18 High Street in downtown Ladysmith was built circa 1900 for Jessup’s Drug Store. It is now the Bean Time coffee shop.
18 High Street was added to the Ladysmith Community Heritage Register in 2014.
Here is a map showing the location of 18 High Street:
Here is a Google Street View image of 18 High Street:
Description of Historic Place
Jessup’s Drug Store is a one-storey Boomtown style building located between two major thoroughfares in the commercial district of Ladysmith, British Columbia. The historic place is confined to the building footprint.
Built around 1900, Jessup’s Drug Store is an excellent example of a simple, vernacular Boomtown or false-front style structure. Until the erection of more sophisticated brick in this area over the next few decades, Ladysmith’s first commercial buildings were typically wood-framed and clad, and false fronted. Boomtown fronts made buildings appear more substantial and provided a convenient area for signage, while large windows provided space for the display of goods. The building remains substantially intact.
The Jessup’s Drug Store building is significant as part of an important grouping of heritage structures on this block. It is, however, the only remaining type of its style on a street that was, at one time, lined with several similar buildings.
Symbolizing Ladysmith’s very earliest commercial development, Jessup’s Drug Store has been in continuous use for over a century and adds significantly to the heritage character of the street.
Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of the Jessup’s Drug Store building include:
- – all of the elements of its vernacular architecture as expressed in the wood siding, Boomtown false-front façade, cornice with ornate cornice brackets, and centered, inset single entry door with large flanking windows
- – the building’s small scale and simple form and massing
- – the building’s location within a group of heritage buildings on a commercial street in the downtown core
- – the building’s status as the only remaining example of a Boomtown structure on this block
- – the building’s continuous commercial use for over a century