One may initially feel that this house, given its great age, might be a bit of a rarity in Shelburne. Such is not the case in this neighbourhood, as there are quite a number of buildings of roughly the same age nearby which have managed to survive.
This house and store was built between 1785 and 1786 by brothers George and Robert Ross as a general merchandise store with living quarters above. In the store the Ross brothers carried on a brisk trade in tea, coffee, rum, port and wine, offering the necessities of life, as well as imported luxuries to the town’s residents for 30 years. The building is the "only remaining eighteenth century store in Nova Scotia".
Sold in 1815 to the brother's former clerk, Robert Thomson, his son Robert Ross Thomson kept the store open until his death in 1880. For a time Robert Ross Thomson also operated the Shelburne Post Office out of the store.
Cherished for its age, its uniqueness and its connection to the early history of Shelburne, the building has been purchased by the Province of Nova Scotia and incorporated into the Museum of Nova Scotia.
Travel back in time to discover 1780s Nova Scotia and the recently settled town of Shelburne, where thousands of Loyalist refugees began new lives after the American War of Independence.
It is in this historic store that seasoned merchants George and Robert Ross carried on international trade in tea, coffee, rum, port and wine, offering both necessities and luxuries to the town’s residents.
Stroll Ross-Thomson House & Store's gardens; step up to the store’s counter and ask the clerk about the kinds of goods the Ross Brothers once bartered and sold; spend time inside the living quarters, furnished in the sparse but elegant style of the period; and visit the Militia Room above the shop where you might meet a 1780s militia guard.
From the Ross-Thomson House & Store Museum
