P. Burns Meat Market
Success Meat Market
P. Burns Meat Market /
Success Meat Market
The Bellevue Meat Market of 1910 that was located on Bellevue's original main street and owned by Phil Hart was among the first butcher shops in Bellevue. In 1912, Mr. Hart sold his butcher business to P. Burns and Co. that built a new outlet on Bellevue Front Street in 1913. A. May from Lille came to Bellevue to manage the store.
Patrick Burns was an entrepreneur from Calgary who in 1898 saw the real possibilities in delivering beef to the Yukon during the gold rush. He got his start in The Pass catering to the early rail and mine construction camps, going on to build a meat packing empire that still exists. In time he had established as many as 100 retail outlets in western Canada, four of them in the Crowsnest Pass.
In 1917, P. Burns and Company was burned along with all but three businesses on the Front Street and Main Streets of Bellevue. P. Burns was one of the first to re-establish. It wasn't until 1945 that Henry Zak Sr. bought out the P. Burns business in Bellevue where he ccntinued to operate the butcher shop under the name of Success Meat Market. Joe Vysholid and Martin Perozak were among his first butchers.
Adolf Besenhofer and a Mr. Voletz purchased the butcher shop from Henry Zak in 1954 not long before the building was destroyed by fire. The building was never replaced.
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