Shaunavon Saskatchewan ~70 years apart

Shaunavon Saskatchewan is located in the southwest corner of province, it’s been around for just over a century and home to perhaps eighteen hundred people. Give or take, that is. There’s a quaint downtown with lots of nice old buildings and a few of them will be seen in this post. The Plaza Theatre is most noteworthy.

The old photo is a scan of an undated postcard sent to us by a reader, but by using a little deductive reasoning we can date it pretty accurately. Our research suggests it’s from right after World War Two and saying sometime in 1946 seems most likely. The now shot is from 2014 and it’s of the same street-scene.

This piece first got published about ten years ago but has been reworked and tidied up a bit. We’re reusing the original now photo (since it lines up pretty well) and added a few others that are of more recent vintage to help round things out.

Now let’s take a look at things to see what’s changed and what hasn’t. There’s a little of both but things move slower in smaller prairie towns, so if someone from the era of the original came forward in time, they’d still recognize the place. We’re on Centre Street in Shaunavon and comparing two eras.

In the old image, starting from the right and working away, first we see Kilburn’s Groceteria. This building is from 1914, so dates back to a year after the community was founded, and at times occupied by a furniture store, billiard hall and later by a number of grocery outlets. It’s currently home to the Shaunavon Standard newspaper and they also do commercial printing.

Note the Sweet Caporal cigarette ad on the side of the building in the old photo. Smokes were a big vice back then and everyone lit up. The building to its right, seen in our photo, had yet to been built when the original photo was captured.

There used to be an Imperial Service Station next door to the left, now gone as you can see and the property an empty lot. This station does not appear in any photos we found from the mid-1960s or beyond.

The next structure post-dates the then photo and the land vacant at the time. It was home to Hardin’s Groceteria on our 2014 visit but the firm, we believe, is no more today. We’re not even sure if they were open on our 2014 visit.

The term groceteria has generally fallen from use and simply means a self service store. Doing business this way in the old days would have been somewhat of a novelty and in many groceries of the time clerks would gather all your goods for you, instead of you doing it yourself (as is the norm today).

Next up is Plaza Theatre and it’s the one that captivated us the most. Really nice place. Constructed in 1927 as a dance hall, it was converted to a theatre a few years later and functions in that capacity to this day. That marquee is outstanding and installed in 1946, so this helps narrow down the capture date. You’ll see it’s not in place in the original photo.

There’s two men standing out front of the building, back then, and it almost looks as though they’re staring in the direction of the photographer.

The Plaza is still very much in business and a classic small town theatre. They kept the character of the old days but understand they modernized the equipment inside. On our visit in 2014 it was temporarily closed for some work, in 2017 playing Despicable Me 3 and in 2021 closed again while waiting (like everyone else) for the pandemic to end. A coffee house, present day, occupies one section of the building.

Moving on we come to a low building that today is home to a hair salon. At least we think it’s the same structure seen in the 1940s image, only re-clad, but were not 100% certain. It does have a similar window placement, though.

Next up, in the old photo, is a two story wood structure which has since been replaced with a modern building housing a bank. Anything beyond will not be discussed as they are too far away to be seen clearly, but these may be present in both images.

The vehicles in the old photo date from the late 1920s to sometime in the 1940s (a mix of popular makes) and these help further date the time of capture. If an old image arrives with no date information, a car in the scene can help narrow things down.

There’s only a single vehicle in our now photo (and it’s not a pickup, either), but there’s never much going on Sunday mornings in small town Saskatchewan. Will we look on that car in the future with fondness, as we do today with all those classics in the old photo? Doubt it.

While the town appears a bit busier back then, it still had the look of a sleepy little community. Kilburn’s seemed to be doing a good business in nineteen hundred and forty-whatever.

The vintage image comes thanks to a reader, Sarah of Shaunavon (thanks!). Where as most then images, these days at least, are sourced by us, we do accept submissions as well. They can come from your family collection, or be an old postcard you might have, like what happened here. Most of the latter, from those days, are in the public domain and usually a good starting point for a little fun.

We’re not sure the origin of this postcard, but at the time these were produced in huge numbers. It does list the town name prominently, so it’s probably some promotional series or some such thing.

The Date: Based on what we know, sometime in 1946 seems likely. First, we know the movie house marquee did not get put in until that year and it’s clearly missing in the old photo. Then…the newest cars appear to be representative of models available of the era, but during the war, (so up to 1945), few were made, so by the numbers these should then be ’46s. Together these two clues help corroborate the date.

We’d sure love to come back to Shaunavon to shoot more pieces like this. A quick search of some museum databases (not online when we compiled this originally), shows a lot of new (to us) public domain photos and postcards available of the town that would make good fodder for this series. We hope to say one day soon, Shaunavon here we come!

Know more: (new windows): Shaunavon Saskatchewan and Plaza Theatre Shaunavon SK.

They’re saying…

”Wonderful articles on small forgotten towns. Several that I knew very well. Thanks for doing this.” Jan Tooth.

More like this…
Downtown Castor Alberta (Cosmopolitan Hotel).
Downtown Trout Lake British Columbia.
Main Street Slocan BC.

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Date of adventure: ca1940s (original) and 2014, 2017 & 2021 (Team BIGDoer).
Location: Shaunavon, Saskatchewan.
Article references and thanks: Town of Shaunavon Saskatchewan and Grand Coteau Heritage & Cultural Centre.

Shaunavon Saskatchewan ca1946 and 2014.

Despicable Me 3 (2017).

Closed and waiting for Covid to end (2021).