FIVE YEARS AGO
• Red Deer Centre announced it would revert back to being Parkland Mall in the fall, after a $2-million facelift to the facade was complete. The facelift included the removal of the baffling, stylized wheat sheaves that towered over the entrances.
• Eckville officials voted unanimously to keep its 66-year-old siren. The siren alerted firefighters to emergencies until the early 1990s. It began sounding at noon in 1952 for testing purposes. A 9 p.m. call was added in 1953 when a curfew for people aged 15 and under began.
25 YEARS AGO
• Three of 18 provincial waste dump sites tagged as potentially dangerous to the environment were located in Red Deer, a study by Alberta Environment showed. The three city sites were abandoned landfill sites near Red Deer Motors beside Waskasoo Creek, Montfort School, close to a residential area and a third site near the gun club hill behind Parkland Mall, adjacent to the Red Deer River.
• The brewery strike couldn’t have come at a better time for Rocky Mountain Brewing Corp. Not only did the Red Deer brewery cash in on the strike to increase awareness of its products, it was set to launch a new light beer on the market which would replace its Steeplejack Lite. Rocky vice president John Gray said the biggest benefit of the strike was the opportunity to increase Rocky’s profile in the community.
50 YEARS AGO
• Federal government cheques represent deficiency payments on eggs “are making large numbers of Central Alberta farmers much happier over the egg situation,” according to local officials of the poultry industry. These officials told The Advocate that many farmers in this region already had received the maximum deficiency payment of $80 for the first quarter of the year — a payment of eight cents per dozen on up to 1,000 dozen Grade A large eggs. The payment was issued as an interim payment to help egg producers because of the low price to which eggs plunged during the first three months of the year. Many farmers are expressing great satisfaction over the cheques they were receiving and were substantially more enthusiastic over egg production, The Advocate was told.
• That a Kentish family with roots in the country of Berkshire, England, in the reign of Henry VIII, 1491-1547, could have close connection with the growth of educations facilities in the city of Red Deer in the 20th Century, seemed very remote, but was fact.
This vast span across the pages of history, was bridged in the person of Sir Arthur Allan Stonhouse of Red Deer. The 17th baronet, who succeeded his cousin, Sir Ernest Hay, to the title in 1937. Sir Arthur Stonhouse was educated at St. Paul’s School, London, and came to Canada at the age of 17 to attend the Agricultural School in New Brunswick. His father, who had always wanted to be a farmer, but became a lawyer was determined his son would be a farmer. Sir Arthur spent one year at the school, then joined a harvest excursion to Manitoba, where he remained and worked for a year. He came to Alberta in 1905, and bought a quarter section of land in the Joffre district, which he worked for two years.
90 YEARS AGO
• The White Cafe was re-opened with the alterations practically completed. Mr. J. C, Morris, the proprietor, has doubled the accommodation by the inclusion of the store next door and both the old and the new parts were tastefully fitted up. There were six private booths on the northern and eastern sides with fixed seats. The color scheme was changed with everything being finished in pleasing tones of sepia and green.
• Public Notice: We, the merchants of the City of Red Deer, do hereby agree to close our place of business at the hour of 12 o’clock (noon) on each and every Wednesday, excepting any one week in which another legal holiday occurs.
The merchants and clerks will greatly appreciate the sympathetic co-operation of the public in giving effect to this half-holiday by arranging to do their shopping Wednesday forenoon.
100 YEARS AGO
• Alberta Central Railway Company and the Canadian government signed a contract for a grant of $6,400 per mile for the construction of a rail line from Red Deer to Rocky Mountain House. It was expected the 70-mile project would be completed within two years.
• Town flags were dropped to half mast and the Methodist church bell tolled 23 time with the news King Edward had died. Flags were temporarily raised to mark the accession of King George V to the throne.