Museums and Archives - Museum or Archive Details

In 1918 a horrific fire swept though Vermilion, destroying much of the town’s business district. Soon, new buildings were constructed of fire-resistant brick from the town’s two brick factories. The result made a dramatic change in the downtown streetscape. The new buildings had similar colour and scale, and a unified style-Early Commercial, with corbelled brick cornices, tapestry brick panels and cast concrete details. Many of these structures can be seen today, along with four wood boomtown front buildings which survived the conflagration.

Until recently, however, some of Vermilion’s architectural treasures had fallen into disrepair or been “modernized” in the 1950s with metal cladding. That trend began to be reversed in 1992, when the town signed on with the Alberta Main Street Program in recognition of its distinctive downtown character.

By 1996, 15 historic downtown buildings had been sensitively restored to their former pre-eminence.
Of particular interest are Vermilion’s wood-frame structures (its oldest buildings) and an early Spanish-influenced Safeway store.

Vermilion has rediscovered a part of its history in its own downtown. These buildings are now a solid part of the Alberta Main Street Program’s legacy in Vermilion-a revitalized commercial core of buildings from the settlement period, to be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike for years to come.