The face of commerce has changed in Montgomery over the past 50 years with the disappearance of many of the small-town establishments and the subsequent replacement by larger city businesses and chains. Most of the businesses were staffed and owned by Montgomery residents.
Originally, the town activity was centred around the “The Stores”, a strip mall on Bowness Road between 45 and 46 Streets built in the early 1950s. Prior to the advent of the chain supermarkets in every community, a small but well-stocked grocery store played an integral part of a small town. The Planidin brothers supplied Montgomery with such a grocery store and also operated Planidin’s Furniture Store and a Hardware Store, where residents could find just about everything from plumbing and electrical supplies to fishing and firearms stock. Although illegal, the Planidins kept their stores open on Sundays!
At various times the mall has also contained a Royal Bank, a clothing store, the New Way convenience store (which everyone called Nancy’s), the Golden West restaurant, Cecil’s drugstore, Nick’s barbershop, a laundromat, a gift/clothing store, a hairdresser, and a chiropractor.
On the opposite side of the street, next to the Mohawk Service Station was Pete’s Barber Shop where he clipped thousands of locks of hair in the same location. Steve Omilusik (Steve the Shoemaker) was known for his creative and cheap shoe innovations. For example, when fixing work boots, Steve would create new heels and soles from an old tire. Apparently, these would last about ten years!
In 1958, Safeway opened a store at the corner of Home Road between Bowness Road and 16 Avenue. Several service stations were located in Montgomery, including a Purity 99 owned by Eldon Hoffman who drove one of the first tow trucks in Montgomery. A convenience store on 16 Avenue (Wyldman’s Store), was owned by one of the mayors of Montgomery. Mayor LeBaron and his family owned and operated a lumberyard that produced many of the town’s homes.
A bakery occupied a place in the strip mall by the Safeway. In 1966 Nick Zahara (Nick the Barber) opened Foothills Barbershop at 4618 Bowness Road and operated there until 1995. In the 1970s, Dairy Queen, still serving ice cream in the same location, opened an outlet across from Safeway.
Ellen Terstappen operated the Speedskate Cellar in Montgomery. Allan’s Flowers, owned and operated by Pat and Gary Cull, has been in operation in Montgomery since 1975. The store has survived two different car crashes through the window! Alnashir and Nasim opened Nasim’s Restaurant on 16 Avenue in 2004. They owned and operated a restaurant in Kenya before moving to Canada. Their living quarters were above the restaurant. That was common in years past, when many business owners lived next to, or above their establishments.
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