of the shop, is sent herewith. I was not sure of the exact breadth of the building, but we assumed it to be about 40', and made the internal arrangements accordingly. Should the breadth be less than 40', the stalls must be contracted to suit the dimensions of the house, but the counter and passage must remain the same . . .; at the other end of the shop we shall have a baling room partitioned off for packing Servants orders and other purposes.

The shop and baling room will therefor occupy the whole of the lower part of the building. . . . Pray bear in mind that the shop is to be in the lower story and not in the garret of that building. [76]

The specifications mentioned by Douglas and enclosed with his letter were as follows:

I, Daniel Fowler Adams hereby agree and Contract in consideration of the sum of Four Hundred and forty dollars to be paid on the faithful completion of this Contract to perform all the Work mentioned in the Specifications in a Workmanlike manner that is to say.

Windows.	To be fitted with outside facings hinges etc complete. 12 in all.
Shutters.	To be made in halves and properly hung and planed tongued and grooved with an iron bar to secure the same when closed.
Door.	Four feet 4'0" wide to be made in two halves and properly hung -- to be double-formed of 7/8" or 1" stuff planed, tongued and grooved the inner lining or thickness to be put on in the opposite direction to the outside and fitted with locks etc complete.
Counter.	To be in all 90 lineal feet with two openings as shown on plan -- 3'4" high -- 2'6" wide distance between counters 5'0" rounded at the ends instead of square as shown on plan. Outsides all round to be panelled and properly framed, planed and dressed, -- and fitted with drawers 3'0" wide and 6" deep. Inside the counter to be a shelf rough but properly fitted -- the openings mentioned above to be formed with panel doors like the counter facing itself.
Stalls.	8 in number. Lower shelf to be of same height as Counters. 3 shelves 2'0" apart -- these Stalls 11'0" long and 4'0" wide [sic] planed, tongued and grooved and properly framed and joined into uprights -- which are to be 6 in number and planed.
Gun Racks Shelves	Over the Windows right up to the Ceiling 1'6" deep and 1'0" wide and 1'6" apart to extend to height of Stalls. At the end of the building to be 3 rows of shelves 2'6" deep and of same height as Stalls. The Whole of this Work to be faithfully performed in a substantial and Workmanlike manner and to the entire satisfaction of the Officer in Charge of the Fort. All materials to be found and delivered on the Spot. The entire work to be completed in 6 weeks from the time of arrival at Langley. Dated this 26th day of April 1858. [77]

In all of the descriptions quoted above a common feature will be observed. By one means or another -- a railing, a small entrance, or simply by a confined space between the counters -- provision was made for limiting the number of customers conducting business at one time.

Further information concerning the fittings of Hudson's Bay Company sale shops may be gained from historic photographs of such stores at posts scattered over the firm's field of operations. Unfortunately these pictures date from the early decades of the present century, by which time such modern innovations as glassed display cases, spring scales, and canned foods had considerably altered the appearances of the shops. Yet tradition died hard at the establishments of the Honorable Company, and enough of the old features, such as the exposed ceiling beams, the hanging kettles, and the shelves heavy with bolts of cloth, remained to give an idea of how the stores of the 1840's must have looked. A selection of such historic photographs, and modern photographs of old shops, is included among the illustrations to this report (see plates XCVI, XCVII, XCVIII, XCIX, C, CI, CII, and CIII).

Another source of information is to be found in surviving Canadian stores of the 1840's and '50's. A splendid example is to be found in the annex to Seven Oaks House, at the West Kildonan Museum, near Rupertsland Boulevard and Jones Street, West Kildonan, Manitoba. This annex was the original house on the property. It was built in 1835 and later served as a post office and store. Constructed in typical Canadian style, the shop section has interior vertical siding with no trim except a small base board. The counters and shelves must be much like those in Hudson's Bay Company shops of the period. [78]