Description of Historic Place

1226 Main Street is a two-storey, vernacular Boomtown facade commercial building, located in the heart of downtown Smithers, British Columbia. The historic place includes the building.

Heritage Value

The building was constructed in 1913 or 1914 as the office of the "Smithers Tribune" newspaper. The Smithers Tribune had previously been called the "Telkwa Tribune," with Joseph Coyle (inventor of the egg carton and founder of the "Interior News" newspaper) as a partner. In 1931 Margaret Dunlop moved her Fashion Shoppe business into the building. The Fashion Shoppe business was resold twice between 1947 and 1959, after which it was purchased by the Beerdas and became "Beerda's Dry Goods" for 57 years until 2016. The building has aesthetic value due to its retention of the Boomtown facade. It has historic and cultural value as the home of the Beerda's business, a long-standing retail space (for over half of the building's life) on Smithers' Main Street. It also has historic and cultural value as one of the few remaining original Main Street buildings constructed in the first two years of the town's settlement.

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of 1226 Main street include its:

- Vernacular Boomtown facade with flat roof
- Recessed central front door bordered by large windows on each side
- Matching second story windows