It’s been almost 23 years since Yvette Moore opened her gallery in the former land titles building on Fairford Street West, but her memories of renovating the structure are still very fresh.
Moore gave a talk about the history of her venue during a recent webinar that the heritage conservation branch of the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport hosted. In early March, the branch held several webinars about historic buildings, sites, and archaeological projects to help connect the province’s history to the present and the future.
The provincial government constructed Moose Jaw’s land titles building in 1910, and until May 1998, the venue was the only one of 11 surviving land registry buildings to maintain its original function, Moore explained.
Moore began looking for another location for her business that month after spending three years in a historic house in downtown Moose Jaw, she continued. She thought it was fortuitous that the community still had historic buildings, considering other cities had torn down most of their historic venues decades before.
“I moved here in 1986, and you drove down Main Street and most buildings were closed or in not good shape … ,” Moore said. “But when we look back at it today, it was one of the best things to happen. We now have in our downtown one of the best collections of historic buildings in a city this size.”
Moore picked up a copy of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald and saw a request for proposals advertisement for the former land titles building. She drove past and wondered whether it was too big for her needs and whether she could renovate it. Still, she decided to submit a tender.
The province picked someone else, but because that bidder couldn’t produce the money, the provincial government offered her the building, and she accepted. She received the building on Dec. 16, 1998, and on Jan. 1, 1999, began renovating a structure that was up to code but stylistically in the past.
“Every area of the building was painted a hospital green from the 1950s … ,” Moore said. “It was a dismal portrayal of such a beautiful building. They had converted it into a commercial business in the ’50s, and that is where it had stayed.”
While cleaning up, Moore found several historical maps from 1886 that she kept, framed, and hung once the gallery opened. She also reused every piece of furniture since they were historically tied to the building, while she ripped out carpet that had been glued to the floor and stripped paint from around the windows and doors.
While working, Moore and her team found that the doors and windows were lined with copper. They later learned that Moose Jaw was to have been the capital of Saskatchewan, so the territorial government invested plenty of money into the building’s construction.
Since the building housed precious land titles papers, everything inside was made of non-combustible materials.
During renos, they found that all arched windows above the now-removed suspended ceiling had been sealed. So, they re-opened the windows and removed about 100 years’ worth of dirt. They also used 2,000 pounds of plaster to repair holes in the ceiling and 500 pounds of plaster everywhere else.
The team kept working, and after 84 days, they turned the 4,981-square-foot room into the new Yvette Moore Gallery. Lt.-Gov. Jack Wiebe helped re-open the business on March 26, 1999.
“Looking back, it’s hard to believe it’s 23 years. So, this is now being recognized as a key element as a destination icon for the City of Moose Jaw … ,” she said. “If I had to build a gallery from scratch, I would build it exactly like I have it now. … it has been the perfect example of what you can do without destroying the original features.”
