Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

Recommendations

a. It is suggested that the entire site of the Wheat Store be excavated, particularly with a view to checking the exact dimensions of the building and to determining if there were supports under the uprights that are assumed to have supported the ceiling beams. It is also possible that enough traces can be found of the ramps in front of the doors to permit a determination of the dimensions. Also urgently needed are samples of the metal shingles that covered the roof.

b. Because the Wheat Store was a key element in the historic scene at Fort Vancouver and because it played such an important role in the economic history of both the Columbia District and of Oregon, it is recommended that this building be reconstructed. Insofar as the documentary and pictorial data presented in the body of this chapter provide firm guidance, they should be heeded in planning the re construction.

c. It is recommended that a special study of the construction and equipping of nineteenth-century British and Canadian granaries be conducted in an attempt to fill in the many gaps in the specific data available relating to the Wheat Store. In particular, more information is required on the design of the bins commonly employed during the 1830s. This study should include a fresh architectural examination of the surviving Hudson's Bay Company granary from Fort Nisqually, now located in Point Defiance Park, Tacoma.

d. It is suggested that the interior of the Granary, at least on the ground floor, be refitted with bins and refurnished with implements, flour barrels, and perhaps even a certain quantity of grain in order to re-create as nearly as possible the appearance and smell of a wheat store. Properly interpreted, this exhibit could do much to explain the part played by the Hudson's Bay Company in the development of Oregon.