We’ve been given an old photo, one from the late 1910s or perhaps the early 1920s, or thereabouts (does it really matter), showing a street scene Brock Saskatchewan. We return to the same spot where it was captured oh so long ago, to see what we can see and we’re blown away by just how much the landscape has changed. Save for one building tying things together we’d be hard pressed to know this is the same community.
What was formerly a bustling downtown, a place full of promise, excitement and hope, is today a pastoral street in a mostly forgotten village. A row of buildings, various businesses and retail outlets, is now just empty lots. The saying is a bit cliched, but what a difference a century makes.
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Brock was founded in the early 1910s, around the same time the railway came through and is located roughly halfway between Kindersley and Rosetown, the two biggest communities in the general area. Like many towns founded at the time, it boomed, for a decade or two then settled into a slow state of decline, Today it has a population of a hundred and some people. In the past, there were many more here.
The location seen in both photos is Main and 1st St, looking east. The only thing that connects the two eras is that modest sized brick building seen in back on the right. While we could not find any information on its lineage, it was no doubt a bank, which required a very secure structure, or some other prominent business that wanted to make a statement. You can tell just by looking at it, the building belonged to some firm of importance. It appears taller in the old image which I guess would be optical illusion or something.
The large building seen on the left was the town’s hotel, I guess simply called the “Brock Hotel, which stood until recently. It’s now an empty lot. Photos from the mid to late 2000s show it in business. Ones from around 2010 show it closed. Those from just after show it gone. Nothing is known about the other businesses seen in the old photo. History on this town is hard to come by.
If you know anything about Brock Saskatchewan, especially in regards to what’s seen in the old photo, please message us! We tried to find a local “old-timer”, but to no avail – we wandered about the streets hoping to bump into somebody, but no one was around. The place was like a ghost town although it’s clear some people live there.
Notice the street, the then unpaved dirt street, was much wider in the old days. A good number cars from the era can be seen (but not well enough to ID them) along with a lot of horse drawn vehicles.
If one where to turn right (in the old days) at the brick building, more of downtown would be seen, along with the train station at the end of the block. Today a few buildings are located on Main Street, most looking as though unused. The trains still pass as they did back then, just not as often. The track belongs to the CNR (built 1912/13-ish by predecessor Canadian Northern) who moves grain along the line and some oil related products.
Lining up this photo required nothing special in terms of technique. In fact it was one of the easier then and nows we’ve ever dome. Even so, we should remind everyone, we always line up in camera only using a special technique we’ve developed over the years. That’s it, no post production trickery is ever done when shooting a trademark BIGDoer.com then and now.
This “then” photo was sent to us by our friends at the Calgary Public Library. They’ve done this before. If you have something similar, a photo or scan of a photo (your copyright) showing a vintage street or town scene in Western Canada and want us to use it for fodder as a then and now, simply drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you.
Also on Main Street beside George robsons butcher shop,was the post office it shows up on google earth as museum. At the end of street by railway station was a hardware building supply store. I still have relatives there if memory serve correct the general store was across the street same side as bank building and across the street from general store was hotel
Came across your site during coffee this aft. and the bit about Brock. Spent the years 1941 to 1954 in school there. Some of my happiest days. Many friends there, Bob and Denice D., Rave K., Larry H., Garry C., Ronald St., Yvonne S., Walter E., Larry S. Dad had the lumber yard, my aunt and uncle the telephone office, those were the days my friend,
I was in Brock in August 2016. The hotel had its windows broken out, but was still standing. Therefore, I do not believe the photo is of that location (and maybe not even Brock at all). Another odd thing is the power lines to old photo shows them on the right hand side of the street and the 2015 photo shows them on the left hand of the street. You mentioned that the location seen in both photos is Main and 1st St, looking east.
Both shots are of Brock. That’s been confirmed both by old photographs and chatting with local old timers. It would not be odd for power poles to change the sides of a street over time, for any number of reasons. They did this on an avenue a few blocks from BIGDoer’s stately mansion and HQ a few years back. The Brock Hotel was gone by the time of our visit in 2015. Others have spoke of it being demolished, perhaps after a fire, about 2013-ish. Thanks for commenting.
Hi. My grandpa worked at the elevator. Lived in the home with the stained glass windows. Nicholas Lasiuta. My dad, Ed Lasiuta was born there. My father in law lived in Netherhill.
Yes. knew Fred, several years older than me, seems there was a brother of Fred but the name escapes me. As I recall, my parents, Eric and Ruth Marshall, rented the Kachmarski house when we first moved to Brock, later we moved into the Lamb house when my father took over the lumber yard from Lamb. The building with two car doors, East of the hotel and North of the brick municipal office, was a store once run by Noble and later Tom Butcher, knew of the Lyons but not well. Some names from my days, Jack Allen, Sam Simpson, Lee Tong, Gandy, Harry Churchill, Emerson, Oliver Wallace, Jack Campbell, Jickling, Wes Siegel, Bill Dale, St. John, the Bill and Mick Kelly, Mario Facca, Ross Cook, Harry Burton, Pearson, George Robson, Larry Stone, Miller,
The brick building to the right of the road in the 40’s and 50’s was the municipal building run by Harry Churchill secretary of the municipality. beyond that was the telephone office and Charley Siegel’s home.
Hello, Glad to see your interest in Brock as I also grew up there.
Hoping to clarify things, our local butcher, George, was English, and his father had the butcher shop before him. And Doc Ritchie was our town doctor for many years and left about 1967-69 when he married. He saw patients at his office 5 or 6 days a week. After a large farewell for him at the rink, we were only able to get doctors that were shared with other towns, so the doctor’s office was only open for a few days a week. I think Gordon is correct about the clinic closing in the 70s.
More information about the town can likely be found in the book, Memoirs of Hillsburgh; Author – Hillsburgh Rural Municipality no. 289 (Sask.). History Committee Published Kindersley, Sask. : Printed by The Print shop, [c. 1963] This municipality contained the area from mid-way between Brock and Darcy to the east, and west to Netherhill [I think]. [Hillsburgh is now part of the RM of Kindersley No. 290.] I don’t have my copy with me, but I think you can find out a lot info about Brock’s early days. Many history books about rural communities can be found at ourroots.ca, but I don’t see this book there.
The town has changed a lot as mentioned. But one thing to note is the new life for the decommissioned Brock United Church building. Now privately owned, it’s somewhat of a concert hall. brockchurch.com/
Thank you so much for adding to the story. It was only meant to be a small piece, a simple then and now, but has sort of snowballed. I know of the book but have never been able to find a copy. Didn’t see the church that visit. Interesting!
Not sure if you ever found any history on Brock, SK. I grew up there. The brick building was, indeed, a bank. When I was a kid, it was a branch of the Kindersley Credit Union but I believe in the early days it was either an Imperial Bank of Canada or Dominion Bank. There was a large vault with safe deposit boxes inside on the main floor. Upstairs was an apartment which was originally designed as the bank manager’s residence. Later, it was rented out.
The Brock Hotel was either bulldozed or burned down around 2012-13.
The article says if you turn left at the bank you would see the CNR tracks. Actually, if you turn left, you’d be heading to the north on Main Street, and away from the tracks and towards the community hall and United Church. The tracks and train station were at the south end of Main Street (at Railway Avenue, of course). Across the street from the bank (the small building partially blocking the brick bank building in the historic shot) was a tiny fire hall. The white building on the right edge of the old photo was the butcher shop when I lived there. It was operated by a Scottish (or maybe English?) gent named George Robson until the mid 1980s.
To the other side of the bank (directly across the street from the Brock Hotel) was the general store. In the late 1960s/early 70s it was run by Vicky Cowell (wow, really testing my grey matter here, but I think her husband Cecil was the Pool Elevator Manager). When the Cowell’s retired in the 70s the store was taken over by the R.D. Hyde family and they ran it until the late 80s. (Sorry…not sure who had the store in the early 1900s.) The store was torn down in the 1990s or early 2000s, and a new town firehall was built in it’s place (shown in the modern photo.) Beside the firehall is the post office, built in the early 1970s. And beside that was the doctor’s office (the light colored building that looks like a small house in the modern photo). The doctor’s office was built in the 1950s and the town had a doctor (at least 1 or 2 days a week) up until the late 1960s or early 1970s. Doc Ritchie was doctor for the community for many years. He had hospital privileges in Kindersley, about 25 miles away.
If I remember correctly, the little dark colored building behind the hotel was the original telephone office. To the left of that was an implement dealer. The implement dealership was still standing until the 1970s. It was knocked down and replaced with a quonset-style building from which the Harvey Jickling family operated a small trucking company.
If one were to look directly to the right (south) of where both these photos were taken, they would have seen my grandfather’s little barbershop. It was there until the 70s as well. I still have his old barber chair in my basement.
That’s all I can think of at this point. But if I unearth more tidbits, I’ll post again. Thanks for this trip down memory lane!
Wow, I’m speechless. A rare thing for me. You’ve filled in so many blanks, thanks a million. The old photo takes on a whole new meaning. So much stuff before, so little today. That left/right thing – I’m sometimes directionally challenged. I knew it was right but somehow typed the opposite. It’s been fixed. Thanks again for your input here. It’s hugely appreciated.
I have an aunt that lives in Vernon that grew up there married a local fellow from Brock .also have a cousin living in the area since he was a baby he actually still farms on the old homestead farm. The aunt pretty much knows everyone that was in that town and some that are still there I had asked her how she knew so much about the town and she said she was nosy and had to know what was happening
Old building in these dying places can often be had for a song. There are few takers though. What do you do with it once bought? Not many options. Brick buildings, when compared to wood, are certainly less common in these small towns, but not totally unheard of.
Yeah, I bet it could done and I’ve seen other old buildings in small towns that were once businesses repurposed that way. For it to work, I guess you need to find someone who wants to live in a small, ever shrinking town.
Hi I am Pat Dazzan my parents immigrated from Italy. Dad work for the CNR and we lived in Brock for awhile that was my first home in 1959. Was not very long after we moved to Darcy. I remember Doc Ritchie and the butcher George, he made the best sausage. We new a few people there.
April 13th 2024, the Beer Parlour Project visited the Viking Hotel, Viking Alberta and it too was an awesome time. There's Rob Pohl with his curious view camera and in the other photo Chris is seen interviewing local character Doug.
The Viking dates back to the 1930s and replaced a hotel on this same lot, which had earlier burned down.
Incidentally April 13th is also Chris and my 28th anniversary. Chris said he forgot this when scheduling this but that's fine and it doesn't matter where we celebrate but that we celebrate.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2024. Posted by Connie.
April 12th 2024, the Beer Parlour Project visited the Warspite Hotel, Warspite Alberta and it was a great success. They put up our sticker and look for it if you ever drop by. This will be another chapter in what will be a multi-year adventure documenting small town hotels all over the west. We chat with owners, patrons, old timers, local characters and we learn about the building too.
It's believed this one is 100 years old in 2024 and we'll confirm details during the research phase done later.
When we're done we'll have a huge collection of digital and film photos, plus voice recorded interviews for an art exhibit and a book is likely.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2024. Posted by Connie.
This little stone house was built in the 1910s and while it's not exactly clear when last occupied, research suggests it was empty only a couple decades later. This is a dry area of the Alberta and most settlers moved out by the '30s. Trees in back were planted by the folks that lived here and there's no others around as far as the eye can see. In fact, there's nothing but natural prairie in every direction. When the word "remote" comes up, this is the place they're speaking of.
Look to the comments for more info and to see a stone smokehouse also on the property 👇
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
The hardware business is long gone but their old sign from about a century ago remains. We were doing a little walk-about in Three Hills and had a tip to look here. It's little things like this that we love the most, hidden reminders of things that came before and clues to the past that aren't so obvious.
More info in the comments👇
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2023. Posted by Connie.
The Canadian Pacific Railway at Summit Lake Crowsnest Pass in 1983 and 2023. The trains still run, but the railyard and associated infrastructure is a distant memory. Haze in the now photo is from distant forest fires. The old Summit Hotel can be seen in back in both and it's one of the few things still standing here from earlier times.
The Then photo come thanks to the John Bjorklund collection at the Center for Railroad Photography & Art and is used with permission. They sent us others and we'll hopefully be putting them to use later this year.
Go to the comments for more info 👇
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Posted by Connie.
Thanks to the The Val Family for making this post possible. If you like what we do and want to support this ongoing project (12 years now), go here: https://www.BIGDoer.com/help-the-society/
Two things that make us giddy in Hodgeville Saskatchewan and now both are gone. That majestic grain elevator dates from 1967 and sadly it was torn down a few years back. There's a Canada 100 logo high up there on the cupola.
The home made motorhome is something else and locals insisted it was powered by a radial engine salvaged off a De Havilland Beaver bush plane. How in the world? The fellow who built it passed on before its completion and soon after our visit it was scrapped. Rural folks seem to have this crazy ability to craft something they need out of any old bits and pieces lying around.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2014. Posted by Connie.
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Also on Main Street beside George robsons butcher shop,was the post office it shows up on google earth as museum. At the end of street by railway station was a hardware building supply store. I still have relatives there if memory serve correct the general store was across the street same side as bank building and across the street from general store was hotel
Thank you for adding to the story! It’s so appreciated.
Came across your site during coffee this aft. and the bit about Brock. Spent the years 1941 to 1954 in school there. Some of my happiest days. Many friends there, Bob and Denice D., Rave K., Larry H., Garry C., Ronald St., Yvonne S., Walter E., Larry S. Dad had the lumber yard, my aunt and uncle the telephone office, those were the days my friend,
This is so cool! Love when we hear from those connected to the places we document. Thanks for commenting!
I was in Brock in August 2016. The hotel had its windows broken out, but was still standing.
Therefore, I do not believe the photo is of that location (and maybe not even Brock at all).
Another odd thing is the power lines to old photo shows them on the right hand side of the street and the 2015 photo shows them on the left hand of the street. You mentioned that the location seen in both photos is Main and 1st St, looking east.
Both shots are of Brock. That’s been confirmed both by old photographs and chatting with local old timers. It would not be odd for power poles to change the sides of a street over time, for any number of reasons. They did this on an avenue a few blocks from BIGDoer’s stately mansion and HQ a few years back. The Brock Hotel was gone by the time of our visit in 2015. Others have spoke of it being demolished, perhaps after a fire, about 2013-ish. Thanks for commenting.
Hi. My grandpa worked at the elevator. Lived in the home with the stained glass windows. Nicholas Lasiuta. My dad, Ed Lasiuta was born there. My father in law lived in Netherhill.
Thanks for sharing your memories!
Ron did u know Fred Toporowski Any of the Lyons family or the Kachmarski family from the area
Here’s hoping they see your message.
Yes. knew Fred, several years older than me, seems there was a brother of Fred but the name escapes me. As I recall, my parents, Eric and Ruth Marshall, rented the Kachmarski house when we first moved to Brock, later we moved into the Lamb house when my father took over the lumber yard from Lamb. The building with two car doors, East of the hotel and North of the brick municipal office, was a store once run by Noble and later Tom Butcher, knew of the Lyons but not well.
Some names from my days, Jack Allen, Sam Simpson, Lee Tong, Gandy, Harry Churchill, Emerson, Oliver Wallace, Jack Campbell, Jickling, Wes Siegel, Bill Dale, St. John, the Bill and Mick Kelly, Mario Facca, Ross Cook, Harry Burton, Pearson, George Robson, Larry Stone, Miller,
The brick building to the right of the road in the 40’s and 50’s was the municipal building run by Harry Churchill secretary of the municipality. beyond that was the telephone office and Charley
Siegel’s home.
Thanks for adding to the story. Much appreciated!
Hello,
Glad to see your interest in Brock as I also grew up there.
Hoping to clarify things, our local butcher, George, was English, and his father had the butcher shop before him. And Doc Ritchie was our town doctor for many years and left about 1967-69 when he married. He saw patients at his office 5 or 6 days a week. After a large farewell for him at the rink, we were only able to get doctors that were shared with other towns, so the doctor’s office was only open for a few days a week. I think Gordon is correct about the clinic closing in the 70s.
More information about the town can likely be found in the book, Memoirs of Hillsburgh; Author – Hillsburgh Rural Municipality no. 289 (Sask.). History Committee Published Kindersley, Sask. : Printed by The Print shop, [c. 1963] This municipality contained the area from mid-way between Brock and Darcy to the east, and west to Netherhill [I think]. [Hillsburgh is now part of the RM of Kindersley No. 290.] I don’t have my copy with me, but I think you can find out a lot info about Brock’s early days. Many history books about rural communities can be found at ourroots.ca, but I don’t see this book there.
The town has changed a lot as mentioned. But one thing to note is the new life for the decommissioned Brock United Church building. Now privately owned, it’s somewhat of a concert hall. brockchurch.com/
Best Regards!
Thank you so much for adding to the story. It was only meant to be a small piece, a simple then and now, but has sort of snowballed. I know of the book but have never been able to find a copy. Didn’t see the church that visit. Interesting!
Not sure if you ever found any history on Brock, SK. I grew up there. The brick building was, indeed, a bank. When I was a kid, it was a branch of the Kindersley Credit Union but I believe in the early days it was either an Imperial Bank of Canada or Dominion Bank. There was a large vault with safe deposit boxes inside on the main floor. Upstairs was an apartment which was originally designed as the bank manager’s residence. Later, it was rented out.
The Brock Hotel was either bulldozed or burned down around 2012-13.
The article says if you turn left at the bank you would see the CNR tracks. Actually, if you turn left, you’d be heading to the north on Main Street, and away from the tracks and towards the community hall and United Church. The tracks and train station were at the south end of Main Street (at Railway Avenue, of course). Across the street from the bank (the small building partially blocking the brick bank building in the historic shot) was a tiny fire hall. The white building on the right edge of the old photo was the butcher shop when I lived there. It was operated by a Scottish (or maybe English?) gent named George Robson until the mid 1980s.
To the other side of the bank (directly across the street from the Brock Hotel) was the general store. In the late 1960s/early 70s it was run by Vicky Cowell (wow, really testing my grey matter here, but I think her husband Cecil was the Pool Elevator Manager). When the Cowell’s retired in the 70s the store was taken over by the R.D. Hyde family and they ran it until the late 80s. (Sorry…not sure who had the store in the early 1900s.) The store was torn down in the 1990s or early 2000s, and a new town firehall was built in it’s place (shown in the modern photo.) Beside the firehall is the post office, built in the early 1970s. And beside that was the doctor’s office (the light colored building that looks like a small house in the modern photo). The doctor’s office was built in the 1950s and the town had a doctor (at least 1 or 2 days a week) up until the late 1960s or early 1970s. Doc Ritchie was doctor for the community for many years. He had hospital privileges in Kindersley, about 25 miles away.
If I remember correctly, the little dark colored building behind the hotel was the original telephone office. To the left of that was an implement dealer. The implement dealership was still standing until the 1970s. It was knocked down and replaced with a quonset-style building from which the Harvey Jickling family operated a small trucking company.
If one were to look directly to the right (south) of where both these photos were taken, they would have seen my grandfather’s little barbershop. It was there until the 70s as well. I still have his old barber chair in my basement.
That’s all I can think of at this point. But if I unearth more tidbits, I’ll post again. Thanks for this trip down memory lane!
Wow, I’m speechless. A rare thing for me. You’ve filled in so many blanks, thanks a million. The old photo takes on a whole new meaning. So much stuff before, so little today. That left/right thing – I’m sometimes directionally challenged. I knew it was right but somehow typed the opposite. It’s been fixed. Thanks again for your input here. It’s hugely appreciated.
I have an aunt that lives in Vernon that grew up there married a local fellow from Brock .also have a cousin living in the area since he was a baby he actually still farms on the old homestead farm. The aunt pretty much knows everyone that was in that town and some that are still there I had asked her how she knew so much about the town and she said she was nosy and had to know what was happening
Awesome!
the brick building was for sale on Kijiji in January and February and March…!
That’s so interesting. I wonder if it sold? I hope that doesn’t mean its days are numbered.
I wonder, too. Hope that it continues to exist. It was really cheap.
I don’t think there are many of these kind of buildings in Canada, isn’t it?
Old building in these dying places can often be had for a song. There are few takers though. What do you do with it once bought? Not many options. Brick buildings, when compared to wood, are certainly less common in these small towns, but not totally unheard of.
I suppose that such a building can be rebuilt in a house?
Yeah, I bet it could done and I’ve seen other old buildings in small towns that were once businesses repurposed that way. For it to work, I guess you need to find someone who wants to live in a small, ever shrinking town.
Did you receive the other Brock photos I mailed to you?
Yes, the package arrived yesterday. Thanks so very much, the photos are fantastic! I’m going to put them on display in my office.
The hotel can be seen on Google streetview, so it was around until recently.
I saw that too.
I have relatives in Brock, but have never visited it.
I’d like to walk around Brock again when I have more time. A small but interesting place.
Hi I am Pat Dazzan my parents immigrated from Italy. Dad work for the CNR and we lived in Brock for awhile that was my first home in 1959. Was not very long after we moved to Darcy. I remember Doc Ritchie and the butcher George, he made the best sausage. We new a few people there.
Thank for sharing these memories Pat! How interesting.