Manitoba Municipal Heritage Site No. 71

North American Lumber Company Building
152 – 2nd Avenue,
Binscarth

A modest establishment, the North American Lumber Co. Building recalls the simple vernacular traditions, local construction materials and restrained ornamentation that characterized many of the early commercial outlets built in Manitoba’s rural communities. With a front display area quaintly ordered by an abundance of wall shelving, contents aptly showcased by a substantial display window and a back stock area housing oversized goods in an uncomplicated manner, the store straddles the line between clever advertiser and utilitarian supplier. It also holds value as a good representative of the kind of vital amenities that transformed pioneer life around the turn of the twentieth century. The local provision of milled lumber and other materials enabled growing communities such as Binscarth to replace their rough log and other early structures with a generation of precise and more permanent wood-frame buildings.