Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
Standard Manufacturing General Store, a commodious Neoclassical three story wooden commercial building with some Queen Anne details constructed in 1895, is located on Main Street in Middle Sackville at the intersection of the Walker Road.
Heritage Value
Standard Manufacturing General Store is designated a Local Historic Place because of its Greek Revival commercial architecture with Queen Anne details. It is also recognized for the economic role that it played in the community.
Standard Manufacturing General Store, built in 1895 by James Ayer, is an excellent example of a multi storied wooden industrial building in the Greek Revival style of the late 1890s. Among the important details of this style is the first floor storefront. Some of the ornamentation reflects tell-tale Queen Anne elements, especially the multi-patterned shingles.
Standard Manufacturing General Store supplied goods to twenty-eight families, as well as unmarried employees, who occupied the cottages and hotel that were built by the company.
By 1914, the prosperous concerns had become A.E. Wry – Standard, Limited, with Albert Wry as President and general manager. The company operated a large tannery, made immense quantities of boots, shoes and moccasins, manufactured harnesses of all kinds and did a large business in dry goods and groceries.
In July of 1939, the general store property was acquired by the J. L. Black Company after their main store and warehouse were burned to the ground. The J. L. Black Company had operated in Middle Sackville since 1847. They carried on a wholesale and retail merchandising business, a large farming operation, including the cultivation of hay and the sale of beef cattle, and were one of the leading lumber operators in New Brunswick. Black’s closed their retail and wholesale grocery business in 1962.
In 2002, when concerned citizens purchased the building, an unfortunate succession of owners, tenants and squatters had left the General Store to its fate with the province of New Brunswick having it up for sale for back taxes.
Source: Town of Sackville, LHP File Cabinet, Standard Manufacturing File.
Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements that describe Standard Manufacturing General Store include:
- two stories and a half and frost proof cellar giving four flats in all with 13,600 square feet of floor space in this wooden commercial building, the largest of its type at that time in Sackville;
- two plate glass windows 10 by 10 on first floor, installed in 1939, with recessed doorway with paired doors;
- top floor front including two double hung windows with multi-pane above, one pane below and separate triangular windows on either side;
- building showing signs of Queen Anne Revival style architecture with shingles in the fish scale, diamond and staggered patterns, most common in front gable but also used in horizontal band between floors;
- medium-pitched gable roof, returned eaves, flat attached pilasters, are signs of the Classic Revival design often seen in small-town shops;
- from the cellar to the fourth floor ran an elevator;
- handsome office, with safe, and over 100 feet of counter-space are found on the first floor.
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