EATON'S CATALOGUE HOMES!

 As we are travelling we are learning (or being reminded) of our history. In Banff, there was a T. Eaton House in the courtyard of our hotel at Moose Hotel and Suites. This Corner House was moved a couple of times to its present location, however in the lobby is a catalogue of the house plans that Eaton's was promoting, then shipping on our railways. In the early 1900's the railways were setting up towns and villages along its routes. With a small team of construction workers/labourers, these homes could be put up in no time. Here is a quote 

"after the First World War, Eaton's Catalogue offered a complete farm- everything but the horses - to returning veterans taking up land offered in the prairie provinces. No assembly instructions for these houses, barns, milk-sheds or pig pens has yet been dug up.."

This house plan book is set up in the lobby of Moose Hotel and Suites in Banff. I loved looking through the book and seeing many house plans. I was thinking about the married couple browsing and picking out their first home and their excitement when it arrived on the railway a few weeks later. The lumber came by boxcar from British Columbia and the millwork came from Winnipeg. Hundreds of Eaton's Houses dot the landscape in Western Canada. 

Nest to the catalogue of the all those amazing house plans was a normal Eaton's Catalogue. One could order clothes to furniture to farm equipment! Sears Catalogue was not as popular in Canada at that time.

This specific T. Eaton Catalogue on display and being handled in the lobby was reprinted in 1970's. Not an original but a treasure!