I enjoy learning about the history of our great city, the buildings and the people that shaped it. After lots of thought on what to do this virtual about I decided to take you on a little tour of my favourite area, the warehorse district.
You can drive or walk it, it's about a 3.5km walk and you end up about 5 mins from the start.
I have chosen 11 buildings I like and have written up a brief explanation of each. On each building you will find a letter. After finding all 11 letters you will uscramble them to form a word. You'll then message me that word and then you can log this geocache, if I haven't received your message with the secret word within 24 hours, your log will be deleted.
Feel free to include some pictures in your log
The addresses are to the buildings, the directions to the letters are below each description, the additional waypoint coordinates also take you to the letters.
2100 Dewdney Avenue - Campbell, Wilson and Strathdee Wholesale
Built in 1926 for Campbell, Wilson and Strathdee Wholesale Grocers as a second location. (First was 2206 dewdney). Other occupants have been J.M Sinclair Ltd, Paulin Chambers Wholesale Bakers, Promislow’s, Denim Express. This building features decorative pilasters and panels between the first and second story windows, the stone roof line and entrance way are also unique, also note the building date and stylised initials of original occupants.
North east corner of building, east side red paneling is where the first letter is.
1933 8th Avenue - Wood Vallance Ltd Warehouse
This building built in 1920 was constructed for Wood Vallance Ltd. and merged with Marshall-Wells of Moose Jaw in 1926 who occupied the building until 1970. This building also contains a decorative brick diparing between the windows and a W.V initialing at the top.
North east corner, north side, green box with the letter you are looking for.
1455 Rose Street - Teese and Perse Building
Built in 1911 for Manufacture Teese & Perse. Other Businesses occupying this building throughout its history have been: George Vipond & Co., a branch office for George Weston Ltd., a bakery, and McNall & Company Ltd. Wholesale. Now it belongs to Brownstone Health, which BeanBunny helped renovate.
South side of building, grey splitter box has the letter you need.
1275 Broad Street - Brownstone Plaza
Built in 1913 for the John Deere Plow Co. who occupied it until 1974. The dates on either side of the main doorway are the founding date of the company and the construction date. This building consists of a freight elevator, still in use today and a large loading dock in the back for railcars. It was once the largest warehouse in the city.
Parking lot north of the building, south most street light is the holder for the letter.
1170 Broad Street - Kozan Furniture
Built in 1912 for Grocers H.G Smith Ltd. This building was featured in 1915’s Construction Magazine: “The H.G smith Warehouse is of first-class slow burning mill construction and cost $50 000. All main girders and columns are of large dimension and there are no joist or secondary beams. The floors are of 2x6 on edge well spiked together, covered with waterproof paper and finished with 1x2 maple flooring. All stairs and elevators are enclosed with brick firewalls with automatic steel doors at all openings. All walls, ceilings, posts, ect., are whitewashed throughout, except in the office, where the walls are plastered. The exterior is of dark red brick and buff stone.” The north face of this building has what is left of a painted sign.
South side gas meters, protective posts plays a host to the letter.
1150 Rose Street - Downing Building
This 1913 building was built for the shoe factory of W.C Downing, it also held the Provincial Liquor Store Warehouse. From 1919-1943 it was the Ford Motor Co. of Canada then after that until 1950 it housed the Sask Federated Co-operatives. The Sask Science Center built some of its original exhibits in here while the powerhouse was under renovation. The exterior remains essentially unaltered and is a representation of Regina's economic history prior to the first world war.
South side, vertical pipes is where you'll find the letter.
1162 Osler Steet - Northern Electric Building
The original three-story building was built in 1919 for the Northern Electric Co., the second half was built in 1930 for the Army & Navy Stores Ltd. Each entrance has its construction date above the doorway, and decorative tile to tie the buildings together. When the second half was constructed it had advanced features for its time, such as laminated maple floors and a sprinkler system. Old Army & Navy painted signs can be seen on the west side.
East side, big grey box holds the letter in question.
1202 OslerStreet - Canadian Fairbanks Morse Co. Building
The original part of this building was built in 1920 for the Canadian Fairbanks Morse Co. which occupied it until 1961. This building featured brick diapering on the front of the second floor and a diamond motif on the third floor. There is also tyndall stone carved logo of the original occupants above the original main entrance.
North west corner, gas meter protective posts once again hold the letter.
1233 Halifax Street - Tremaine Cartage
Built in 1929 for Regina Cold Storage and Forwarding Co., Tremaine Cartage & Storage occupied it from 1958 until 1986. There is a central tower edged by pilasters topped with triangular stone detailing. There is also a painted sign on the southside of the building.
North west corner, gas meter posts once again.
1102 8th Avenue - General Motors of Canada
In 1928 GM build a assembly plant in Regina, a first for western canada. The plants assembly line could produce 150 cars a day and employed 850 employees. This plant was seen as a prosperous future for the city, for work and the spin-off business it supplied, but during the Great Depression it halted and didn’t really pick up again until the federal government started using the building to produce munitions during the second world war. During its peak in 1943 it employed 1596 men and women. Car production didn’t continue after the war and some of the buildings were used for national defence purposes until the 1960s when the city took over and subdivided it into warehouse space, storage and businesses. In early 2017 a middle section housing city machinery burnt down, the damaged portion can still be seen on the west side of the long building.
West side of building, transformer seen through the fence with the letter on it.
1736 Dewdney Avenue - Regina Electric Light and Power Co.
Regina Electric Light and Power Co first turned on electric lights in 1890 and by 1905 the city bought the company and built this building as its power plant, housing a 400-kilowatt generator. But in 1912 as the city grew it couldn't keep up with demand, so a new power house was built (now the Sask Science Center), and this building remained as a substation. This is one of the oldest buildings in the city.
North east side, gas meter protective posts host the letter.
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018 This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.
References: Warehouse Walking Tour found on the City of Regina website
and Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw, By Edward Willett