Crystal Dairy Building

What began as the Crystal Dairy back in the early half of the 20th century is now a completely renovated loft apartment building, and at the moment, the place I call home. While it's difficult to find exact dates on this building, a branch of the Carlyle Dairy was established in Medicine Hat in 1913.  It would seem that that was this building, as in 1917 they became the Union Milk Company, which included Crystal Dairy. 

The Crystal Dairy brand was known for ice cream, but milk was delivered door to door from this dairy up until the sixties.  The vintage images I've posted below show the horse drawn delivery carts in the 1930s and the milk trucks in the 1950s.  My parents actually remember the Crystal Dairy making deliveries as kids, although I believe it was bought out and operated by larger companies throughout its lifetime.

In the nineties the building was refurbished and expanded to create loft apartments, and another floor was added in 2010.  You can still see some of the faded painted signage on some of the original brick.  In my opinion, it's now one of the nicest apartment blocks in the city, and certainly has some of the best character.  The original boiler is still in the basement, and a large fire escape on the opposite side of the building is popular with wedding photographers.  It's a rare example of a historic building embracing its past while actually becoming significantly better than the original ever was.  

Crystal Dairy ca. 1955

Adding a new floor in 2010.

Crystal Dairy ca. 1936

Crystal Dairy ca. 1927-1929

Inside Medalta Potteries: Part 2

This is a continuation of the photo set I shot at Medalta Potteries over the weekend. Explore more of my local landmark series, Around the Hat here to see some of Medicine Hat's best kept treasures and the stories surrounding them.

Inside Medalta Potteries: Part 1

My renewed interest in local history has not only resulted in an obsession to create photo sets for my Around the Hat series, it's also had me browsing provincial archives for more information about the areas I've been photographing. I kicked off my series with a feature about Medalta Potteries, and since shooting some of the archival work going on at the site with Stream Media in 2010, I had a strong interest in returning to see what the museum was like now. The area has been so interesting largely because of all of the recent changes going on.

Over the Mother's Day weekend my family got together and we decided to check it out. It was incredible. Seeing the variety of clay products, designs, and historic memorabilia on display was one thing, but the real treat for me was walking around the old factory floor and getting to see demos of some of the machinery used. Medalta is really just the first step in restoring Medicine Hat's historic clay district, and places like Hycroft China are next on the list. See my first set of images from this amazing landmark below.