Rorke Premises (Carbonear)
Rorke Premises (Carbonear)![[Rorke Premises: Image]](024.jpg)
John Rorke, a native of Athlone, County Caven, Ireland came to Newfoundland as a clerk in the firm of Bennett and Ridley, a business on the north shore of Conception Bay. In 1835 he started a fish business in Adams Cove. Three years later he moved to Carbonear and bought out the premises of an existing business. Sometime in the 1840's the spelling of the family name changed to Rorke. Members of the family say the present structure, which was known as the "StoneJug", was built in 1863 and that the slabs of stone were cut at Kelly's Island. The firstofficial documentary record of the building is the 1880 map of the town of Carbonear where it was clearly indicated as "a stone store, slate roof." Like many mercantile buildings of that era in St.John's and in Rorke's native Ireland there were living quarters above the ground floor.