Garrison House (Saskatoon)

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This brick building is Broadway’s direct link with the Temperance Colony. Originally, a two storey fieldstone house stood here. It was built, according to homestead records, in 1886 by George Wesley Garrison who came west with Commissioner John Lake in 1883. It served both as a residence and boarding–house. There is a story of a young Presbyterian missionary who, while staying there, had the grisly task of amputating a resident’s frozen toe without benefit of anesthetic! Between 1891 and 1894 Garrison leased rooms to the N.W.M.P. – presumably in this building – thus giving rise to its nickname “the jail” and to stories of cells in the basement. Unfortunately the 1886 construction date refutes the claim that Riel was held here at the close of the 1885 Rebellion.

George Garrison's decision to build with stone probably reflected the difficulty of obtaining lumber in Saskatoon's early years. In the summer of 1883, an attempt was made to bring two barges and a raft of lumber from Medicine Hat down the Saskatchewan River to Saskatoon. The barges arrived in August, but the raft, painfully disassembled and reassembled each time it ran aground in the river's shallows, didn't arrive until October.

In 1918, the building was dismantled down to its stone foundation and rebuilt with its present concrete and brick veneer. Today it is home to the Bulk Cheese Warehouse, a much-loved specialty foods store. They sell all kinds of cheese, freshly made pasta and salads, seafood, and baked goods. A recently added butcher shop has expanded their offerings even more.