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A PROUD REMINDER of the region’s agricultural heritage,
the Spruce Grove Grain Elevator has stood tall over the
prairie community since 1958. It was once an important
centre of commerce for the region, bustling with activity
during the harvest season and spurring development of
businesses and transportation lines in the area.
“Spruce Grove was really started because of the
elevator,” explains Sharon Acheson, a volunteer with the
Spruce Grove and District Agricultural Society. “People
started to come there to deliver their grain, and then
businesses built up around there, and that’s really how
Spruce Grove started was all the business that started
to collect from grain elevators.”
But like many historic grain elevators in the province,
the elevator is no longer used for its original purpose. In
1995, it ceased operations as a traditional grain elevator,
and was slated to be demolished. That’s when the Spruce
Grove and District Agricultural Society stepped in to
purchase the building for one dollar from the Alberta
Wheat Pool. A few years later, they purchased the land
surrounding the building from CN for $35,000. “The
organization thought at the time that it would be a good
place to preserve local agricultural history,” says Acheson.
In 2020, the Government of Alberta designated the
site as a provincial historic resource, in recognition of its
role in Alberta’s past. “Over the years the Ag Society has
maintained it, repainting about every five years just to
preserve the wooden siding,” Acheson says, adding that
repairs to the elevator were primarily done by volunteers.
Over time however, the effects of weather on the
building began to be more noticeable and the Ag Society
requested an assessment by Alberta Historic Resources
in 2023.
That assessment found they needed to replace some
of the siding, the roof needed fixing and the windows
needed extensive repairs. Those repairs would require
them to replicate the original windows using the same
glass and putty to preserve the historic integrity
of the elevator. But this wasn’t the biggest issue.
“When we actually got into examining the elevator
really closely, we found out that the foundation of the
building — the concrete foundation — was crumbling.
So it ended up being a very big project.”
With costs for the project estimated to run over
$150,000, the volunteer-run society faced a difficult
reality. The elevator, which had stood watch over
Spruce Grove for more than half a century, was at risk.
But volunteers like Acheson were determined to
protect the historic building.
“Grain elevators were all over the prairies at one time,
and they’re falling down, they’re burning, there just aren’t
that many left,” she says, adding that she estimates there
are around 100 remaining across the province.
Three grain elevators in Spruce Grove, 1965
Gillespie grain elevator
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