The Okotoks Museum and Archives is hosting an Open House soon, in celebration of their anniversary.
According to Kathy Coutts with the museum, this is a big year for the museum.
"2025 is a very special year for the Okotoks Museum and Archives. It marks the 25th anniversary of the building that houses the museum, its relocation to this site," Coutts explains. "It's also the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the museum."
In 2000, the house that the museum is in was relocated from its original location at 126 Elizabeth Street, which is now the corner of Northridge Drive and Elizabeth Street.
The house was built in 1905, and the original property title shows the lot was owned by five Okotoks entrepreneurs: William Livingston, John Lineham, Josiah Pugh, and Alex and Hugh Patterson.
These men were all involved in business ventures in town, such as Livingston and Pugh having come to Alberta from Ontario in 1897, and became partners in numerous ventures, such as construction, ranching, a butcher shop in Okotoks, a real estate office in Calgary, the Turner Valley oilfields, and a lumber business in Fernie, B.C.
Lineham, who had come to Alberta in the 1880's, was an early industrialist whose ventures ranged from lumber and contracting to drilling Alberta's first oil well near Waterton.
Not only that, but Lineham also served as a Member of the Legislature in the Northwest Territories and served as mayor for Okotoks.
Alex and Hugh were brothers who arrived in Okotoks in 1905, and built the Grand Central Hotel in Okotoks.
Hugh was put in charge of managing the hotel, while Alex managed the hotel's livery stable.
It is believed that these five men most likely owned the land on which the house was built, as well as other lots of land in the area, as an investment.
From 1906 to 1908, Pugh and Livingston were the only two names listed on the title, and from 1908 to 1909, only Livingston's name is on the title.
On top of that, Livingston's signature was found on two of the original boards salvaged during window replacements in 2009.
The signing of boards in new homes appears to have been common practice in Okotoks at the time, because at least two other homes on Elma Street found the signatures of the original owners in their homes.
After that, the home sold to widow Fanny Spencer, who owned the home from 1909 to 1919, and during that time, the house was rented to Corporal Angermann and family, and the house served as the headquarters for the Royal Northwest Mounted Police.
From 1919 to 1977, the house changed hands numerous times to different people.
Then, from 1977 to 1984, a daycare was operated out of the house, and from 1984 to 1989, an antique store called Pam's Emporium took over the house.
In 1989, Lawyer Charles Dixon, MPs Ken Hughes and Grant Hill, and MLA Don Tannas all moved in and used the house as their offices until the year 2000.
It was then that the house was moved to 49 North Railway Street and became the Okotoks Museum and Archives.
"In July of the year 2000, it was put on the back of a semi-truck and hauled down the street," Coutts explains.
According to Coutts, two thousand people lined up to watch it move, and then they all enjoyed a pancake breakfast.
"It was a sight to behold."
When the building was moved, they installed a new basement, and it became the museum, officially opening on Sept. 7, 2000.
The building was moved, because the highway into town was being widened, which would have caused the house to be bulldozed over.
Instead, it was moved to its current location and has been a museum ever since.
Originally, the museum was briefly called Heritage House, before it became known as the Okotoks Museum and Archives.
Prior to this house being turned into a Museum, the Town of Okotoks did not have a dedicated museum.
There had been seasonal exhibits set up at the station cultural centre, which is now the Okotoks Art Gallery, but no official museum.
"And some of the artifacts that were on display were borrowed. There were a few that had been donated when word of this building, the current museum, in the works."
Coutts says that when the risk of losing the home happened, the Cultural Coordinator with the Town at that time, Tracy Ward, identified the house as being perfect to house a museum and archive.
"A lot of credit has to go to her for having that vision to turn it into reality. Plus, there was great support from council under the leadership of former mayor Bill McAlpine."
An interesting tidbit Coutts tells about the museum is that people believe it to be haunted.
"I have, you know, over the last 25 years, we've had lots of people come into the museum who are former residents who lived in the home, former children who attended daycare here. A lot of them share stories of their memories of either living or going to daycare here or having a business here. We also have had stories of people coming into the museum and they swear a ghost resides here. So, I might not be in the museum by myself somedays."
While Coutts says she has not experienced paranormal activity to the same extend as some of the visitors, she shared one story that could be taken as more than an unexplained coincidence.
According to Coutts, panels will fall off the wall.
She had been listening to an oral history of a former teacher, and while she was listening to it, a panel that had her photo in it fell off the wall.
"So, that's about the closest. It could just be coincidental, but that's about the closest thing that I've come to here."
With where the museum is now, it fits in with the buildings around it.
Across the street is the former post office, and right next door is the Art Gallery, which used to be the Town's train station.
On top of the building becoming the museum once it moved, it also housed the town's IT department when the town office as based in the Stockton Block, before the new municipal centre was built.
Once the municipal centre was built, the IT department moved out, allowing for the museum to take over the entire building.
"To mark the occasion of the anniversary, the Okotoks Museum and Archives is hosting an open house on Sept. 5th and 6th. Friday and Saturday," Coutts says.
The event, Coutts says, will be a low-key open house, where people can come and go as they please, and they will be playing a video taken at the time of the house move.
It is free to attend the open house.
To check out the exhibits the Okotoks Museum has, click here.