A new book detailing a walking tour of Yorkton's downtown was unveiled Friday.
"It's a story of the old downtown of Yorkton," said Terri Lefebvre Prince, Heritage Researcher with the City of Yorkton, and author of the book.
Lefebvre Prince said having a history book for walker's is not unusual for a city, but added she tried to take Yorkton's book further in terms of content.
"This book is a little more detailed than other downtown books I've seen," she said.
The book is one Lefebvre Prince said the City's Municipal Heritage Commission hopes will enhance people's visits to the downtown.
"We're trying to get people to go back to the downtown as it was in the '20s and in the '40s," she said, adding the book helps people "learn the architectural story of these buildings, and the corporate history."
Lefebvre Prince said the corporate history of the city is an interesting one. She said immigrants from Ontario and British "brought money with them, or knew how to borrow money," and they built brick buildings "which meant permanency."
Where possible the people behind the buildings are included in some detail in the book.
The information for the book was gleaned predominantly from two major sources.
"Most of it's from the City of Yorkton Archives and from the Civic Archives," she said, adding each department has its own records. "Those civic records are important.
"You need both public and civic sources to do the work properly."
For example the public record is likely to have old photographs of buildings, but when it comes to knowing who built them, or owned them at different times, one needs to look at the civic records, said Lefebvre Prince.
"To date when buildings were built you probably will have to look at the civic archives," she said.
The new book will be available at City Hall and the offices of Tourism Yorkton.
