Saturday, March 22, 2025
The village of Speyside had two hotels, two general stores, a tannery, a large stone quarry and a village hall. The cover picture is from September 2015 and shows the only remaining building from the original Speyside. Newer homes have been added over the years but all the original buildings except for this one had been demolished. The Speyside store and gas station operated until the early 2000s when it closed. It has sat vacant for close to 2 decades with the exception of some squatters from time to time. The image below shows the building in November 2024.
This structure operated as a store under many names and was even moved back from the road 17 feet in 1942 when the highway was paved. On August 29, 2024 a fire broke out in the shed on the end of the building. When I passed by in November it looked like the store was still intact and only the shed had been destroyed.
Directly across the street from the store stood the original log cabin that served as a post office from 1873 until 1914. The first postmaster was rumoured to have been illiterate and relied on the school children from SS #10 to help him sort the mail. The post office closed in 1914 when rural mail delivery made it obsolete.
For years I have been photographing thousands of historic buildings and this blog grew out of that passion. I have always been aware of the many historic buildings that have already been lost and wanted to get a photographic record of the ones that remain. Just in case one day they are lost. Sadly, that has been the fate of the lone historic building from 19th century downtown Speyside. On a recent trip past, I noticed that the store had been demolished. Apparently the fire had done more structural damage to the store than appeared from the outside.
At any rate, there’s just the old store and gas station sign standing sadly in the grass beside the site of the former Speyside general store.
So, the chapter closes on another small piece of our local history. But, at least we have this record of it.
Related Stories: The Royal Oak Of Speyside, Bruce Trial – Speyside to The Gap
Google Maps Link: Speyside
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I LOVED that little old Gas Station 😦 Now I am heartbroken it is gone. It had been a while since I drove up there, on my way to the Old Hide House which is also no more. How about the old School Building that was across the street from it? Is anything else going in that Building?
Unfortunately I always think of Marianne Shuett whose shoe was found here, whenever I pass this place. I was 9 when she was kidnapped. This article mentions her shoe:
https://www.insidehalton.com/news/what-really-happened-to-marianne-schuett/article_7713f069-6190-5622-8975-92edb6739646.html
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