This photo taken around 1939 shows the first four businesses of the “New Town” after Osoyoos expanded to the present Main Street. This is the north side of the present Main Street at Spartan Drive looking north. The Osoyoos Garage at right was where Elvis Fine Jewelry is now located. (Osoyoos and District Museum and Archives)

Main Street in Osoyoos was a very different looking place around the start of the Second World War.

This week’s photo from the collection of the Osoyoos and District Museum and Archives was taken around 1939. It shows the north side of Main Street at what is now Spartan Drive.

The photo shows four Osoyoos stores: Hocksteiner’s Pioneer Meat Market, Carlson’s Grocery and Post Office, Albert English’s and the Osoyoos Garage (Walter Spencer’s or Emery Garage).

The garage is located roughly in the spot now occupied by Elvis Fine Jewelry.

These were the first four buildings in what was called “New Town.” The original village was closer to the bridge, but government ownership of that land limited development.

In 1937, a new town site was laid out about a quarter mile north of the bridge.

Albert English bought the first lots and was the first to open for business in the new town, establishing a confectionery, café, garage and tourist camp. He soon sold the garage to Spencer.

In 1938, George Carlson, the father of long-time Osoyoos resident Dorothy Fairbairn, moved from his original trading post, near where Subway is now located, to the street in the New Town, where he established Carlson’s Grocery and Post Office.

That business was subsequently sold to R. Samol of Penticton and later became affiliated with Red and White.

Note the rough gravel surface of the road in those days – especially in light of the street construction that’s been going on in that same spot in recent days.

Do you have memories of shopping at these businesses? Please comment at OsoyoosTimes.com or on Facebook. You can reach Editor Richard McGuire by email at [email protected] or by phone at 250-495-7225.

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times