While the Shaw and Cooper Block was built in 1909 we can't say for certain when the "Then" photo was taken as there are no clues in the background. A sign on the building tells us that the Bank of Hamilton was still in the building at the time. The Bank of Hamilton ceased to exist in 1924 with its merger with the Canadian Bank of Commerce, so we'll say the date of the photo was circa 1920. Both photos were taken from across the Highway 2 - 20th Avenue intersection, looking west northwest.
Built in 1909 by the founder, H.M. Shaw, and the mayor of the town, J.T. Cooper, this large two storey brick and stone building was intended to be the commercial and economic locus of Nanton, which we suppose for most of its life it has been. Built on a desirable corner lot, it has a few earmarks of bank buildings of the era, such as a classical pediment over each entrance, Romanesque Revival windows with sandstone keystones on the ground floor, heavy sandstone sills and lintels on the upper floor windows, a heavy cornice with modillions/brackets along each of the building's street sides, an angled corner entrance and a classically detailed angled parapet bearing the names of the principals, Shaw & Cooper, with the year of construction, 1909, above.
The building was declared an Alberta Registered Historic Resource on November 9, 1979.
Shaw and Cooper Block
The historical importance of the Shaw and Cooper Block lies in the fact that it is representative of Alberta's turn-of-the-century small town office buildings. It was built by two Nanton entrepreneurs, both of whom were typical small town businessmen with extensive interests in the town and surrounding area. J.T. Cooper was the first mayor of Nanton, and H.M. Shaw, who founded the town, was a federal Member of Parliament for the Macleod riding. The Shaw and Cooper Block was built to function as the economic focus of the town.
Common bond brick, quoins, sandstone water table course, south southeast and on east frontispiece entrances, token pedimented gable porch, supportive scoll brackets recessed doorway, east and south tin facade and parapet, north and west brick step parapet, double hung windows, lower floor, has elliptical windows, sandstone lugsills, radiating voussoirs with sandstone keystone, 2nd floor has rectangular window, sandstone lintel and sills, north and west radiating voussoir windows. Sandstone foundation.
From the Alberta Heritage Register