Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

Construction details

Very little is known of the physical structure of the Carpenter Shop. Archeology has produced no traces of the foundations of this building, and for once the Vavasour ground plan fails to be a reliable guide to the dimensions. One of the original versions of this map (Plate VI, vol. I) appears to show the Carpenter Shop as measuring about fifteen or sixteen feet by forty feet. On the second original version the structure scales out to be approximately nineteen or twenty feet by thirty-five feet (Plate VII, vol. I). And the traced version seems to give the dimensions as about twenty by thirty-five feet (Plate VIII, vol. I). In these circumstances the figures of twenty by forty feet given in the 1846-47 inventory of Company buildings probably should be accepted as the most reliable evidence available concerning the size of the Carpenter Shop. [20] Although this structure is known to have stood at least through the middle of 1860, the writer cannot with confidence identify it on any known picture of Fort Vancouver. The 1854 drawing by Gustavus Sohon shows a low, gable-roofed building just inside the north stockade wall between the Wheat Store and the New Office. This location is about correct for the Carpenter Shop, but the failure of this lithograph to depict the Jail and the Priests' House leads one to question its accuracy (Plate XXI, vol. I).

At any rate, the Carpenter Shop must have been an unusually low building for Fort Vancouver, because not even the top of its roof can be discerned with certainty above the stockade in the generally accurate 1851 drawing by George Gibbs (Plate XVIII, vol. I). Neither can this writer see it in the 1854 view by an unknown artist, although it is possible that a very clear print of this picture might reveal a low roof to the right of the New Office (Plate XX, vol. I).

Under the circumstances, one can only guess that the Carpenter Shop was a one-story structure with a gable roof, the ridge line running east and west. Probably there was no garret, although there may have been a window in each gable end to light the space under the roof, which could have been used for seasoning wood.

Despite the failure of the archeologists to find any indication of footings, it is highly probable that this structure was built in the usual Canadian style. There probably was only one door and that most likely was near the center of the south wall. It is probable that there were two windows in each of the end walls and several in the front and rear walls.

There is no indication in the 1846-47 inventory that the Carpenter Shop was lined or ceiled. Thus it probably was not, although it is not possible to be certain on this point. Undoubtedly the floors, doors, entrance steps, and the exterior paint were as already detailed for the other shops. On a structure erected or reassembled during the early 1840s the roof probably was covered with shakes, with sixteen to twenty-four inches exposed to the weather.