ALBERTA WHEAT POOL ELEVATORS NOS. 1 AND 2, ST. ALBERT
These two grain elevators were built in 1906 and 1929 respectively. The 1906 elevator was extensively rebuilt and remodeled in 1937 to accommodate new equipment and to increase capacity. Nevertheless, a construction date of 1906 makes this an early example of the tall, rectangular elevators which began to replace older flat warehouse facilities in Western Canada after 1881. Indeed this elevator was built just ten years after the first elevator of this type in Alberta was built by the Brackman-Kerr Milling Company in Edmonton in 1896. This early elevator was also built on Canadian Northern property, but before the rail line had even reached St. Albert.
The 1906 elevator was owned and operated by a series of companies beginning with the Alberta Grain Company and its successor, the Alberta Pacific Grain Company. Alberta Pacific operated the elevator until 1967, when it was sold to Federal Grain, who in turn sold their holdings to the Alberta Wheat Pool. This gave the Pool two elevators in St. Albert since they had built the second of these two elevators themselves in 1929. Both elevators continued in use until 1989 when the Alberta Wheat Pool finally closed its operations in St. Albert. Threatened with demolition, they were saved by the City of St. Albert and the Musee Heritage Museum and made part of the museum complex.