Could this be the Dunn's or Poirier's curio shop?

Below is a passage from a travelogue, detailing an American tourist's visit to Punta Arenas nearly a century ago, when Simon and Rebecca and their family were running their business there.

1913 Excerpt from "To hell and back; my trip to South America", G J Morrill, Chicago, 1914:

"The electric lights of the city lured our launch through the shipping to the pier and we made a hurried hike by warehouses and dingy broad ways to the Plaza. The band concert was over, but the South wind-instruments blew music. The church was closed and the only person around was a statue. The "Sarah Brown" mansion was dark. Like moths we were attracted by the light of a curio store. As we entered a little lady left the supper table and came to meet us. She spoke English and when we did with an American accent she tried to sell us a sample of every souvenir she had in stock. The place was packed with vicuna, guanaco, otter and silver fox skins and stuffed pigeons, penguins, albatross and armadillos. Two traders came in with a big rawhide bundle of skins. The natives catch the game with a boleta. It is a long leather thong with a stone at each end, a kind of sling or lariat, which they throw at the feet of the animal. I picked one up, but it was over an English pound and I threw it at her feet, and bought a long bone spearhead which some Tierra del Fuegian used to catch a fish or to crack a bonehead enemy's skull. I use this savage weapon to cut the leaves of magazines and newspaper articles written by ossified and thick-skulled editors. I paid for this and the postcards with my last Chilean pesos."

Thanks to historian Duncan Campbell of www.patbrit.org for referring me to this piece.

Location:Punta Arenas

The British In Patagonia

May I express my gratitude and praise to historian Duncan Campbell who researches and runs a website about the historical presence of the British emigres who settled in Patagonia and especially Punta Arenas for a new life.

His site http://patbrit.org/bil/supp/c0304.htm gives an excellent and in depth historical insight into the lives and social history of the ordinary people who inhabited the icy climes of the most southernmost city on the face of the earth.

He has recently included the families of Joseph (Jose) Levy, Simon Dunn, and Henry Poirier in his vast list of people who lived and worked in the port.






Main site: http://patbrit.org







The Dunn-Romanofsky entry

Location:Punta Arenas