Tofield Alberta (x2)

Come join in and imagine yourself a curious time traveller. Today, it’s two for the price of one and in this Then & Now we’ll show you some scenes of Tofield Alberta captured about forty years apart. It thrills us knowing we’re standing close to the spot where the original photographer did long ago and hopefully these posts honour their work in some way.

We rarely, if ever, know who’s behind the old images used, but here we have a name. Hurrah! The two seen here were shot by one Barry Gfeller (deceased) of Washington State and came thanks to the curators of his photo collection. They sent some others too, showing similar scenes in various Alberta towns that we plan to use down the road. We’ve been sitting on them for a couple years (we’re slow off the draw), but now it’s time.

There’s a link further down this post you’ll want to check out, to see more of Gfeller’s work. A bit of mysterious, square peg kind of fellow, his thing was photographing old commercial buildings all over North America. Doing it for decades, in obscurity, his body of work is a treasure. How did we not hear of him before? Oh right, he kept a low profile.

First comparison: It’s 1982 (both photos seen here were captured the same day) and we’re looking at Pete’s place, a service station. In contemporary phone books it’s listed as Pete’s Royalite Service, which is curious as Royalite Petroleum was long a memory by the time Barry shot the image. They were folded into into Gulf Oil in the late 1960s and the station then became an agent for this new firm, so one would think the name would be changed to reflect that. That iconic Gulf sign!

Pete’s fist make mention in the second half of the 1960s and closed the year after Gfeller’s visit. The place looks run down and kind of lifeless in his photo, but I guess was in business at the time.

Prior to Pete’s a couple car dealers operated out of the building (plus the one in back, seen in both photos), starting in the 1940s. That old Dodge-DeSoto sign is incredible! The structure with the Pete’s sign, it appears, was torn down not long after the business closed. Present day a renovation’s firms operates out the other and even with some exterior changes it looks much as it did.

It’s a bit hard to make out, but the car next to the pole, roughly centre, appears to be a Chevrolet Vega (or Pontiac Astre), a car that was almost the undoing of General Motors in the 1970s. With the rare expectation, these were real dogs and suffered from all manner of reliability and quality control problems. If you can better ID the vehicle, please speak up in the comments, once they’re back online that is. They’ve been down due to a technical glitch and we’re working on a fix.

The car seen present day is the mighty BIGDoer-mobile, also a GM product, a throw-away design (out of gas? get a new one!) that somehow, like the energizer bunny, just keeps going and going. It likes to sneak into pictures too.

Second comparison: Just down the street from the Pete’s it’s a building once home to WA Swift Ford. This car dealer first makes mention in the 1930s (when it was WC Swift Ford) and operated into 1990s. In later years, it was listed as Swift’s Garage or Swift Ford Sales. They sold fuel as well, which was common for small town car dealers and most recently, an auto repair firm occupied the building.

Vehicles seen in the old photo include an EXP (left), introduced that year, sort of sporty I guess but never a big seller. It seems rather out of place at a rural dealer and more a city car. To the right it’s a shiny new pickup (more typical of the area) and in front, another new model at the time, a Ranger mini-pickup.

Out on the street, we can see a 1970s Dodge (or possibly Fargo) van and behind, what look to be a couple 1970s era Ford pickups. This is truck country and always has been.

Look, it’s that rolling pop-can Cruze again. We always look back fondly at the cars of old, but will we do the same for it four decades hence? Doubt it. It does the job but hardly an inspiring ride.

Notice the fellow walking past in the old photo – gotta wonder who he was. The Alberta Government Telephone building next door now displays a Telus sign, a firm born out of that earlier company. Let’s thank AGT as it’s their old phone books we’ve been using for reference in this post.

Overall the Swift Ford building is not all different looking today than it was back in the ’80s. It’s a little more run down and some windows have been blanked out, but otherwise it’s as though time has stood still. The clock seems to move slower out in the country and change over time more subtle.

Tofield is a little southeast of Edmonton and founded about 1907. Home to a couple thousand people, it’s a nice little place and our home for the night on an extended roadtrip. These photos were captured at the first light of day on our way out of town – adventures calls!

If you have a photo showing scenes like these, that’s you have copyright of, or that is in the public domain (many really old photos are) that you think would inspire a good Then & Now of, please contact us.

Know more about the community: (new window): Tofield Alberta and the photographer who captured the originals Barry Gfeller Photos <--a deep rabbithole. We've not put in a direct link as we understand the collection may be moving.

Stay tuned for more fun and adventure in the months to come!

They’re saying…

”Fascinating in depth historical information about people and places in Alberta that I didn’t even know existed. It is a true learning experience. And enjoyable too.” Bernadette S Finzel.

Random from the series…
Then & Now: Three Hills Alberta – At the water tower in the 1950s and again today.
Brokeback Mountain then and now – Brokeback Meadows – Scenes from the movie.
Canadian Pacific Railway then and now – Greg McDonnell edition – Trains are the theme.

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

Date of Adventure: September, 2020.
Location: Tofield, AB.
Article references and thanks: Medicine Hat & District Genealogical Society and the Town of Tofield.

Tofield Alberta forty years apart (org: Barry Gfeller).

The BIGDoer-mobile always sneaks into photos.

Just down the street (org: Barry Gfeller).

The old Ford dealership has changed little.

More recently, a car repair firm used the building.