The Little Town Site Big Celebration year-long celebration of the 100th year of the town site survey continues with members of the committee placing several local history posters in windows around town.
And to top it off, several artists added their touch of decoration to the windows along the former Fabricland location, which was originally the Super Valu when Fred Smith opened it 1958, as the city’s first grocery store.
The artists included Iris Kotowich, Francoise Goudet, Lenard Lindstrom and Matthew Daratha, who finished painting the wall of the George Little Park bathroom building recently.
The Super Valu was the only building in the paved lot where the Gobind Mall, owned by Mo Takhar, is now and took up the spot where Fabricland was.
Gary Smith bought his father’s Super Valu in about 1966 and ran it in the same location.
The grocery store suffered smoke damage when another store next door to it burned but Super Valu cleaned up and kept on selling food until it closed down, said Gary.
The CIBC bank later went in along Lakelse Ave. before moving into the newer building across the parking lot where it now is located.
Besides the history of the Super Valu in the windows at the Gobind Mall, committee members are putting up sports history, including Wade Flaherty hockey gear, in the windows of the former Spirit Bear Gallery and Boutique location.
More history posters will be going in the windows at Lazelle Mini Mall, at Workers World, in the former Northern Drugs location at the mall, which was a Rexal drug store before that, and a window at Gemma’s.
These posters are along the upcoming parade route for the Riverboat Days so people can see the parade, the theme of which is A Journey Back in Time, and then take a walk around town to see the history posters.
After the Riverboat Days parade, the newly refurbished “Tiny Town” and its creator Jim Allen will be in the Skeena Mall Centre Court to show it off along with refreshments and Irish music.
Daratha and some young artists will be painting the fire hydrants, keeping up the tradition of designs on them started by the beautification society several years ago, but abandoned as the upkeep took too much time.
Daratha got permission from the fire chief to do this project and is expected to get started painting this week.
(Incorrect information identifying the location as Fanny's Fabrics instead of Fabricland appeared in the original online version. It has since been corrected.)