Downtown Oliver - Oliver, British Columbia - Photos Then and Now on Waymarking.com

If you will note in the before and after photos below in the upper left corner is a partial "Market" this was the Oliver Market built in 1920 and is now Cranna's Jewellers.

This was the first portion of Oliver's downtown core to develop. The business district's growth was sporadic with the next section of downtown being built around the mid 1930s and continued to the 1940s.

This older section reflects a variety of architectural styles including Art Deco. The older buildings still have false facades that retain the characteristics of Arts and Crafts, Plainsman and later the Streamline Moderne as an example of the Oliver Theater that was built in 1946.

Though it was customary, at the time. to build mostly wood structures, however this older section used cinder block construction. It is my understanding that some of the wood trim and false fronts were made from salvaged wood from the old townsite of Fairview, that is west of Oliver on Fairview Road about 5km. Fairview is a ghost town and the only remains is the abandoned cemetery.

I spoke at length with the owner of the Cranna's Jewellers, living in Oliver all of his life, he was the first baby born in what was the St. Martin’s Hospital constructed in 1942 and was run by the Roman Catholic Sisters of St. Anne. He showed me a picture of Oliver in 1924 and still remembers most of the gentlemen in the photograph.

Year photo was taken: 1924

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