Dominion Fruit Company Warehouse

This old brick warehouse next to the rail yard in Medicine Hat, Alberta is about to turn 100 years old. Originally the warehouse for the Dominion Fruit Company, the building went up in the summer of 1913. I'm not familiar with much of the history unfortunately, but it's clear from all of the faded names painted around the top of the structure that it's had many uses in its lifetime.
  

In my view, the location's claim to fame today is the ghost mural of the Royal Crown Soap ad. The vintage Olson Kurb Side delivery van that's been parked next to the building for years is also a pretty cool highlight of the location.  You can even see the van in one these snapshots I took in the summer of 2004. 


Like many of the other buildings in the area, this warehouse is showing its age, and I'm not entirely sure if it's even in use anymore.  One interesting thing about the building is that the rear wall has a noticeable curve to it, and I believe that's because there used to be a curved rail line that originally ran behind the Dominion Fruit Company Warehouse and to the neighbouring Marshall-Mitchell Hardware Co. Warehouse, which was built first. See several of the archival images I found and posted of the building during construction a century ago.  

Dominion Fruit Warehouse construction ca. 1913

Dominion Fruit Warehouse construction ca. 1913

The warehouse shortly after completion. Notice the freshly painted ad.

A Whirlwind Month

My start to 2013 has been busy, exciting, rewarding, and surprisingly devastating.  Yes, I've had a taste of it all in the last month, and I thought a bit of a recap was in order.

Not surprisingly, my focus on Around the Hat has dominated my free time.  After several large custom print orders, I decided it was time to make it official.  I did a post about prints and how you could order them.  Of course, all of this was piggybacking on the announcement I'd made earlier in the month about my original postcards from the series.  Not long after that the Around the Hat: Postcard Shop was open, and I finally shared the first series of postcards.    

In the midst of this, my talks have continued with City Hall about the use of my images.  Building on the meeting we had before Christmas, we have started to fine tune some of the selections they might be interested in.  Likewise, I've been exploring a lot of other local venues for promoting and sharing my work, and have established some great leads already.  This process is still in its early stages, but the gears are moving which is good.

One place where the gears weren't moving, however, was in the transmission of my Jaguar.  If you've seen my other site, Jeeves and the Jaguar, or noticed my car related posts in the past you'll have realized how upsetting this was to me.  The cost and complication of the repair, in consideration of several other factors, has left me with very little choice but to retire the car.  I wrote about the upsetting news here.  The hunt for a new set of wheels that I feel inspired by is now underway.  

Just as I was dealing with the unfortunate end of my vehicle though, I received some positive reinforcement in the form of an interview with the Medicine Hat News about my photo series.  The article not only increased the exposure of my project, but I was fortunate to gain access to several of the abandoned buildings that I'd previously been unable to.  Here's what I wrote about that.  The feedback has been amazing! 

All in all, the last month was certainly eventful and has started to take the year in some interesting directions that I wasn't expecting.  To be honest I'm feeling a bit exhausted, but it feels like energy well spent.  It's given me a lot to share at the very least. 

Vintage Assiniboia Inn Postcard

I recently came across another vintage postcard find, this one of the Assiniboia Hotel (later the Assiniboia Inn) in downtown Medicine Hat, Alberta. The postcard shows the hotel in its prime during the 1960s. Notice the orange paint on the neon sign and the lettering along the lower overhang. These were details that were later changed. Also, notice the direction the vehicles are parked.  This was before the street became one way. With the state of the Assiniboia today, there's something special about adding a postcard to my collection from when it was thriving.