The Basin Record Newsletter Vol.2 Issue 1

George John Spreull graduated in Law at Glasgow University, Scotland and arrived in Cranbrook in 1918. He set up a legal practice withAlan Graham that lasted until 1945, with Mr. Spreull becoming King’s Council in 1936. The youngest of 3 daughters, Elizabeth, was born in Cranbrook at the family home at 203 – 14 th Avenue S. The family was outdoor-oriented and loved to skate on a small slough just south of Cranbrook. Described by his daughter as “not a practical man,” Spreull bought a row boat construction kit. After his wife’s death in 1934 he laboured through the dark lonely nights on his boat. Withdrawing socially, Spreull kept an interest in environmental issues with a special focus on the skating slough near the South Ward School. He tried to get the Provincial Government of the day to make the “swamp” into a conservation area and a marshland for migratory birds, but was unsuccessful. According to his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Hogg, Spreull’s next step was “so out- of-character for this law-abiding, straight-laced dour Scotsman that he must have spent hours working with his conscience.” Fearing that some contractor would drain the area in order to build houses there, Spreull enlisted the help of the ELIZABETH LAKE how a swamp was transformed Game Warden, Mr. Rauch. Spreull hired a contractor to dam up the south end of the pond and then, with Rauch, placed a primitive sluice at the outlet. This was carefully watched and regulated so that the water level in the “swamp” gradually rose and the “swamp” became a “marsh”. When Elizabeth got her learner’s license in 1938 part of her training was to drive her father to the Marsh to view the sluice and the gradual rise of the water. When George Spreull’s row boat was finally finished, he and Elizabeth took it to the Marsh and launched it. With a bottle of pop they christened it the “Tizzy-Liz.” Sometime later Mr. Spreull and Elizabeth went for a late drive around Cranbrook, with hammer, nails and several signs stashed in the car. At the Marsh the car was driven down a dirt track and round a small bend. Elizabeth then hammered the signs onto various trees. They all read “ELIZABETH LAKE” and in the left-hand corner “BY ORDER.” One of the signs was placed near the road. The signs were never taken down and no one disputed them. Mr. Spreull’s later comment was that the Marsh “was named after the Queen, but I know and you know that it was named after my youngest daughter, Elizabeth.” This history of the piece of ground the Rocky Mountain Naturalists still lobby to protect and preserve was constructed from files contributed by two of George Spreull’s daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Hogg and Mrs. D.E. McLeod. In December 1923 Overwaitea announced they would be opening a store to be located in the Jackson Building on Norbury Avenue (10 th Ave.) next to Frame’s Bakery and across from City Hall. E.S. Bailey was the manager and by 1930 the store had closed for reasons unknown. According to the Cranbrook Courier at that time, the Cranbrook Trading Company on Baker Street secured the Overwaitea stock and a brand new structure was built for a cash store on the Norbury Avenue lot. This was a grocery store called ‘Your Cash Store’ with Thomas Bailey and Joe Fiorentino, (proprietor of the Zenith Café) as co-owners. This location later housed other grocery stores like ‘Safeway’ and ‘Economy Grocers’. By 1938, Overwaitea decided to come back to Cranbrook and re-open another store in the same location as their previous one. The necessary alterations were made to the building by local contractor A.E. Jones, and on Friday, January 20 th 1939, Overwaitea opened their thirtieth branch in Cranbrook. H. “Scotty” Webster, a former manager of the Kelowna Growers Exchange, was the manager of this new store. Overwaitea was later located at 45 Baker Street (around 1943) with “Scotty” Webster still as acting manager. In 1948, a new store was built on the site of the burned out Allan Hotel (formerly the Wentworth Hotel) at number 68 Baker Street near 10 th Avenue, with Archie Bryden as the manager. 1965 saw the opening of another new, larger Overwaitea store, described as a “one-stop-shopping centre” next to the previous store where the Credit Union stands today. Overwaitea was again relocated in 1977 with a move to the Tamarack Mall and finally to the present site at 505 Victoria Avenue North on October 28, 1999. This store was closed December 6, 2001 and re-opened under the name of ‘Save-on Foods’ December 8, 2001 and remains so to this day. or A Staple of Our Community Overwaitea at 45 Baker Street