Fred Payton
Prince Albert Historical Society
It was on August 22nd, 1892 when Major Read and Captain Littley held the first Salvation Army service in Prince Albert. In the Army’s terminology, it was then that they “opened fire”. Prince Albert had been established as a town just six years old earlier. It was a pioneer community within the North West Territories, a raw community, a hard place to begin. Yet, the December 3rd 1892 edition of the Army’s magazine, The War Cry, reported that they had had their first enrolment, with fourteen pledging themselves to be true to God and to the Army.
What good has come out of the successful establishment of the Army in Prince Albert is hard to measure, but as far as the Army is concerned their work requires no human assessment. But members of the Army will tell you that what matters is that God and man’s needs are served through their Christ-empowered labours. For this reason, they maintain, the Army has fought in the past and must always fight in the future, in the homes, places of work, and on the streets of Prince Albert.
The Army sees its role in the community as meeting the physical, spiritual, social, and welfare needs of society. In order to do this, they have led both men’s and ladies’ fellowship groups, children’s groups, Bible studies, and provided counselling with respect to spiritual and moral issues.
The Salvation Army Church; The church was actually the barracks, and was located at 19 River Street East.
In the early years, the Army’s officers made their visits to the lumber camps and, as now, in the community’s prisons. On Saturdays, they would hold open-air services where as many as a hundred people would attend to watch, listen, and receive the tracts which were handed out.
In addition to these services, regular services in the early days were held in Saskatchewan Hall. It was not until 1906 that the first Citadel was erected at 22 – 8th Street East, almost back-to-back with their “barracks” located at 19 River Street East. It was in the basement of the Citadel that a soup kitchen was established to feed the destitute, especially in the dark days of the Depression.
As noted, Prince Albert was not an easy community in which to thrive for an organisation such as the Army. Although the Saskatchewan Times reported in its December 21, 1892 edition that “about $15,000 was contributed to the Salvation Army during ‘Self Denial’ week in Canada, it also reported in its September 25, 1894 edition that the Army was harassed by a ‘gang of galoots’ who loafed in front of the Post Office each Saturday evening. When the Army marked ‘Self Denial’ week in 1894 by staging a programme displaying a ‘mock barroom’ with ‘sham drinking, sham drunkenness, and sham fighting’ a band of rowdies turned the meeting into a genuine brawl.”
In a news story at the end of November 1922, it would appear that the community of Prince Albert was displaying a much more welcoming attitude towards the Army and its work. The Army’s paper, The War Cry, was publishing three hundred fifty copies each week, with more than two hundred customers amongst the local businessmen.
In September of 1938, the Army began broadcasting the Wailly Devotional Period on CKBI radio under the direction of Adjutant C.A. Smith. The radio station was, at the time, located on the second floor of the Sanderson Block, and the Army would stand outside on Central Avenue to deliver the message.
Some may recall the Army being involved in other activities to help the community. I expect some of the retired Prince Albert firemen will recall the Army bringing coffee and sandwiches to sustain them when they fought major fires within the city. There is even one story where the Army’s coffee and sandwiches arrived at the scene of a fire before the Fire Department.
Old-timers who enjoyed a beverage or two in the city’s licenced premises will also recall the members of the Army joining them in the bar, not for a drink, but to suggest that they might donate some of their pocket money to support the necessary programmes which the Army provided locally.
Alcoholism programming has certainly been a valuable resource provided by the Army. Sometimes it has been provided within the confines of their own facilities, but it has also taken place in locations like the basement of the former CKBI building, and at The Bridge, a facility which the Army ran at 1919 Central Avenue between 1979 and the late 1980s. Such programming included personal counselling, ‘Ten Steps to Freedom’ classes, group meetings, and even work place counselling.
Probably the best-known programme of which local people will be aware is the provision of Christmas hampers and gifts for children. Each year, hundreds of families have celebrated a happier Christmas because the Army has mobilized the citizens of Prince Albert and area to contribute.
As the needs of the community have changed, so has the Army’s approach to their provision of service. Through the years, they have held their Sunday services in the Citadel, moving from the original 1906 building to their ‘new’ Citadel at 163 – 12th Street East (this probably motivated by the closure of the unit block of 8th Street East). They opened a Thrift Store at 1026 1st Avenue West in the mid-1960s and, a couple of years later, a hostel in the rooms above it. In the late 1970s, they moved their offices into the space where the hostel had been operational. Later still, around 1993, they moved into their newest space at 900 Central Avenue.
The Salvation Army Church; The church was actually the barracks, and was located at 19 River Street East.
Originally, in addition to the Thrift Store and office space, they utilised some of the space in which to run The Outpost Restaurant. It was envisioned that the restaurant might serve to provide additional sources of funding for the Army’s programming, However, this never materialized, and as a result, the space was converted in May 2006 to serve one day a week as a seniors’ drop-in centre. More recently, the Citadel building was sold, the Thrift Store was closed, and with Prince Albert’s need for a lunch programme and a warm-up centre. those were opened, with the original Outpost space serving as the Army’s room in which to hold their church services.
The building into which the Army moved in 1993 was originally built as a grocery store for C.M. Smith. This occurred sometime between 1919 and 1923. It later became Robert Mutchmor’s dry goods store and Paul Lasky’s restaurant, Paul’s Palace. The end building, situated on the corner, became a Safeway store in 1929. And remained as such until 1949 when Harry Binsky opened his department store, Binsky’s. In 1964, the National Department Stores took over the building. They closed out in the late 1970s, and Karen Bremner opened up Karen’s Foliage and Flowers in 1979. The last tenant prior to the Salvation Army moving in was Solo’s Restaurant, run by Maureen Mosher.
The community of Prince Albert is hopeful that the Army will rise like the phoenix and continue to serve the needs of those citizens most in need of their humanitarian and spiritual services.
