The Long Island Consumers Co-op Store is a rectangular building with a pitched roof. It is located near the ocean, at 220 Main Street in Beaumont, NL. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.
Formal Recognition Type
Municipal Heritage Building, Structure or Land
Heritage Value
Long Island Consumers Co-op Store has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Lushes Bight-Beaumont-Beaumont North due to its historic, cultural and aesthetic values.
Long Island Consumers Co-op Store has historic value because of its connection to the cooperative movement in Newfoundland. Cooperatives have existed in Newfoundland since 1896. In 1934 to 1935 the Commission of Government became involved in the co-operative movement, when it provided loans to set up three co-operative societies. It built and operated stores which were later turned into co-operatives in seven resettlement areas. In the early 1940s the Commission of Government started the co-operative action on Long Island. Long Island Consumers Co-op Store is also historically valuable because of its connection to the local co-operative movement, first introduced to Long Island by resident Jasper Rideout of Beaumont. The existing Co-op Store was built in 1957 and is the second one on Long Island, the first having been dismantled and moved off the island. The Leading Light Co-operative Credit Society Ltd. was the first co-op organization on Long Island.
The Long Island Consumers Co-op Store has cultural value because of the building’s own long time role on Long Island. The Co-op Society’s longest serving manager, local resident Roland Heath, worked for 37 of the store’s 57 years of operation. In a community whose economic mainstay was the fishery, this store was a major local source of groceries, hardware, clothing, cod oil, gas and other goods. In the early 1960s the co-op secured a permit to deal in the cod fishery, lobster and salt bulk fish, and it established a community fishing stage and bait depot. The co-op closed in 2002.
The Long Island Consumers Co-op Store has aesthetic value in its location and interior vernacular shop architecture. The present building is a simple rectangular structure with a pitched roof. The original main entrance faced the main road when the store was erected, but was closed and a new one installed on the ocean-facing side of the building to accommodate a new paved highway. Inside, it retains a number of original features related to its age and function as a shop, including hardwood floors, visible support posts and beams, and wooden store shelving.
Source: Town of Lushes Bight-Beaumont-Beaumont North Town Council Meeting Minutes of 2007/04/08
Character Defining Elements
All those original, exterior elements of the building, including:
– rectangular form;
– two-storey construction;
– original wooden clapboard;
– original window size, style, materials and placement;
– original size, materials and style of exterior doors, and;
– location near the ocean and orientation towards the ocean.
Interior elements connected to the age and function of the building as a store:
– original shelving;
– hardwood floors,and;
– visible wooden posts and beams.
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