Incorporated 1903

By the 1880s, the lonely land north of the Cypress Hills seemed on the threshold of a new vitality. The buffalo were disappearing, the ranch herds arriving. The old order of the nomads was yielding to the settlers. When the railway stretched its weary way into the region in 1883, the Medicine Hat story began.

The Cypress Club was created by an ordinance of the North West Territories Assembly assented to on November 21, 1903.

On Nov. 30 in the offices of the Medicine Hat Times, officers of the Cypress Club were chosen. F. L. Crawford became president, D. G. White was made secretary-treasurer, and A. J. Day, William Cousins, W. T. Finlay, F. O. Sissons, C. S. Pingle, and A. W. Kealy were chosen to form the club’s first board.

Its charter members were prominent in the business and political affairs of Medicine Hat since its establishment as a railway town site in 1883. William Cousins arrived in Medicine Hat in May of 1883, where he established a general store. He was later to become one of Medicine Hat's major land developers and served as the Mayor of Medicine Hat in 1907-8.

The Cypress Club was one of a number of clubs created for social purposes Alberta's major urban communities during the boom years prior to World War One. The oldest such clubs are the Ranchman's Club, established in Calgary in 1899 and the Edmonton Club established in the same year. Other southern Alberta social clubs include the Chinook Club, Lethbridge, established in 1901, the MacLeod Club established in 1903, the Alberta Club of the City of Calgary, established in 1904 and the High River and Pincher Clubs, both which were established in 1906.

These social clubs were made of up the business and professional elite of their respective communities. The type of accommodation provided by these various organizations varied with the size of the community. The Cypress, Ranchman's and Edmonton Clubs constructed the most elaborate facilities during this era. This building, therefore, represents an import facet in the social development of Alberta's pre World War One urban communities.

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