Another piece of Weyburn's history came crashing down on Monday, and by the end of Monday only a pile of rubble remained of a 70-year-old building that once housed the Eaton's store in downtown Weyburn.
The building was constructed in 1928 by Ted Gregorash, who owned the Commercial Cafe. This was closed in 1932, and Safeway moved in and was housed in the building until 1957. In August of that year, Eaton's moved in a department store at the location, which remained for about 30 years until it was closed in 1987.
There have been a number of short-term uses since then, including a bingo hall, arcade, the farmers' market and use by political candidates during election campaigns. The building had been in the Fogel family until recently, when the property went through a quick-claim process and the city took ownership in January of this year, said city comptroller Stan Runne.
The city was negotiating a sale of the property to the Royal Bank, which is immediately adjacent, but there were a number of issues that the city needed to take care of first, said Runne, including removal of asbestos, disconnection of services, demolition of the building, removal of the basement floor and backfilling the site with compacted soil and gravel. The city also had to work partially on the bank's property, as one wall was close up against the bank building.
The bank indicated they would like to buy the property for use as parking or for further development, said Runne, adding, "Our price will be based to a large extent on our costs to meet those conditions."
The demolition was carried out on Monday under the supervision of the city's public works superintendent Ken Latham, and crews hope to have the site mostly backfilled by the end of this week.
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