Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Storefronts And The Classroom

Next to the house from yesterday's post are a pair of stores typical of the 19th century. The windows contain items that would have been on sale at the time, such as fine china in the one to the right. It occurs to me that it's been a long, long time since the term dry goods has been used on a store sign.


Turning around, we have another storefront. This one had furniture in the front window... and a close look will see a coffin, with a glass pane allowing viewing of the dead, standing upright in the window. Looming behind it is a grain elevator, a hint of what's beyond this area, and further ahead in time.


Moving beyond into the 20th Century, the visitor comes across this one room classroom, often seen on the Prairies in the early part of the century.


The desks are either mounted with information screens, or hold objects one might have expected to find in these schools at the time. 


Aside from the standard map of Canada, the classroom has a wealth of items all within what would have been close quarters on a cold Prairie winter's day.




33 comments:

  1. These historical posts are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love seeing old stores, William!!! These are great!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This has a movie set feel to it! Love the classroom too, it reminds me of a book I read last year called Winter Wheat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would have enjoyed the geography lesson. Not so much the math class. ;-) 1/2 x 1/3 = ???

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lucky person who got to spend the frigid winter school days by the stove!
    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Petrea: thank you!

    @Linda: it's a pleasure to show them.

    @Ciel: classrooms like that were quite common for decades here.

    @Revrunner: math would lose me too!

    @Furry Gnome: yes, all of it is inside.

    @Jane and Chris: oh, most definitely!

    ReplyDelete
  7. my comment delted i think but i just wanted you to know how much i am enjoying this museum!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cool photos, and I enjoyed the trip to the past.

    ReplyDelete
  9. So nice to see the restorations! And to feature stuff in the stores that would have been sold during their heydays--so wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I was never in a classroom with desks like that but, the front of the classroom looks very familiar to me.

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Tanya: thanks! I had it yesterday when I was answering on my mobile, almost finished, and the phone decided to skip to another site, deleting everything I'd written.

    @Bibi: thank you!

    @Tex: I'll have to photograph closeups the next time I'm in there of some of the china.

    @Cheryl: it's unheard of now to sell coffins in the same place where you sell chairs.

    @Luis: thanks!

    @Sharon: with the same math problems that would bedevil me!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Nice to see those old buildings and what's inside. It almost look like a film set of an old movie.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wonderful post and photos ! I love country and small town store fronts ! Thanks for sharing , Have a good day !

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wonderful historical post, I like the classroom!

    ReplyDelete
  15. My first classroom in the early Sixties wasn't too much different from this...

    ReplyDelete
  16. Had fun going back to see your shots yesterday and now this. What a museum.

    ReplyDelete
  17. There are some real blasts from the past there!

    ReplyDelete
  18. A dry goods store--that brings back memories! There was one--Kay's--in the small town where I grew up. (Yep, I'm THAT old!)

    ReplyDelete
  19. These are great exhibits. The classroom reminds me of two I saw at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. - each an example of the classrooms that white kids and black kids had in the segregated U.S. south before an historic case ruled "separate but equal" illegal. Strikingly different and obviously sadly memorable.

    ReplyDelete
  20. @Jan: it does indeed!

    @Country Gal: thanks!

    @Karl: it does feel very much out of time.

    @VP: I remember mine being different.

    @Lauren: it's a lot of fun to go through. I'll have to do it again.

    @RedPat: there certainly are!

    @Norma: it's quite an archaic term!

    @Kay: that would be a deep contrast, but a good example to remind us of that part of the past.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Nice school desks. The ones at our museum are a bit more "battered." We have only two of the glass ink wells that was a standard part of each desk. We don't have any of the items on the desks as they are used when the local schools do a "tour." Your museum is a fantastic place.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The storefronts are interesting, but that casket is a little creepy!

    ReplyDelete
  23. How does it feel having two blogs? I sorta started a coupon blog awhile back but honestly, I never put up a single post. Instead, I use it as a reference page to follow other couponing blogs.

    Anyway, wondering how running two is working out for you? Seems like it's going well.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Memories came flooding back when I saw that first photo. I remember stores like this when I was a child. Long gone now.

    ReplyDelete
  25. We have some stores here that almost look that old!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Storefronts are neat looking. As are the school rooms. When my sis got married she and husband moved to Coaldale Alberta and her kids went to a oneroom school until the 8th grade and then were bussed to Lethbridge for High School. And they're not that old. MB

    ReplyDelete
  27. Fabulous post, William. Thanks for all the photos and the text to go with them!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Don't you love them? Great photos.

    ReplyDelete
  29. @Mari: that it is.

    @Lois: a bit! I now wonder where it is. Somewhere in storage, I suppose.

    @Whisk: I'm at the photoblog more often than the writer blog, and these days admittedly the writer blog is discouraging when people are reading but failing to comment. I had a period last year when it was making me resent the page and I needed to step away for a few weeks.

    @Denise: thank you.

    @Jim: me too.

    @Linda: I remember some in my hometown that I'm reminded of.

    @MB: I have family who lived in Coaldale for some years.

    @Lynette: you're welcome.

    @Jennifer: thank you.

    ReplyDelete