If you’ve driven behind the Heritage Museum in the past couple of weeks you couldn’t have missed our new murals. This got me thinking about murals in Wetaskiwin in general. Murals, or at least something being painted onto a wall, have always been a part of Wetaskiwin’s past. This photo from the City of Wetaskiwin Archives is an example of the types of murals we would have seen in our small city during its earliest days. As we might expect, these were mostly used for advertising. Taken off the corner of Lorne (51 Ave.) and McDonald (51 St), more or less where the old Wetaskiwin Times building still stands, you can see painted signs advertising the activities within. This building was constructed by R.M. Angus after the great fire of 1903, with the main floor being a large implement warehouse that was converted into an auto garage sometime during the 1910s. On the second floor was the Angus Assembly Hall, a 70 by 36-foot space referred to as an opera hall. While Angus Hall was frequently used for celebrations and entertainment, it also served as a courtroom. According to a Wetaskiwin Times Article on July 30, 1908, the “Supreme Court began in Angus Hall today” and was presided over by His Honour Judge Beck. While the building in the photo was destroyed by fire in 1923, subsequent buildings held similar functions including the Angus and later Audien Theatres.
