Wolseley SK Then & Now: Town Hall

This post takes us back to last summer with the Team visiting Wolseley Saskatchewan. Always on the search for fun and adventure we soak up all this picturesque town has to offer. There’s old buildings by the score, many of stone(!), lots open to us (! again), charming tree lined streets, friendly folk and great eats. The needle’s been pegged when it comes to cool historic stuff and good times in general. And topping it off it’s an evening at a place most extraordinary, a real honest to goodness operating Drive-in Theatre, in business since the 1950s. It’s a classic.

We documented all the action and we’ll share it with you here soon enough, once this Covid nightmare is over that is. Until then, here’s a warm up, a Then & Now captured during this chaotic weekend. It’ll be the first of what should be three shot there…assuming we got the others right. We’re looking at something fine, the old Town Hall/Opera House, that today acts a community centre and venue for events. It’s an incredible structure (did I say of stone!) and we’ll even show you in interior sometime down the road.

We’ve got a scan of an old postcard showing our subject. Our goal, as is the case with all BIGDoer.com Then & Nows, is to take a similar photo while doing our best to duplicate the angle and composition as closely as possible. This is a great challenge while allowing us to demonstrate how things differ over time in a most dramatic way. Here though it’s made all the more interesting as change has actually been minimal. It looks the same today as it did many generations ago!

The Wolseley Town Hall/Opera House (also Fire Hall) dates back to 1906-1907. Of substantial and impressive form, it reflected the optimism of the time and spoke of the town’s importance. What an expensive undertaking it must have been for a community of this size – 1100 to 1200 people at the time – today in comparison it’s about 900. The building has served many functions over the years but presently hosts various cultural events and is rented out for functions. Town offices are no longer here, nor is the library or fire department – that tower, by the way, was used to hang-dry wet hoses. A more detailed tour of the building will come later on. Here: Wolseley Places Part One.

The “then” photo comes from a friend and is an old postcard scene, origins unknown that we believe is in the public domain (so sans copyright). Imagine our surprise when it showed up in our in-box soon after announcing we were Wolseley bound last spring. How convenient! Didn’t even have to go looking ourselves and proof positive that someone is out there listening.

Nowhere can we find a date or mention of same during research, but circa 1910 would be a safe bet. The cars appear to be from about that time. In a case of photo-manipulation (and you thought it a new thing), these have been “shopped” in place, if that’s not obvious enough given the sloppy implementation. They were never here!

The foreground car is driven by a regal Edwardian looking fellow and is right hand drive. A well dressed lady is seen in the back seat suggesting he might be a chauffeur. He’s got his driving hat on! The car is rather fuzzy and we think “air brushed”, so proper IDing may be impossible. Some British luxury brand? A stylized Rolls, Daimler? Experts? Does it even matter? The other car looks to be a Ford Model T (“Tourer”) of the era and appears to have no driver or passengers. This is an auto one would expect to find in small town Saskatchewan back then, not that other which in opulence seems a bit out of place. Unless the King was in town or something. At the time of the old photo there’d be way more horses in Saskatchewan than cars, so adding them suggests they wanted Wolseley to appear forward thinking and progressive.

As was usual for the time, the road was dirt, hard as concrete when dry, a quagmire come rain and always rutted. Driving back then was an adventure and paved roads unheard of.

And on to today. As you can see the building looks the same as it did. The steps are different, the fence is gone, ditto that house in back, many trees have grown up but otherwise the scene is much as it was. I mean nothing really differs and this leaves us little to say! Usually we go on and on about the changes over time, but no so here. We know some of you are cheering – “finally, they shut up!”

Up above the entryway, the name and date stone are of particular interest. I wonder if in 1906 they ever imaged the building would still be standing? Or that someone like us would be talking about it.

We return in the evening to light it up and take a front-on view. Account limited space, a wide angle is a must here. A long exposure causes the flag to blur along with the trees which moved a bit too.

Directly across the street is a fine old stone house we got to tour which will make an appearance on this website sometime later. It was fabulous!

This is one of the best aligned Then & Nows we’ve ever done. We actually overlayed one photo on the other and it was that close (doing a pinching motion). We’re usually pretty good, but here we pleased even picky us – still there’s that pesky fall-away which haunts us that no one else seems to see. Doh! Truth be told there’s more fails than successes when doing these, but hey don’t tell anyone. The hard work lining it up is done in camera, which results in many rejects. And even then there’s many we’re never fully satisfied with.

Stay tuned for more Wolseley stuff. We have more old street scenes duplicated (if we got them right), a tour of historic buildings including the Town Hall/Opera House seen here, another in downtown too, some rural explorations added to the mix and that epic drive-in theatre experience. It was good times, new friends, lots of cool photos and so many amazing memories. This is living life.

Till then, stay safe.

They’re saying…

”As a long time area historian I can say unequivocally that the thoroughness of the research and documentation done by Chris and Connie on any site they so respectfully explore is first rate. I consider them a go to on many many aspects of western Canadian history. And I am thankful that Off the Beaten Path exists as a first rate site to guide other explorers.” John William Kinnear.

More T&Ns…
Loverana SK Then & Now (x2) – two for the price of one!
Sandon BC Then & Now – an amazing ghost town.
Calgary then and now – those 70s condos – odd triangles called homes.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date of Adventure: August, 2019.
Location: Wolseley, SK.
Article references and thanks: Town of Wolseley, Stephen Scriver, Canada Register of Historic Places (HistoricPlaces.ca).

Around a hundred years apart.

It’s old town hall in Wolseley Saskatchewan.