Manson
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LaPierre General Store

Manson/Lapierre General Store , This building was originally part of a barn at Mille Roches. Howard Manson moved it to a central location in Mille Roches, and he converted it into a store. The deep windowsills and the covered beam over the front of the structure indicate that the building was built with hand-hewn timbers, with mortise and tenon joints. These were found during restoration of the building., The building was covered with imitation brick when moved to the museum. However, because of its poor condition, the siding was removed. Upon removal, three signs were discovered under the imitation brick. Two of these may be found hanging on the east wall of the store, and the other is just inside the barber shop door. Note that the sign in the barber shop has a cut through it. During the move of the store, it was necessary to cut through the peak in order to pass under the power lines. Unknown to Alex McGillivray, the cut was made through the sign. The sign, in two pieces, was discovered later., A picture of this store hangs behind the counter, showing George and Elsie Lapierre standing in front of it. Mrs. Lapierre (now Davis) came to the museum on July 1, 1998 and cut the ribbon to open her store. She remarked, "...and we made our living in this little store, selling groceries. Hard to believe!", The contents of the store representative of what would have been sold in the early general stores of the Lost Villages. The Historical Society continues to seek bottles, cans and bags and any other containers which indicate the names of the "lost” villages. The feed bags, in the southeast corner, are from the D.H.C. Smith Feed Mill in Wales., The cash register (working until early August 2001) was originally in Markell's Store in Wales. The ice cream parlour table came from the Brassard Ice Cream Parlour in Wales., The ice cream parlour chairs are from Henry Laflamme's Ice Cream Parlour in Wales. The produce scale is from the Dafoe Store in Aultsville, as are the paper holders throughout the store., The clock is stopped at 8:00 A.M., as it was at this time that the last cofferdam was blown, to allow the waters of the St. Lawrence River to flow over 40,000 acres of land on both sides of the river. A 1958 calendar, from Albert Alkerton's "new” service station in Long Sault, and donated by Ray and Barb Fenton, is open to the July 1st date. This was the date of the inundation.,