ONCE UPON A TIME IN GIBSONS The Town of Gibsons Heritage ...

VILLAGE STORE
(formerly Wyngaert’s General Store)
416 Marine Drive (Lot 14, Plan 4303)
Constructed: 1922
Type of construction: frame construction
Original owner: Dolly Heino
Original contractor: Mrs. P.F. Bragg
Reason for inclusion:
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Ice cream has been sold on this site since 1930. Although many long-time residents recall
attending dances on the General Store’s main (street level) fl oor it is possible these were actually
held at the building next door, which offered “dine and dance.”
The small building on the equally small lot (20 feet in width) was originally constructed as a
dressmaking shop for Mrs. Bragg’s daughter, Dollie Heino. Mrs. Heino’s business closed in 1923
and apparently the building sat vacant until Frank Wyngaert opened F.J. Wyngaert’s General
Store there in 1930 – purchasing the property for $1,000 in 1931. The building was extended
in length and a basement added, with living quarters on a lower level built in 1933 (or, possibly,
1935 – Wyngaert’s own account in his book is not clear on this point.) The area below the shop
and above the living quarters was renovated in 1935 and the “rather crude unfi nished ice cream
parlour” was revamped as “Wyngaert’s Ice Cream Parlour and Tea Room.”
The premises were sold in 1945 to Ben Lang. Wyngaert moved the grocery operation up the hill to
the farmsite on the family property (Wyngaert Road and Gibsons Way) The Wyngaert Agricultural
Display (including a mural by Vivian Chamberlin) at the Sunshine Coast Museum & Archives is
part of the family legacy to the community.
The building is currently occupied by a General Store again.
Gibsons Heritage Inventory and Register 41
photo by Going Coastal Communications Group, 2005