Neighbourhood icon falls to the wrecking ball

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on October 19, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

A recently-demolished local building that was part of the community since the middle of the 20th century had many owners and many names, but most recently residents knew it as Danny’s Grocery.
Shortly after being demolished, members of the community took to social media to share stories from their interactions with the store which was located at 431 18 Street N.
Many remember going across the street during recess to purchase snacks, and how convenient it was to have a store so close to their school, across the street from Westminster Elementary School.
President of the Lethbridge Historical Society, Belinda Crowson, said there has been a grocery store type of business on that site as far back as 1914 with the Aita’s Food and Confectionery.
“The building is (was) not as old as the history of their site,” said Crowson.
She said there is some discrepancies regarding when the building was constructed but it’s certainly from the 1930s or 1940s.
“It was built as a store and a residence at the same time, so the people who ran the store would actually live there as well, so they were part of the community themselves,” said Crowson.  
She said the reason why that site was known for grocery stores is because before refrigeration people could not keep groceries for long in their house, and they needed to have access to groceries close by and therefore, there were a lot of little community grocery stores around Lethbridge.
“Many became confectioneries where you could pick up a few supplies and Danny’s was one that people recall,” said Crowson.  
She said amongst the businesses that were on that site were Aita’s Food and Confectionary, Balm Grocery, Johnnie’s and Danny’s Grocery, with the original owner Danny Yip, but the owner most people remember is Charlie Jang.  
After Danny’s Grocery the chain of groceries was broken after the last building’s owner, Michelle Innis, ran LA Dogs. Her mother Kathleen Innis said she was very sad when she found out the building was being demolished as she had fond memories from the building while living in the house next door, which she said was connected to the store through an underground tunnel.
“I used the tunnel to go in the building if it was dark outside, otherwise I used the front door. But back in the days the tunnel was used for people to go underground and gamble and drink,” said Innis.
She said she was told by a man who visited the establishment ‘after hours’ that he was one of the many men who would go “grocery shopping” at night.
Crowson said the site holds many stories, from the site and from the owners, so that she believes it is the reason why it has hit people hard to lose the building.
She said not all old buildings are designated as historical buildings and that is a risk they take.
“There’s a lot of buildings built in the ’30s and ’40s that we as historians will be watching over the next few years and documenting, because they will be the ones that are most likely to be knocked down,” said Crowson.
She said the designation process starts with the owners but unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation about it and many do not take that step.
“Almost every week we’re dealing with people who’ve been told that if you get designated you lose all control of the building, and they tell you what to do with your building. Not true, the owner has to decide to designate, the owner gets a say in what part of the building gets designated or what we call character-defining elements,” said Crowson.

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