Wicks Store Municipal Heritage Site

Wicks Store has been designated a municipal heritage site because it holds historic, cultural and aesthetic values.

Wicks Store was built in 1926 and has historic value as one of the oldest surviving buildings related to the fishing industry in Jackson’s Arm. It also has historic value because of its original function as a branch store of John Reeves Ltd., a major fishery supply firm in the region.

The economy of the Jackson’s Arm area has been strongly linked to the fishing and lumbering industries, and Wicks Store has cultural value as it encapsulates the rural community’s connection to both the land and the sea. The store was constructed of local lumber by Edgar Wicks, and dealt in goods for John Reeves Ltd., with schooners carrying supplies to the site. And, from 1949 to 1952, Wicks built there the mission boat which carried clergy to communities along the coast.

Wicks Store has aesthetic value as its vernacular style and basic materials are typical of many traditional fishing stages and stores, perched between the edge of the land and the Atlantic Ocean. The store has a simple, utilitarian design and is entirely constructed of wood: narrow clapboard siding and simple trims, a low pitch roof sheathed in felt, a foundation of posts, wooden doors of narrow vertical boards, and wood windows with multiple divisions.

Designation source: Town Council meeting minutes, Town of Jackson’s Arm, 2006/01/12.