Ross Lavigne/CHAT NEws

By Jesse Gill

IN THE COMMUNITY

Presentation on historic Medicine Hat building taking place at Monarch Theatre

Mar 20, 2025 | 8:30 AM

A presentation titled The Rescue of the McKenzie Sharland Grocery is on-deck at Medicine Hat’s historic Monarch Theatre on Thursday evening.

The building at 1113 Dominion Street Southeast operated as a local grocery store in the flats area of Medicine Hat and residence from when it was built in 1912 until 1924, when the McKenzie family passed away.

Current owner Malcolm Sissons, who will give the presentation, said that the McKenzie’s had retired from farming, and went out to Vancouver before ending up in Medicine Hat.

“They initially took out a development permit for a one and a half story house,” Sissons said.

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“A few months later, they hired William T. Williams, who’s the architect who did City Hall, Cypress Club, a lot of the schools and churches in town, to reconfigure it as a grocery store.”

The Sharland family then purchased it in 1926 and operated it as a grocery until the mid-1930’s, when the great depression caused them to close.

“The way grocery stores operated in those days, there were neighborhood grocery stores everywhere in town, every few blocks,” Sissons said.

“You might have an ice house, and no vehicles typically, so they would walk to their nearest neighborhood grocery every few days and get groceries,” he added.

“It would be put on a tab, and at the end of the month, they’d pay their bill, or in the case of the depression, maybe not. That caused the grocery to close, but the Sherland family continued to live in it.”

Len Sharland, born in 1931 was raise in the home, also raising his own family, a home his family was connect to for 82 years up until the 2013 flood.

Sissons said the flood lead to the side of the foundation caving in.

Historic designation at the McKenzie Sharland Grocery property. Ross Lavigne/CHAT News

With the building in the process of historical designation, the City of Medicine Hat had taken over ownership of the building and put a new foundation in place.

“Then the city decided, while they were looking at the budget to completely repair it, and not having a real end goal for what the use of the building would be, they approached the Heritage Resources Committee,” Sissons said.

“I was chair at the time, and said, what are we going to do with this? And my wife and I probably should have gone to bed, but instead we came up with this crazy plan to restore it, and that launched us,” he added.

“We purchased it from the city and started the restoration.”

The building is currently a property rented to Alberta Health for their rural health professions action plan, with a rotation of doctors and medical students housed there.

Sissons’ company Cube Developments owns 12 other units surrounding the building, as well as an old gas lamp updated with led lighting and a garage originally built as a CP Rail ice shack from the 1800’s.

“Effectively it’s four city lots, 50 by 150, and we consolidated that into one parcel,” Sissons said.

Sissons shares a connection to the Sharland family.

“I had a special connection with Len Sharland. His father, the first Len Sharland, was the bass drummer in the pipe band, and when I was growing up I was in the pipe band,” Sissons said.

“He had a relative that lived across the street here who was Pete Simpson, who was the bass drummer in the band when I was in the band,” he added.

“I talked to him about band business and history. I’ve been involved in historical stuff most of my life. I’m quite interested in it, and this just seemed to be something worth saving.”

The McKenzie Sharland Grocery property was built in 1912. Ross Lavigne/CHAT News

Sissons restored the building over about five years after purchasing it in 2016.

He said that the project morphed into something bigger than what they originally planned.

“I think it’s been good for the neighborhood too. People have been fixing up other houses in the neighborhood, and I think it’s somewhat changed the tone, and I’m quite pleased with that,” Sissons said.

“I worked all my working life basically down at the Brick and Tile, and a lot of the people that worked there over the years lived in this neighborhood,” he added.

“It’s kind of like, that’s a good thing to do, and it’s a nice connection to have.”

He said the presentation he doing will include a number of slides.

“I’ll take it right from the historical pictures of what it used to look like, and through the years,” Sissons said.

“Quite a bit on the flood, which is not just this building, but it’s part of what happened down in the neighborhood here during the flood,” he added.

“Then what we’ve done to restore it and renovate it. Being a historical building, it had old plumbing, old wiring, and all those sorts of things. So there’s quite a bit involved with that. It’s kind of an interesting story from the construction point of view too.”

The presentation is free to attend, and begins Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Monarch Theatre.