Downtown Elk Point Alberta

In the old photo it’s labelled Main Street, but today it’s 50th. No matter the naming convention, we’re in downtown Elk Point Alberta, early one Sunday morning and with not a soul about, shooting a Then & Now. We’ll do our best to duplicate the old image in composition even if there is little to connect the two eras with perhaps only one or two buildings appearing in both images. And we say maybe – more on that in a moment.

Our subject fodder comes from our friends at Prarie-Towns.com and we believe is in the public domain. If you have or know of a vintage photo similar to this, you think would make for a good BIGDoer.com T&N, you know what to do. Broad street scenes, as seen here, work well and it doesn’t matter how old it is. Twenty years or a hundred and we’ll take a stab at it.

Then: It’s 1937 according to the sender and Elk Point looks very much the frontier town. The view is of dirt streets and hastily constructed buildings and you can tell everything is all quite new. An air of permanence would come later.

Something about it has us thinking that date is wrong and we’ll touch on why shorty.

We can make out a couple business names in the old photo – Imperial Lumber – something Cafe – but the rest are too blurry to see. There’s a few cars visible and some people walking about and in every way it just as we’d imagine a small town of the era to look.

This area of North Eastern Alberta was not really opened up to settlers until the late 1920s, so towns like Elk Point came a little late in the game.

They abbreviated term “Alta” for Alberta was in common use into recent times.

Now: It’s 2020, the town’s matured and has a population of about fifteen hundred. The streets are paved (they were dirt into about 1960 at least) and there’s other change, but still the small town vibe is just as strong as ever. Most of the buildings in our 2020 photo are of a fairly modern construction, but a couple, we think, show up in both pics.

The blue place on the left has some features of the false front structure seen in the old photo at the same location. Perhaps the original building was added to or expanded in size over time…anyone? There’s something about it and we can’t shake the feeling that deep down they’re one in the same.

Directly across the street there’s a building that similarly has us curious on account of certain elements matching up. We’re talking about the smaller of the two stepped false front buildings seen in our photo. It’s the one sort of hidden behind a light standard and on closer inspection tells us it’s home to Taste Buds Restaurant. There is some differences from then to now, but in size, roof pitch and position appears to otherwise be the same. You be the judge.

That’s all we got – two possibilities. Even with that, this much we know: we’re still standing where the original photographer did all those years ago. That’s a special feeling! And we didn’t even get any mud, or horse poop on our shoes.

Not seen in the old photo is the town’s train station and the Alberta Hotel (presently the Elk Point Hotel). These buildings show up in the background, centre and to the right respectively, in our photo. Both of these were put in sometime in 1927 (look for the date plaque atop the hotel), when the town was new and happening, yet are nowhere to be seen in the old photo. This is why we question that 1937 date.

This can only suggest on thing then, that the image is from before that time. So by all accounts it has to date from 1926 or early 1927. The town was founded about then*, in anticipation of the railway arriving, so that fits. The cars in the photo appear about right for the time, so we’re good there too.

This then begs the question: what does 1937 on the photo mean? The number is clear and appears deliberate, so we’re shrugging our shoulders here.

The old train station is now the visitor’s centre or rather the visitor’s eco-centre. It’s the worlds greenest depot! In behind, but not seen, the old railway line it once fronted on is now the Iron Horse recreational trail. The last train was a couple decades ago but now the roadbed is busy with ATV traffic. Train stations, in the day, were the very heart of a town and typically sat at the most prominent intersection.

The tall red-front structure on the right must have been built shortly after the then photo was captured, but most every other building seen today is relatively new. There was a lot of vacancies in downtown Elk Point on our visit and I guess Covid might be behind some of the closings. It was and remains a game-changer. But know this: it’s not easy, even at the best of times, to be in business in small town Alberta, so other factors may be in play. We see it time and again – a partly empty downtown such as this – and it breaks our heart.

On that subject, the Elk Point Hotel appears to have closed permanently. Now where’s a bar-fly to go? Best we can tell it was open a couple years back, however and of course the worry is it might be doomed. That it’s located by the train station is no coincidence and this was where they action was in the early days.

Having 50th street as a main drag was a small town thing and quite common. By using a larger number, and 50th was the go-to choice, it made the community seem bigger and more dynamic to potential settlers. It might be fibbing perhaps, but it must have worked or it wouldn’t have seen such a wide a pattern of use. In many old documents, 50th in Elk Point is called Main Street, but we’re not sure if that designation was official and later changed, or just what the locals came to call it. The town’s history book, so far, seems oddly silent on the matter.

Look at that, it’s time to go already. But we just started having fun! Anyway, thanks for browsing this piece and we look forward to sharing more new content with you in the coming months. Stay tuned.

*There was a community of sorts in the general area that pre-dates Elk Point by decades, but the town itself only came to be with the arrival of steel.

Know more about this community: (new tab): Elk Point Alberta.

They’re saying…

”Love history and local history best. You bring to life that which has been forgotten, just curious and always interesting.” Richard O’Connor.

More like this…
Wrentham Alberta 25 Years Apart – Where there was four, there’s two.
East Coulee Alberta then and now.
Netherhill Saskatchewan then and now.

Something to say and no one to say it to? Go here: contact us!

Date of Adventure: September, 2020.
Location: Elk Point, AB.
Article references and thanks: Town of Elk Point, IronHorse.ca and the book: Reflections – A History of Elk Point and District.

Elk Point Alberta about a century apart.

The Taste Buds building might be in the old photo.

The visitor’s centre is the former train station.

The hotel dates from 1927.