Since at least as early as the
17th century, the shoreline and area adjacent to where the
cooperage is located was used for fisheries and
shipping-related activities: initially as part of a seasonal
"fishing room" for processing and drying codfish and
subsequently for an expanding mercantile enterprise owned
and operated by the Taverner, Lester, Garland and Ryan
families.
In an early painting of the Lester Premises (located at the
Lester-Garland House) it suggests that a smaller cooperage
may have been erected in the meadow in the 1760s.
The second illustration of the premises shows what is thought to be a cooperage was produced by Royal Engineer Thomas Skinner circa 1800. It highlights what appears to be an entirely new and significantly larger, possibly two-storey building with a hip-roof, in more or less the same location, but with the main axis oriented in the opposite direction.
A third and extremely useful representation of the Trinity cooperage is from an early 20th century photograph of the harbour and north end premises taken from a point of land to the southeast. The photograph shows clearly the 2.5 storey cooperage with a gable roof in the area to the north of the Ryan’s Shop. It has a chimney at the north end and what appears to be two entrances - one situated mid-way along the east wall facing the water and the other on the south wall. This is the one that our cooperage is reconstructed as.
The cooperage is open from mid-May to mid-October from 9:30 am - 5:00 pm daily. The price of admission, $20.00 per person, children6 years and younger are admitted free of charge, includes entry to seven historic sites in the town -Visitors Centre, Lester-Garland House, Lester-Garland Premises (Ryan’s Shop), Cooperage, Green Family Forge, Hiscock House and the Trinity Museum - and may be purchased at the Visitor Centre. Visitors to Trinity are encouraged to purchase their admission pass at the Visitor Centre but may purchase it at any of the seven historic sites.