November 3, 2011 Volume 10 • Number 43 50¢ Newsstand Price
INSIDe
downtown
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Downtown welcomes Get Polished – page 5
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Fascinating historical finds revealed downtown Next year marks 200 years since the first Hudson’s Bay Company trading post was opened up here in Kamloops, the land where the two rivers meet. Although there have been people in this area for many more years than that, it was with this first post that the city itself started to grow and take shape. We see the heritage markers and plaques on some buildings, notice the grand architecture of others and are proud of the Old Courthouse which still stands proud, tall and mostly as it has always been atop its hill. But when we walk down the street on a daily basis, we tend not to think where all the oddities and their stories here in downtown Kamloops actually came from. When there is an answer to a question needed, there is almost no one better in town to ask than Kamloops Museum supervisor and archive caretaker Elisabeth Duckworth. Elisabeth, with the help of her cherished City archives, rolled out the answers for many questions; why does that house at 673 Battle Street have a plaque that says Ideal on it, why are there rumours that there are tunnels underneath the downtown, and was there really a Kitty Kat Theatre? The one question that stumped her however was why is there a giant ‘W’ on the back of Fratelli’s Foods at 223 Victoria St..
Mario Pietramala of Fratelli’s Foods gets a close look at the historical “W� at the back of his deli.
“The house with the word Ideal on it is not as a romantic story as I had wished,� Elisabeth says, as she retrieves a book with the stories of various buildings in the downtown core. “It had something to do with the type of stone used on the house as facing.� Dead on, the owner of the home owned the Small and Dobson Ce-
ment Plant. The plant manufactured concrete blocks for construction. The blocks were moulded with a surface resembling dressed stone. He used them to build the house at 673 Battle as an experiment to see if it was easier to construct than the typical wood house of that era. In doing this, he thought it was, so he plaquered the home with the word
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‘Idealâ€? to explain his find. With one oddity explained, the next one on the list is not so easy‌ or is it? The rumours of tunnels underneath the city are rampant. “At the turn of the century many of the buildings were built with double basements,â€? explains Elisabeth. “The buildings were freestanding but with alleys between them and basements below their basements. This is the source of the myths about tunnels downtown. Today, the Zack’s building is one of the few buildings left downtown with a double basement. For anyone who was here before the early 1970’s they will be able to tell you that there was in fact a giant neon cat here that marked not a Kitty Kat Theatre but The Bronze Kitten which was located where Universal Reproductions is now at 124 Victoria Street. Stop in and ask the boys and they will be able to tell you the mess that half of the building was when they took it over. The big “Wâ€? on the back of the Fratelli’s building has always been a talking point for those who wander through the back alley at 2nd and Victoria Street. I guessed it was a Woolworth “Wâ€? but there was no record of it at the museum. Luckily Mario Pietramala from Fratelli’s let the secret slip and mentioned that the W stands for Wodlinger’s. – continued on page 2