This is what warehouses looked like in Vankleek Hill 150 years ago. For as long as I can remember there’s been four apartments and, on the ground floor, a store — right now it’s a really interesting mix of touristy stuff and some decent artwork, called The Vankleek Cottage Gift Shop [link].

I haven’t posted much of Vankleek Hill’s architecture recently, so this is one of the oldest buildings in Vankleek Hill. It was built to service Vankleek Hill’s first general store, which is just off frame to the left. The store was our first building to be bricked, the warehouse was pretty much next. Putting on the red brick was a marketing strategy to help sell the stuff.

Before the brick was introduced — and this is entirely based on my experiences growing up around here — I think most people in Vankleek Hill lived in houses built from beer cans and those plastic bits from Risk games.