Formal Recognition Type

Registered Heritage Structure

Heritage Value

F. U. Trading Company Limited was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2009 for its historic and aesthetic values.

F. U. Trading Company Limited has historic value for its associations with Sir. William F. Coaker, who founded the Fishermen’s Protective Union in 1908 as a reaction to the deplorable economic conditions of fishermen at that time. Coaker sympathized with fishermen and the powerlessness they faced when dealing with the truck system, which saw fishermen in an endless credit and debt cycle. Coaker’s Fishermen’s Protective Union sought to give financial independence to fishermen. Fishermen’s Union Trading Company Stores were created as a means to give fishermen access to cash. Ideally, fishermen dealing with the Union Trading Company would receive higher cash value for their catches and pay lower cash prices for goods, compared to dealing with merchants. The store in Seldom opened in 1913 and operated until 1978.

F. U. Trading Company Limited has aesthetic value because it is a good example of an early-twentieth-century fisheries/commercial building. Built of wood, this large store has accessible facades on both the land and water sides, revealing its dual purpose as a fisheries building and a commercial building. The ground level would have been used for trading fish and the upper level for buy goods. The water side has large multi-paned windows and a door on the second floor and smaller windows with a double door on the ground level. The land-facing facade is nearly identical to the other, without the second floor door. The building is sheathed in narrow wood clapboard with wide wood corner boards, and has plain wide window trim and utilitarian-style plank doors with strap hinges. On one side a protruding bay window extends from the eave, creating an unusual dormer window in the Fishermen’s Union Trading Company office.

F. U. Trading Company Limited is also aesthetically valuable for its position on the landscape, adding to the cultural value of the shoreline. This building is sited next to several other related historic buildings including a cod liver oil factory and a salting shed, as well as a modern marina.

Source: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador property file “Seldom – F. U. Trading Company Limited – FPT 4510”

Character Defining Elements

All those elements of the fisheries-related type structure, including:
-wooden construction;
-narrow wood clapboard;
-wide, flat wooden corner boards and wooden window and door mouldings;
-wooden windows, their sizes, shapes, locations and number of existing panes;
-wooden plank doors with strap hinges;
-low-pitch gable roof;
-dormer window shaped like a three-sided bay;
-location on the shore with surrounding, related buildings;
-entrances located on the land side and water side;
-large “FU Trading Co. Ltd.” sign bands located under the eaves on both main facades; and
-all original interior features which relate to the Fishermen’s Protective Union and its trading operations, such as the original store with shelves, main counter, signage, etc.

Community

Seldom

Municipality

Town of Fogo Island

Civic Address

Harbour Drive

Construction (circa)

1913 - 1913

Style

Rectangular Short Façade