Dear Michael,

 Thought I would describe, in writing, what I know of the commercial history of the lot behind the Mersey House where you have constructed a deck. This lot was never  residential. There has never been a residence of any kind on this lot. There hasn't even been a building on this lot since about 1958-1960. 

 When my parents, Leonard and Eloise Pottie, purchased the Mersey Hotel in 1946 there was a building on this lot known as the Sample Room. This building was a vital part of the commercial life of the Mersey Hotel and of the town of Liverpool and surrounding villages. 

 Before superhighways and fast cars the trip from Halifax down the coast was a long one. Salesmen travelled from the city with large trunks full of sample goods, usually by train and later, though slowly, by car, staying in each town along the route all the way down the coast to Yarmouth.

 The Sample Room contained four locked rooms which were rented to these salesmen (who also stayed in the hotel...we called them "travellers"). The salemen set up and displayed their sample goods and merchants from Liverpool and surrounding areas would come to the Sample Room, view the samples and then place their orders.This commerce was the main business of small-town hotels and also vital to the commercial interests of the towns and villages of Nova Scotia.The Sample Room was also an important link for manufacturers in getting their goods to market.

 The Sample Room was still in use when I was a child in the 1950's, These were postwar boom years, there were a lot of travellers and the hotel was booming. The lobby was packed with men every weekday night, packed with men and full of smoke, cardgames, stories and laughter. My mother quickly eliminated the brass spitoons...no-one wanted to clean them but large brass pedestal ashtrays were everywhere and always full...butts were easy-picking for curious children. I digress.

 As children we were forbidden to play in the Sample Room, which I am sure we ignored....it was much more tempting than brass ashtrays full of cigarette and cigar butts. I remember one of the rooms being full of toys including a  train set (for which I still long) ...it must have been Christmas. I remember my mother being permitted to select sweaters from the samples because "we were in business".

 Maddy Keay, who turns 90 this month, no doubt remembers her father visiting the Sample Room to place orders for his dry goods store.

 The Sample Room building was old when my parents purchased the Mersey in 1946 and was torn down in the late 50's or early 60's. The lot remained vacant until you built your deck.

 My parents owned the Mersey Hotel property from 1946 to 1980 and at no time during these years was that site or any portion of the Main/Court corner zoned anything but commercial. In fact that corner of Main and Court St. has had a hotel for much of the history of the town of Liverpool. Before the Mersey Hotel, there was another hotel, the Thorndyke, on the same site. I have a tea cup with a picture of the Thorndyke...similar in size, more turrets.

 If the former Mersey Hotel property was re-zoned from commercial to residential it has been re-zoned for a very insignificant portion of its history. 

 It is confounding to contemplate why anyone would think re-zoning this clearly commercial site a good idea...especially during the years before you purchased the building and it was all but derelict...especially since re-zoning would certainly jeopradize any efforts to sell/restore this building...unless demolition and another gaping hole were part of the Region's plan?

 I will be very happy, Michael, to provide you with any details...as will my mother and brother. I hope I have provided enough detail so that you are confident that the site of your deck has had a commercial function and therefore commercial zoning for much of the history of the town.

 Jan Pottie