Formal Recognition Type

Fisheries Heritage Preservation Program

Notes

According to Perry family tradition, Maxwell Perry’s Store was built around 1866 by Thomas Perry, a native of Haselbury Plucknett, Somerset, England, who settled at Pinchard’s Island, Bonavista Bay circa 1852. Thomas moved to Inner Islands, now known as Newtown around 1865 and erected the store on Perry’s Point, one of several small islands that made up the community of Newtown. In the time since the store was constructed, accumulating sediment has resulted in the amalgamation of many of these islands. The store was passed down through several generations – from Thomas to his son John, to Reginald, to Maxwell and finally to Maxwell Perry Jr. It was used exclusively for fisheries purposes until the cod moratorium in 1992. Maxwell Perry Jr. had begun the process of restoring his great-great-grandfather’s store when he applied to the Fisheries Heritage Preservation Program. With the assistance of the program he and his family finished improvements to the structure, including installing replica wooden windows, strengthening some shores and sills, replacing trims and clapboard, building a new ramp to the top loft, making minor repairs to the roof and doors and painting the entire stage. Nettled in a grassy area above the smooth rocks that dominate the shores of Newtown, Maxwell Perry’s Store stands as a testament to the steadfastness of generations of Perry’s who have maintained this property.

Community

Newtown

Municipality

Town of New-Wes-Valley

Construction (circa)

1866 - 1866

Builder

Thomas Perry

Style

Rectangular Short Façade