Another Historic Corner

The northwest corner of Main Street and Second avenue has a long history of retail in Reston.  It is now home to Reston Drugs and other businesses in the mall but was lumber and hardware for much of its history.

The Manitoba Hardware and Lumber Company seems unique in Reston as it was not given the surname of the owner as most businesses were.  It began in 1893 in a location further south but the building below on this corner was built in 1906.  The first manager was Edwin A. McBain with assistance from bookkeeper Bert Brown.  Henry Manders, William Devenny and John E. Harvey also managed before it was destroyed by fire in 1921. 

Postcard from the collection of John and Verna Olenick

The Manitoba Hall was part of the 1906 building, an entrance to the south included a long set of stairs up to the hall that held 400 people.  Local and travelling actors, singers, bell ringers and other entertainers regularly performed for appreciative audiences. It is different to think of halls as commercial enterprises rather than community assets as we do now.  There must have been enough revenue from renting them and having entertainment to pay the bills.  Dances, musical and dramatic performances and even early moving pictures all entertained the people of Reston and area. The upstairs also contained living spaces and storage. The picture below clearly shows the lumber inventory stored to the north of the building and a fuel bowser in front of the store. 

  

Picture from the collection of John and Verna Olenick

Fire in 1921 ended the history for this building but a new one was begun in May of 1922 under the name Reston Hardware and Lumber.  It was a one storey building and the hall was on the north side with an entrance from Main Street. In 1924, it became E.H. Berry's Hardware. 

From Trails Along the Pipestone (1981) page 470

From Trails Along the Pipestone (1981) page 765

Edward Hanlan Berry had come west in 1898 to work in the harvest fields but he must have like what he found in Reston as he learned the trades of barbering and jewelry in the east and then returned with his wife Bertha in 1905.  In 1906, he built what is still referred to as The Berry Block where the growing family lived and ran a jewelry and watch business for 20 years. The brick veneer of two storey apartments stands to the this day, across from the post office. His father Anson and brothers Fred, Harcourt, Lewis D. and Lawrence also came to the area and were successful businessmen and farmers. 

Picture from McKee Archives collection at Brandon University

E. H. Berry had a hand in many things - selling fuel, International Harvester machinery and farming.  The 1956 bill for an 11 foot cultivator and 1958 bill for 10 foot deep tillage with beaver tails includes a trade in on a Massey One way with a seeding attachment. (I had to do some Googling to picture these purchases!)    

He sold wedding licenses and rings in Reston and beyond and operated Berry's Hall on the north side of the ground floor. Moving picture shows, dances and community entertainment continued here until the opening of the Memorial Theatre. It then was used as a furniture store and his son John took over the business shortly after WW2. It looks like the store had a large variety of merchandise for sale and two phone lines in the busy postwar years of the 1950's and 60's.

Berry's Hardware closed up for good in 1975 and the building was torn down with the lumber sold. In 1980, Grant and Nancy Schiltroth contracted the construction of a 40 X 60 foot steel structure with International Building of Brandon as a new modern home for Reston Drugs. An addition to the south in 1987 and renovations in 2002 saw the creation of a home for more businesses and services in Reston Place Mall.  Titled passed to current drugstore owners Jim and Jennifer Whyte on December 1, 2020.  They continue to meet the retail needs of Reston and its surrounding communities, expanding the availability of local goods in these COVID-19 days of essentials only in-person shopping.