Ouellet Tinsmith and Hardware Store

Built circa 1890, on Main Street, in the commercial centre of the Town of Shediac, the Ouellet Tinsmith and Hardware Store is a two-storey wood-frame vernacular building in the rural Classic Revival style from the late 19th century.

The Ouellet Tinsmith and Hardware Store is designated a Local Historic Place for its association with the town’s oldest commercial block, for its association with the Ouellet family enterprise and for its association with the arrival of the co-operative movement.

The block, considered to be one of the oldest in the Acadian Maritimes, is made up of four buildings: the Thompson-Landry Building, the Moulée Poirier, the Canada Customs/Ovila LeBlanc Building and the Ouellet Tinsmith and Hardware Store.

The Ouellet Tinsmith and Hardware Store is also recognized for its association with the work of its owner, tinsmith Ferdinand Ouellet (1849-1930), and for the use of the building as a tinsmith and hardware store by the Ouellet family for two generations. In 1882, Ferdinand Ouellet set up a tinsmith shop in Shediac in partnership with Clément C. Léger. In 1884, the partnership was dissolved and Ouellet continued on his own. Circa 1890, he constructed the current building, which served as both a hardware store and tinsmith shop until 1925, when his son Armand (1887-1955) succeeded him. They operated the tinsmith shop in the back of the building and the hardware store in the front. Part of the front section of the building was also used as the fashion boutique by Armand Ouellet’s wife.

This site has added heritage value owing to the fact that it witnessed the arrival of the co-operative movement in Shediac. The building housed the first Shediac Co-operative store in 1945-46.

The Ouellet Tinsmith and Hardware Store was deemed important enough by the Province of New Brunswick that a reproduction of the original building was erected at the Village historique acadien in Caraquet.

Source: Shediac Town Hall, Historic Places File #26

The character-defining elements that describe Ouellet Tinsmith and Hardware Store include:

- two-storey rectangular plan;

- wooden construction;

- steeply-pitched gable roof;

- commercial ground-level storefront with large windows and a recessed central door.