The Sharland Grocery

United Kingdom Origins
Leonard Arthur Sharland, son of Frederick and Annie Sharland, was born 26 October 1889 in  Wells, Somersetshire, England, and grew up in Wookey, Somersetshire.  He served as a stoker in the British Navy for a number of years, signing on about 1904. Wishing to keep the family together, his parents "bought him out of service" (i.e. before his term of enlistment expired) prior to emigrating in 1908, first to Lethbridge before settling in Medicine Hat.

Jessie Knight Brannen was born 28 August 1893, in Happyhillock Parish, Dundee, Scotland, the daughter of Edward and Mary Brannen. She emigrated alone in 1911 at age 18, destined for Canada but her ship was diverted to Portland, Maine, because of ice blocking the port of Montreal.  Continuing to Canada, she stopped in Ontario where she worked as a nanny for a short while before arriving in Medicine Hat, where some of her older sisters were already established.

Making a Life in Medicine Hat

Leonard (“Len”) and Jessie married on 12 October, 1912, at Knox Presbyterian Church on Dominion Street   in Medicine Hat and first lived at 735 Mill (now 7th) Street, then at 522 10th Avenue B S.E. (now Woodman Avenue). Starting in 1912, he was the bass drummer and secretary for the newly established Medicine Hat Pipe Band. 

Len and Jessie’s first daughter, Leona, was born on 18 September 1913. In the 1914 Henderson, Len is listed as living at 144 Cherry Avenue (in Crestwood) and working as a checker for the CPR, where several other Sharlands (including his father) were also working in the freight sheds along North Railway.

When he enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the 82nd Battalion in Calgary on 6 October 1915, Len gave his occupation as Clerk. However, he was discharged after eight months for a medical condition. His two brothers, Will and Fred, also joined the C.E.F. The 1917 Henderson shows him with the same occupation as 1914, with a residence at 522B Woodman Ave. In the 1919 Henderson, he is shown as a shipper for Scott Fruit Co.  and probably delivered groceries to the McKenzie Grocery on Dominion St. By 1920, Leonard and Jessie had a second daughter, Marion, and were living at 965 Balmoral and continued there until 1926 when they acquired the grocery.

Acquisition of the McKenzie Grocery

Leonard A. Sharland acquired McKenzie Grocery in 1926, most likely from the estate of William James McKenzie, although it was re-registered in Jessie’s name in 1928. He purchased a 1927 four cylinder Ford truck for $750 for grocery delivery and moved a “shack” (former CPR Ice House) from 512 Princess Avenue onto the property, likely for additional storage.

Son Leonard Charles Sharland (also “Len”) was born on 31 October 1931 and second son Donald followed on 22 August 1935. The four children and their parents lived  on  the upper storey (Leona married Maurice Knowles and left in 1937). As originally configured for the McKenzies, the upper storey included the NE corner as the master bedroom and the SE corner for the bathroom, and on the west side, a parlour (NW) and a kitchen (SW) joined by an archway. Len (A.) created the two bedrooms on the west side for the children by filling in the archway with vertical tongue-in-groove boards. 

The kitchen and dining room were downstairs in the one storey back section, while the front room was the store with a potbelly stove for heat. The stovepipe ran along the east wall, suspended from the ceiling, into the pantry, where it connected with the chimney. There was an additional storage area behind the kitchen and supplies could be delivered to the basement from the street by a trap door at the NE front corner. A boardwalk the width of the store extended out about four feet toward the street, which was dirt (or mud) in the early days. Leonard could deliver groceries or pick up supplies with his truck. The pipe band was a regular part of neighbourhood life, with many of the members residing nearby. Len also served as President of the Great War Veterans Association (later the Royal Canadian Legion) in 1926 and on the Executive for a number of years.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Sharland Grocery extended credit to their customers, some of whom could not pay, causing the grocery to close in 1935, a financial victim of the Depression.  The main floor store was converted to a living room at this time and a gas fireplace added to the west wall. The four hanging lights had shades added to them. Carpet eventually covered the strip clear fir flooring. Len (A.)  then worked as a steward at the Royal Canadian Legion  and died on 27 January 1950 and is buried in Hillside Cemetery. By this time, Marion had married Frank Bagshaw and also left home. Len (C.) and Donald continued to live at the house with their mother Jessie although Len left periodically to work at the coast and in the Yukon. Jessie died on 17 May 1974 and is buried in Hillside Cemetery.

In 1952, Len (C.) returned home and went to work for CP Express. In 1955, he married Laurie (Delores Patricia Biffard) who was born on 23 July 1936 in Trail, B.C., but who had moved to Medicine Hat at a young age.  They moved into the house, sharing with Jessie and Donald until he moved to Calgary to complete a machinist apprenticeship with the CPR.  Len and Laurie had two children, Raeann and Leonard, who became the third generation of Sharlands to live in the former grocery. 

Len worked for NW Nitro Fertilizers and joined the Royal Canadian Legion Pipe Band, recruited by co-workers John Paterson, Keith Freeman and Fred Standing. He started on tenor drum and moved on to snare drum. He was also involved in racing stock cars (“8ball” was a 1938 flathead 8 Ford) and in 1953 dug a 5’ deep pit in the garage (icehouse) to be able to work on them. Both Len and Laurie become quite involved with the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede, with Laurie organizing the Rodeo Queen contest for many years.

Many home improvements were made over the years and Len painted the house himself twice, keeping the same colour scheme. In 1964, Len (C.)’s brother-in-law Maurice Knowles (“Knowles Electric”) re-wired the house (replacing the knob and tube system) for them and some insulation was added to the attic by Len. When stippled ceilings became popular, Len installed two decorative beams across the living room ceiling and hand stippled it. Also later in the 1960s, the potbelly stove was temporarily vented through the wooden panel above the front door but soon replaced by a wall-mounted natural gas heater and a radiant heater in the fireplace. The potbelly stove became a decorative  fixture in the dining room. Although there were originally handrails on both sides of the stairs to the upper floor, one set was removed. The store front windows are original and Len removed them at one point and re-puttied them. In earlier years, the exterior storm windows would be changed seasonally for screens. These exterior units were replaced in the 1960s or 70s with aluminum frame vertical slider units. A forced air “Flamemaster” furnace was installed in November 1974 and replaced by a high efficiency Lennox furnace in 2009.

The CPR Icehouse

The small garage adjacent to the Sharland house was originally a CPR icehouse as explained by Jessie and indicated by the original wide freezer type door constructed of diagonal boards in the south wall. Len (A.) obtained a permit and had it moved from 512 Princess Street by a Mr. Kinnaird in the fall 1926.  At one time, it was partitioned into two rooms and there was a tin chimney that went up through ceiling (a "wee house" as Jessie described it).  As he was growing up, Len, his brother Donald, and their friends used the garage as a clubhouse and for a while in the early 40s, it housed a pool table. In addition to storage, it served as a greenhouse to start plants and as a workshop.

In the late 1950s, Len removed heavy ice house door and replaced it with a five panel door (visible in a 1963 photo), which due to the typical red-brown colour may have come from a CPR building or was used for blocking boxcar doors. About 1975, he installed the current glass panel door, a surplus office door from his workplace and reduced to door width to its current 32” width. He also replaced the original front barn doors made of 3" wide tongue in groove  vertical boards with plywood and enlarged the opening. One of the last changes was to re-roof it in the mid to late 60s, replacing the original cedar shingles with asphalt ones.

The Bomb

As a young teen, Len was very friendly with Dale Lawrence, who lived on Riverside. The boys frequently went back and forth between the two houses by walking over the CPR rail bridge (and occasionally ducking under the tracks when a train surprised them). One day when the water was exceptionally clear, the boys spotted a bomb stuck in the mud between the two southernmost piers. The most likely explanation was a dummy bomb from a practice bombing run during the war. With Len providing direction from above, Dale swam out and dove down to retrieve the bomb, which then was transported back to the icehouse, at that time, the boys’ clubhouse. Measuring about 16” long and 4” in diameter, it eventually was stored up in the rafters of the icehouse until 2010. The police sent a bomb expert who thought it might be a mortar rocket but a Suffield expert came down and removed, confirming it was in fact a bomb. Perhaps this historical artefact should be returned for display in the icehouse!

Landscaping

In the 30s, a photo shows a number of trees growing between the ice house and the main house, with wooden boardwalks. These trees were later cut down and square wooden planter boxes placed on them. At the time of the flood in 2013, there were several very large cottonwood trees at the back of the house as well as an American Elm in the back yard. The yard was beautifully landscaped with prairie boulders edging the perimeter plantings and a vegetable garden at the back.  Laurie Sharland passed away on January 16, 2020.

McKenzie Sharland Grocery Municipal Historic Resource

Much of the original construction of the house was intact when it was evaluated by Luxton and Associates in 2013 on behalf of the Heritage Resources Committee and found to have considerable historic integrity and interest. With the approval of Len and Laurie Sharland, the designation process as a Municipal Historic Resource was under way in 2013 when a very significant river flood caused floodwaters to back up into the neighbourhood. The resulting high water table caused a basement wall to cave in, rendering the house uninhabitable. The City of Medicine Hat designated the house and ice shed in 2014 and stepped forward and acquired the house and ice shed from the Sharlands as part of a flood relief program. Following an assessment, the house was moved sideways and a new concrete foundation constructed.

The McKenzie Sharland Grocery Municipal Historic Resource was acquired by Cube Development Ltd. of Medicine Hat in 2017 and has been renovated and restored.