History of 1327 Port Hill Station Road

"When Forbes' will come here, it's the very place we'll steer..."

Built by Forbes and Colesin 1879 and originally located across the street, "The Landing" was moved to its present location in 1886. Forbes & Coles was a marchantile business selling meat, barley, wheat, candle moulds and lye. This business became competition for Gorman's Store, which was located on this site. Larry Gorman, the infamous son of the owners, wrote a song known as "The Shan Van Vogh" about a regular client at Gorman's and the coming of Forbes'.

The Forbes family oper

ated their store until 1922, when it was purchased by Dr. J. A Stewart.

"The Doctor is In"

When Dr. J.A Stewart purchased this building he converted it into a drugstore. Dr. Stewart also used the space

for an office and (at one time) a home. While operating as a drugstore, the Villiage's library was housed in the back on the main floor, which would be where the bar is now. Dr. Stewart was a well-respected member of the community, for which he became the honoured namesake of our local hospital - The Stewart Memorial. "The Doctor's Inn", a former local B&B is the former home of Dr. Stewart.

"I'm taking the kids to Johnny Bigger's store"

In 1963, this building was purchased by Mr. John Biggar, who operated it as a general store until 1978. Since then, it has been a home, an apartment building, a laundromat, a flower shop, a cafe, an antique shop and on June 9, 2001 it became the home of The Landing Oyster House and Pub and was operated by Matt McGuire and Michelle Gough. It then passed on ownership to James Cecil and Julie Coffey until now, where it owned and operated by Erica Wagner & Jeremy Ellis.

In 2017, "The Landing Oyster House and Pub" rebranded to "Backwoods Burger - Craft Beer Cookhouse" and

now has locations in O'leary and Tignish(coming soon!).

History written by Matt McGuire and ending amended by Erica Wagner.