It’s May 1st – Something wicked opens today!

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The door opens at 10AM this morning. Come say hi! 619 4 Avenue South

Boarderline is wicked!

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In 1989, Boarderline opened for business at 322 7th Street South.
In the following 23 years, we would also call locations on 2nd Avenue North, 13th Street North, and our current location at 814 4th Avenue South home.

On May 1st, Boarderline will move into our wicked new space at 619 4th Avenue South, which will have over 4,000 square feet of space spread over two floors to serve you better.

However, before we move into our new location, we’re going to use it to host Skate of the Art – a wicked fundraiser for a new skateboard park in Lethbridge. The event will feature hand painted skateboard decks sold via live auction. Please come support this event put on by the Lethbridge Skateboard Association. Support a great cause and get a sneak peek at Boarderline‘s new location. Thank you for everyone’s interest in this wicked space and of course for entering the It’s a Wicked Contest. Congratulations to Stromsmoe who wins the $200 wicked gift certificate.

The NW corner of 4th Avenue and 7th Street

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A very long time ago – over 100 years ago – the corner was home to the Chinook Club.

In the 1920′s the club relocated. The building was added onto and became City Hall.

Things grew, as governments and trees tend to, and by 1950 the City had moved to a new City Hall (though not the one we know today). The trees obscured most of the view and were met with the same fate as the building, after a tender for demolition appeared in the Lethbridge Herald.

With the building demolished and the trees removed, things began anew. In January 1950 the Royal Bank purchased the land from the City. A year later, they had sold the adjoining land for a four-store commercial building (which almost had a second story added) and announced their new branch.

By early 1952 the Royal Bank opened its doors and by July of the same year, Black and Walker were also open.This photo was taken in 1987 and two years later, on November 1, 1989 we held our grand opening – just around the corner at 322 7th Street South.

It’s taken us almost 23 years, but we’re coming home, sort of. There is one more wicked hint to come. It’s a Wicked Contest closes this Friday and by next Monday, you’ll finally know who we are!

A wicked historical resource

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We’ve used numerous resources to uncover the past of our new space, but yesterday we found a very powerful one at the library. When I asked to view a microfilm of a specific day of the Lethbridge Herald, the friendly lady behind the counter let me in on a little secret.

Over 100 years of the Lethbridge Herald have been scanned as pdf, then had the text extracted via OCR – yielding a very easy keyword search tool – one that includes advertisements too, since the OCR grabs text from them as well. Ingenious and best of all, it’s free if you have a library card and pin.

http://proxy.lethlib.ca/login?url=http://universityoflethbridge.newspaperarchive.com/

In no time at all, Black & Walker’s grand opening advertisement was found in the July 12, 1952 edition and an article about the new store’s opening was also found in the July 2, 1952 edition.

However, the most exciting news will have to wait until after March 5th, when our identity is revealed in the It’s a Wicked Contest! Suffice to say, the key word search in advertisements yielded a pleasant surprise – we’re even older than we thought and while you can never go home again, it’s eery how close we’ll be….