The Dory Shop - 175 Bluenose Drive - Heritage House Tour 203

The Dory Shop  (Circa 1893)

175 Bluenose Drive

doryshop.com

Building dories has long been a part of Lunenburg’s working waterfront. While the exact age of the current building housing the Dory Shop is not known, there is evidence of a structure on this site in the 1893 bird’s eye map of Lunenburg. The two-storey building is clad with vertical boards and rests on wooden supports in the harbour. It has a steeply pitched roof with high pointed gable ends facing the street. The original Dory Shop business was established in 1917 by Henry Rhuland. While the business has changed hands over the years, it has never ceased production. The same basic methods and materials from the past are followed today, including the use of dozens of patterns, jigs and moulds that date from a century ago and the golden era of the Grand Banks fishery. The dories still have solid oak transoms, pine and cedar planking and hackmatack frames, held together with copper fastenings. In peak years, the Shop built up to 150 dories annually. These days, in addition to dories for rowing and sailing, the Shop also builds power skiffs and runabouts and schooners. Dory building courses are held regularly using the same methods from 100 years ago.

Many thanks to owners Dawson Moreland and Associates Ltd.