$5,000 Buildings and $1,000 Lots!
The railway reached Grande Prairie March 22, 1916, and in the next six weeks the value of building permits issued by the village was $21,200. An earlier article on May 2, 1916 described 3 new business blocks under construction with plate glass windows and hardwood fixtures. As an “end of steel” village, Grande Prairie was experiencing rapid growth. The pioneers of 1916 would have been dumbfounded at the total of building permits issued to the end of march 2014 – $32,384,052!