Description of Historic Place

The Sénéchal Store consists of two adjoined utilitarian Classic Revival buildings located on Broadway Boulevard. The front part of the building is the former American Hotel and the rear portion is one of the last remnants of the military establishment in the town of Grand Falls.

Heritage Value

The Sénéchal Store is designated a Local Historic Place for being doubly important in the history of Grand Falls since it consists of two historic buildings.

The section fronting on Broadway Boulevard was one of the region’s first hotels. The American Hotel was built in 1862. In the early 1900’s, the Burgess Company attached the old hotel to a large building in the back to make a warehouse. At the time, the exterior walls were whitewashed to let the wood breathe and prevent it from rotting.

Built in circa 1830, the structure at the rear was originally a military barracks used during the Aroostook border dispute of the 1830’s, housing military personnel and soldiers. The officers had small rooms with wooden partitions, while most of the other rooms were laid out in large common rooms. According to popular belief, a military camp had been built on the same site in 1791 as part of Fort Carleton.

Source: Town of Grand Falls, Historic Places file no. 17

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe the Sénéchal Store include:
- two-and-a-half storey rectangular massing of the two buildings, adjoined to form a L-plan layout;
- entablature on the traditional storefront, being the main horizontal element on the front façade;
- simple pilasters, being the vertical elements of the façade, framing the openings and extending up and blending into the entablature;
- sills under the windows, blending into the rest of the façade;
- steeply pitched gable roofs;
- exterior walls clad in clapboard on the sides and wooden shingles on the rear;
- openings in the upper storey on the front façade and on the sides of the building;
- wooden, double-glazed rectangular windows.