StettlerLocal.com October 29, 2021 @ 8:45 am
In May of 1972, the province began construction of a new $350,000 provincial building. The new building was erected on the existing courthouse lot, and would bring a formal end to two things; First, it would bring an end to the historic courthouse being a functional building and second that the playground that had been built next to it was also to be demolished. Although there were approximately three other playgrounds in the community at the time, the courthouse playground had been Stettler’s first formal playground.
The playground was constructed by the local Kinsmen Club and sat next to the town’s courthouse. I don’t have an actual construction date of the playground; however, photos in the club’s archives would put it around the early ’40s. The wading pool measured 22 feet by 40 feet and was roughly 18 inches at its deepest point. When the pool was opened in August of 1948, the $2,000 addition to the playground quickly became a popular destination for the town and county children, despite being briefly closed during a polio epidemic shortly after it had opened
Many people from the community fondly remembered that playground, and the news of its closure was probably a hard pill to swallow.
The courthouse was a two-storey structure built in 1907 by the Stettler school board as the first formal school. It was then sold to the province’s judicial branch to be used as a courthouse only a couple years later. The school-turned courthouse was used until the new provincial building, which would house a courtroom facility, was operational. I’m not sure if there was a gap between the old building being closed and the new building being formally functional.
Carson Ellis, Local Historian
Our Town Stettler