Ashbourne Shop is a two-and-a-half storey, wooden mercantile building with a steeply pitched gable roof. Constructed pre-1897, it is located next to Ashbourne Office, a similarly styled building, on Main Street in Twillingate, NL. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.
Formal Recognition Type
Municipal Heritage Building, Structure or Land
Heritage Value
Ashbourne Shop has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Twillingate due to its historic, aesthetic and cultural value.
Ashbourne Shop has historic value due to its rarity, age and association with the Ashbourne family. Acquired from the Duder firm in 1897, the Shop is a rare, extant example of a mercantile building in outport Newfoundland. The Shop was an essential component of Ashbourne’s Limited’s fish, sealing and retail business. The Ashbournes owned and outfitted schooners for the Labrador fishery, exported fish and seal products and sold a variety of consumer goods, including dry goods, coal, building supplies, dynamite and caskets. The Ashbourne buildings, which include the Shop and neighbouring Ashbourne Office, speak to a time when Twillingate was the economic hub of Notre Dame Bay and its merchants conducted lucrative local and international trade.
Ashbourne Shop has further historic value due to its association with the Ashbourne family, in particular William Ashbourne and his son Thomas. William Ashbourne oversaw Ashbourne’s Limited and in 1922, upon his death, his son Thomas Ashbourne took over the business. True to the lifestyle of the prominent outport merchant, Thomas became one of the most important members of the community in matters economic, social and political. He became a member of the House of Assembly in the 1920s, was a pro-confederate delegate to the National Convention from 1946-48, helped determine the Terms of Union for Newfoundland’s confederation with Canada, and post-confederation Ashbourne became a member of the federal House of Commons.
Ashbourne Shop has aesthetic value as an excellent representative example of traditional outport mercantile construction. Built with a steeply pitched gable roof and made of wood, the main façade of the two-and-a-half storey Shop is oriented towards Main Street. It displays many characteristics of a retail store with large, storefront window openings, a sign band, large massing and prominent location at the harbour front. The simple, narrow wooden clapboard sheathing and slightly returned eaves speak to the utilitarian nature of the structure. Decorative features are found in the slightly peaked window mouldings, the central, rounded arched window on the main facade and the pilasters on the corner boards and some window trims.
Ashbourne Shop has cultural value as it represents a time in Twillingate’s history when the community was a flourishing economic and social centre for the surrounding region. International business was conducted from the shores of this harbour and Ashbourne Shop is a physical reminder of the prosperity of businesses involved in the fishery and related industries throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Source: Town of Twillingate Regular Council Meeting Motion 10-64 March 8, 2010.
Character Defining Elements
All those elements which represent the historic, aesthetic and cultural value of Ashbourne Shop, including:
-number of storeys;
-steeply pitched gable roof;
-return on the eaves;
-massing and dimension of rear addition featuring a hipped roof;
-narrow wooden clapboard;
-corner boards with pilasters;
-window size, style, trim and placement;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior doors;
-sign band;
-flagpole on front gable, and;
-massing, dimension, location and orientation of building.
Google map
Town of Twillingate website 
