Strathmore Insurance Office

William Goffrier built this little office in Strathmore in 1908, and from it, conducted a multitude of businesses: insurance sales, a farm implement dealership and a real estate business. While it didn’t become a dedicated insurance agency until 1926, there is little doubt of its importance, given the fact that early prairie communities and farms were extremely susceptible to damage from natural disasters.

Hail, windstorms, floods and other inclement weather conditions could strike with little warning and ruin what otherwise could have been a bumper crop of grain. And there was little townsfolk could do to halt the spread of fire, since they were armed only with buckets, wet blankets and possibly a small, horse-drawn fire engine. In 1970, Richard A. Coldwell donated the building to Heritage Park, which restored it to represent a typical pre-1915 insurance agency.