Visitor Centre / W.R. Orr Building (114 Jasper Street):
Built in 1910, this building was Maple Creek’s first purpose-built stand-alone bank building. It was the second location of the Maple Creek branch of the Union Bank of Canada, which was Maple Creek’s second bank. The first location of the Union Bank of Canada in Maple Creek was a commercial bay within the Hotel Cypress (where the Cypress Credit Union stands today). Maple Creek branch of the Union Bank of Canada became the Royal Bank of Canada when the banks merged in 1925. The Maple Creek branch of the Royal Bank closed during the depression in 1931, and the building was purchased by the Bank of Montreal (which had been up until then operating out of the former saloon at the Commercial Hotel). The Bank of Montreal operated out of 114 Jasper Street until they moved to their current location in 1952. The second floor of the building housed professional offices and accommodations for bank employees. Circa 1949, a young lawyer by the name of W.R. Orr opened an office on the second floor. He was partners with Arthur Burnett who had opened Maple Creek’s first law office in 1903. Arthur Burnett’s office was across the street on the second floor of the Parsons Block (where the Bel Air Gardens building stands today). When the Bank of Montreal vacated 114 Jasper Street in 1952, Burnett & Orr purchased the building a consolidated their law offices on the building’s main floor. After Mr. Burnett left the practice, Mr. Orr operated the law office up until his death in 2005. On April 1st, 2006, his family donated the building and its contents to the S.W. Sask. Oldtimers’ Museum. Today, many of the original furnishings of both the Union Bank of Canada & the Burnett & Orr law office can still be seen within the building, including the original bank vault
