Wade Surplus d'Armée

Wade Surplus d’Armée is located on Principale Street in Tracadie-Sheila. It is a 2 ½ storey rectangular building with a steeply pitched roof in a vernacular commercial style.

Wade Surplus d’Armée is designated a Local Historic Place for its architecture and for its economic role through the years.

William Ferguson had this rectangular building with a steeply pitched roof erected in 1902 by Maurice, Jimmy, and Georges Ferguson. The design is a good example of wooden vernacular commercial architecture from this period in Tracadie-Sheila. William sold the building in 1910 to his brother-in-law, Joe Doucet, who in turn sold it to Leonard Wade, the current owner’s father, in 1940.

Over the past century, the building has housed several businesses: general store, New Brunswick licensing office, post office, grocery store, TV store, and lastly, since 1979, army surplus store. In addition, the first gasoline pumps in former village of Sheila were installed in front of this building in the 1930s. The building also served as Sheila’s first high school.

Source : Town of Tracadie-Sheila, Heritage File # 30

The character-defining elements that describe Wade Surplus d'Armée include:

- building's location in the centre of the former village of Sheila;

- rectangular 2 ½ storey massing;

- wooden construction;

- gable window;

- outside staircase leading to the second floor;

- steeply pitched gable roof.