The "Then" photo was likely taken shortly after completion of the post office as such was the norm back in the day. The "Now" photo is from 2018. Both were taken from across 50th Street, looking south southeast.
Actually, Wetaskiwin's first post office wasn't even Wetaskiwin, but was four and a half miles outside the town. The first post office within the town, which opened in 1892, occupied a corner of a general store. The post office was moved to another business in 1903 and, in 1911, a post office building was erected, which served the town until the town outgrew it in 1971.
In that year, 1911, this building, Wetaskiwin's first government funded post office, was built on 50th Avenue of local red brick. It remained in use as a post office until 1971, when the present post office was built. Since that time it has, at various times, been empty or housed a variety of retail outlets. Today, according to the signs out front, the old post office houses a pizza joint, Pizza 73, and the Posthouse Lounge.
Wetaskiwin Post Office
The red brick building that most people know as the Old Post Office was built by the Federal Government in 1911, but it wasn't Wetaskiwin first Post Office. Until the completion of the Calgary & Edmonton Railway line in 1891, mail was delivered by stage coach to the Bear Hills Post Office, four and a half miles from Wetaskiwin. Bad weather and bad roads often delayed mail delivery, so when J.Z.C. Miquelon's General Store became the home of Wetaskiwin's first Post Office in the Spring of 1892, it was deemed a great improvement.
Wetaskiwin's first Post Office occupied a tiny corner in the northwest part of the store, which faced the tracks on the west side of town. General Delivery mail was placed in alphabetical pigeon holes, and private, glass-fronted boxes could be rented for fifty cents a year. J.Z.C. Miquelon and his son were the first postmasters.
The Post Office was moved several times. In 1898, it was relocated to the site of the first lumber yard (where the Prince of Wales Hotel was later built) and in 1903, a new Post Office building was constructed further south of town. By 1911, the town had grown so much that more space was needed, so the Federal Government granted a large sum of money for this two-story building, constructed of Wetaskiwin red brick. The Veterans Affairs office, Customs office, and living quarters for the caretaker occupied the second floor.
The Post Office remained at this location until 1971 when postal operations were transferred to a new building. Nite Owl News and Ken's Furniture occupied the main floor of the Old Post Office, as it came to be known, and the second floor was occupied by CJOI Radio and Block Brothers Realty. In 1975, the Goodwill Store moved in, and Ken's Furniture used a portion of the building for storage. Sisters, a small boutique, briefly occupied the lowest level. By 1985, the Old Post Office was empty, and it remained that way until the Post House Restaurant and various other shops opened here in 1988.
From the plaque at the building