Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Archive Photos of Beiseker

I hope you're all enjoying the archival photos of Beiseker from years past on the Village of Beiseker's Facebook page.  Here's a few notes on some of the landmarks seen in the photos;

The shots of Main Street show the King George Hotel.  It was built in 1910 and burned down in 1936.  It was located where Beiseker Home Hardware is today.



Crown Lumber was built on the site of the livery stable.  It was replaced by another, larger lumber store later.  It was located where Beiseker Pharmacy is now.

 The School shown in the photo was located where St. Mary's Church is now.  After the original Catholic Church burned down (located where the St. Mary's Cemetery is) the new church was built on its present site after the school was demolished.  The new school was constructed in its present location.


Beiseker Motors is located where Apple Pie is now and still stands.  The building shown was built on the site of a merchantile/hardware building.  That building was reported to be fire proof but it burned down.

The CN Station was, in my opinion, the nicest looking of Beiseker's two stations.  In the mid 1970s group of interested citizens were formed to save and restore both stations which bookended our Main Street.  As funds and plans were being arranged, the CNR showed up one day unannounced to demolish and burn their station.  That spurred the group on to save the CPR Station, now the Village Office and Museum.  The Library will soon be moving out of there and into their new digs.


The Royal Bank building sat at the corner of Main Street and 2nd Avenue where the Credit Union is today.  The new bank building (now the Credit Union Building) was built behind it.  After the new building was finished, this building was carefully moved into Centennial Park and has served as our Golden Years Town & Country Club ever since.


Frank Lount was Beiseker's first Mayor, and served as Beiseker's Mayor for 30 years!  His home was behind the Big Country Mall building on Seventh Street.  That house still stands. Lount Crescent was named in his honour.

Main Street with the trees down the center.  In the 1970s Beiseker decided to "spruce up" its Main Street by planting trees in concrete culverts down the middle.  All went well until pranksters sawed them all down!  They were quickly replaced and remained there until the street was paved a few years later.



There's a few notes on the history of our village.  I hope you enjoy looking at the photos and learning a bit about our past.

1 comment:

  1. Hi, it's Sandy Moersch. It was so lovely to see a picture of Frank Moersch, my Dad's Hotel before his crooked partner burnt it down. Thank you.

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