Roberts Room
Roberts Room, located in Quirpon at the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula, is the site of three fisheries buildings, and a stagehead owned by Boyce Roberts. The structures were built in the 1930s by previous owner, Henry Sparkes, for use as a fishing premises and landing and storage of freight. Presently the buildings are used by Linkum Tours, a seasonal ecotourism operation that transports tourists to and from Quirpon Island from this site.
Roberts applied to the Fisheries Heritage Restoration program in 2003 and undertook the restorations in 2004. At that time the buildings and stagehead were all in a state of disrepair. Exterior wood sheathing was rotting; the net lift had fallen off; door frames were weak; windows were broken; roofs were leaking and needed re-felting; and all buildings needed to be re-shored and leveled. The wharf was badly deteriorated and needed to be restored almost in its entirety.
The work commenced on the three buildings first; the big store had rotten boards and eaves replaced, the foundation was firmed up; clapboard, doors and windows, along with their frames were repaired or replaced; and all exterior woodwork was painted. The small store received similar attention with doors fixed; roof boards and felt repaired/ replaced; the foundation shored up; and paint for all exterior wood. The stage received a great deal of detailed work including clapboard for the entire exterior; windows replaced; doors repaired; the foundation was shored up; the splitting table and hand bars were repaired; the walkway was replaced and made safer with a hand rail and a sturdy rock foundation; and all exterior wood was painted.
The stage head and wharf were most seriously in need of repair, “The biggest challenge seemed to be in the stabilizing and leveling the wharf. By rights the wharf needed to be re-built.” The stage head and wharf underwent major work: the top (walkway) was removed so that the cribs could be fortified with rock and the wood repaired and replaced as needed. Afterwards it was leveled and raised one foot higher, the running beams were replaced and then the top was then reattached. Mr. Roberts said of the project, “Except for poor weather conditions we didn’t encounter many problems”.
Roberts undertook the restoration work for several reasons, such as architectural heritage and safety reasons, but his primary motivation was to restore the property as a tribute to the memory of Henry Sparkes who built the structures originally, “Mr. Sparkes, as a master carpenter, had taken great pride in his work and property” and Roberts wanted to honor that.
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