TREENA MIELKE/Rimbey Review
The Beatty Historic House Society is taking a summer stroll down memory lane and they are looking for people out there in the community who want to walk along with them.
The society wants people who have artifacts from Jack Beatty’s hardware store to bring them to the Beatty House to become part of a current temporary display.
Beatty House summer student Amelia Naismith said anyone who has artifacts from that period is encouraged to bring them in and share the story that goes along with the articles.
Naismith is proud of the display, which includes a calendar from 1940 that hung in the store, a display case with a box of wooden matches inside and a toaster sold at the store.
The 19-year-old, who has a penchant for history, is pleased to recount the story of the 1940s calendar picturing a lovely lady on the front.
“The calendar was hanging in the hardware store and then it got lost,” she said. “It was found by someone working at the waste transfer site when they were looking through an old trunk out there. It was perfectly intact and it was brought to the Beatty House.”
Naismith, who is in her second year in the communication arts program at Lethbridge College, is happy to share her knowledge of the Beatty House and the Beatty’s with anyone who stops by.
She finds the history fascinating.
“Before I started here I didn’t even know the house existed,” she said. “But I have enjoyed learning about the history of the house. I love history and I love small towns.”
Naismith explains Jack and Violet Beatty came to Rimbey from Saskatchewan in 1919, opening a hardware store. The store later became known as Beatty and Cotton Hardware when Jack teamed up with Wilfred Cotton.
The couple, who remained childless throughout their marriage, lived above the hardware store until their home and the store was destroyed by fire in the early 1920s.
The house, truly a masterpiece in its time, was built in 1925 when Beatty hired a local carpenter to build him and his wife a modern home in keeping with the stature of a successful businessman.
The house, constructed by Joe Jones, is a one and a half storey semi-bungalow built in the Craftsman style.
After her husband died in the ’50s, Violet lived in the house until 1984.
After she died, the house was handed down to relatives, who later sold it to the Town of Rimbey.
After being vacant for two years, the future of the house, located on a prime corner in the town’s original commercial strip, didn’t look good.
However, a group of nine concerned citizens rallied together and the Beatty Historic House Society was officially created and the house was designated as a registered Historic Resource in 1991.
Now, restored to its original solid craftsmanship and character, the house has become a special place for the entire community to enjoy.
Weddings, family celebrations, business meetings, garden parties and live theatre takes place here.
The Rimbey tourist information centre is located inside the house for the summer.
The Beatty House and Tourist Information Centre are open daily Monday to Saturday 9 to 5:30 and Sunday noon to 4 p.m.