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Department Stores

The Trites-Wood Co., Fernie, 1915, FDHS (P106)

The London & Liverpool Co., owned by A. B. Trites, was a major department store in Fernie. In 1902, he and R. W. Wood purchased three other stores from the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company in Coal Creek, Michel and Carbonado. Their new chain of stores they named the Trites-Wood Co. Their renamed Fernie department store was said to be "the largest and most completely equipped business house west of Toronto." Their company employed 73 regular staff members and had a payroll of up to $5000 a month.

The Trites-Wood Co. store in Fernie, rebuilt after the 1908 Great Fire, was by far the largest retail store in Fernie, occupying a two-storey brick and stone building that was 90 feet by 114 feet. It was located on Victoria (Second) Avenue in the present-day IGS and Fields buildings. Its basement was connected by underground passageways to two huge fireproof cellars to the rear of the lots.

The ground floor of the department store carried stock such as groceries, hardware, crockery, granite-ware, dry goods and gentlemen’s furnishings. The upper floor contained a millinery department that carried hats, women’s cloaks and gentlemen’s furnishings, and a furniture department that stocked stoves, wallpaper, and other house furnishings. The Trites-Wood Company was quoted as being "as near perfect as brains and money could make it" and had stock valued at over a quarter of a million dollars in 1905.

Grocery Stores & Butchers		Other Stores