The local trove of all that’s historic in in the city hosted a handful of interested patrons during an Architecture in Moose Jaw event on Saturday, Nov. 16, offering a chance to learn about the wealth of information available about buildings and homes in the city.
Research technician Stephanie Jeanes hosted the event and walked through some of the items at their disposal.
One of the highlights is the mass of blueprints on hand, covering many of the oldest buildings in Moose Jaw. And, as with most local archive treasures, late historian Leith Knight had a major hand in their curation.
“The city engineering department was going to get rid of them, but Leith made sure to grab them,” Jeanes said. “They’re old, they’ve been stored rolled up and they’re kind of tricky to get a good look at them, but they’re here and anybody is welcome to come and take a look.”
The archive also includes building permits for every building in the city from 1914 to 1928, giving the opportunity to see when a home was built and by whom. There are also a wealth of newspaper clippings, microfiche, every Henderson Directory made for Moose Jaw dating back to the turn of the century.
Then, as one would expect, there are myriad books available, ranging from tomes put together by Bruce Fairman that walk readers through the history of local buildings to a booklet by Gordon Fulton showing how to find your old house in the city.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the library archives – and it’s all free for the public to peruse.
“People come in for all sorts of different reasons; people use the microfilm and Henderson almost every day and they’re available any time the library is open,” Jeanes said. “We just ask that they make sure there’s a staff member available to assist them if they’re looking for resources in the back.
“But there’s lots of interesting stuff here, a lot of great resources here about the history of buildings in the city.”
