9.1°C Cloudy 
4
Here is the question: “What do the Imperial Bank of Canada, the Canadian Bank of Commerce, Beattie Drug & Book Co, Scott’s Drug Store, MacDonald’s Drugs, and the Cranbrook Public Library, have in common? History is curious.
The answer is, of course, “The Post Office.” That is to say the post office in the rear of the original building on the S.E. corner of 8th Ave & Baker St., not the present day 1963 replacement building on the same corner. History is precise.
That is where the Post Office first opened, in 1898, in the back room of Beattie’s Drug and Book Co., just shortly before the CPR rolled into town bringing the mail. It started in a building that was not quite the first building in town. History is chronological.
The first building in the town site of Cranbrook was the Cranbrook Hotel. In fact, it was here before Cranbrook was even a town site. The hotel sat dead centre in the middle of nowhere. This ensured ensuing construction gradually encircled the middle of nowhere. The second building of any note (according to some), was the R.E.Beattie Drug & Book Co., which quickly appeared directly across the street from the hotel. Within a short time, whether by complete luck (not likely) or clever calculation (very likely) the hotel in the dead centre of nowhere became the only place with rooms anywhere near the brand new CPR depot. In turn, the building across the street became the only store anywhere near the quantities of people now staying at the only hotel in the dead centre of nowhere. Enter the realtors. History has a price.
A town site office sprang up on the site of the present day Cranbrook Photo Building (kitty-corner to the middle of nowhere), formerly the Canadian Bank of Commerce but even earlier the second site of the Imperial Bank of Canada, the first site being the former site of the Drug and Book Co. which was where the first Post Office was situated across from the hotel until they moved the first Cranbrook Hotel to build the second Cranbrook Hotel. Simply put, the people required a post office. History expands.
It is an understatement to state that the town grew rapidly. In fact, that statement is an understatement. So what may we read into this? We may read into this a library. You see, the Cranbrook Drug and Book Co. not only sold books, but also rented them to preferred customers for a small fee. It was the first library in town. On the other hand, the first actual home of the Cranbrook Public Library was in the post office. No, no, no, not the post office in the back of the Drug & Book Co. which would soon become the Imperial Bank of Canada until it moved across the street where the landsite office formerly stood and later became the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce after the Bank of Commerce sold their building to the Royal Bank some time after the original Imperial Bank building vacated by R.E. Beattie was purchased by J.F.Scott for the home of Scott’s Drug & Book Co. after Beattie joined forces with Atchison to create the Beattie-Atchison Drug Store further along a rapidly growing Baker St. Not there, but rather in the yet unconstructed Post Office that we are very, very close to discussing. History is in the future.
Now look, if you are finding this somewhat exasperating, please hang in there for a week or two when exasperating will become positively infuriating as we discuss the ‘real’ old Post Office. Not the first post office but rather the fifth post office. The post office that everyone remembers as “The Post Office.” The post office in the building purchased by MacDonald Beattie Noble Drugs and demolished to make way for both a drug store and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. History is ironic...and continued.
