Buildings that existed in Notsukeushi in the past
Kitami City, Hokkaido, was established in 1942 when Notsukeushi Town was incorporated as a city.
In 1956, Kitami City merged with Ainonai Village.
50 years later, in 2006, Kitami City merged with Rubeshibe Town, Tanno Town, and Tokoro Town to form the current Kitami City.
I found the “Notsukeushi Town History" (published in 1927) and the “Directory of Notsukeushi 1933" (published in 1933) in the National Diet Library Digital Collection. They contained photos of buildings from those times, so I’m writing this article as a preliminary study for making pop-up cards.
The first photo is the Notsukeushi Transportation and Track Maintenance Office.
It was built by the then (government’s) Railway Bureau in 1920.
In 1949, it was renamed Kitami General Office of Asahikawa Railway and continued to use, but was demolished in 1983. A monument was erected at the site.
The next photo shows Notsukeushi Station.
Notsukegyu Station was opened in 1911. The station was reconstructed in 1935, so this photo shows the station building before the reconstruction.
The name of the station was changed to Kitami Station in 1942.
The next photo is titled “Ichijo Street” and does not include the name of the building, but another source has identified it as the Notsukeushi Branch of Nemuro Bank.
This branch was opened in May 1913, but was destroyed by fire the following year, and this building was built in 1921. It was later merged into Yasuda Bank in 1923.
I could not find out how long the building was in use, but the same building is listed in the 1957 issue of the Kitami City History as the “Kitami Branch of Fuji Bank". It seems that Fuji Bank purchased the building in 1954.
This is the Notsukeushi Branch of the Hokkaido Takushoku Bank.
It was opened in September 1917.
However, this building was apparently built in 1924.
As of 1957, this building was named “Kitami Branch of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank,” but I could not find out what happened to it after that.
Although there are no photos of this building, the Notsukeushi Branch of Juni Bank was also newly established in 1920.
The Notsukeushi District Court was built in 1929.
It was renamed the Kitami Branch of the Kushiro District Court in 1947, but I have not been able to find out how long this building remained in use.
The next photo shows Notsukeushi Girls Vocational School.
Notsukeushi Girls Vocational School was opened in 1923.
However, when the school first opened, classes were held in two classrooms at the Chuo Elementary School, and the school moved to the old Notsukeushi-nishi Elementary School building the following year. At that time, there were about 200 students, and the town immediately planned to build a new school building.
Construction was completed in March 1926, and the school building shown in the photo was built.
In 1934, the name of the school was changed to Notsukushi Town High School for Girls, and in 1936, it was renamed Notsukushi Town Girls’ High School.
In 1942, Notsukeushi Town became Kitami city, so the name was changed again to Hokkaido Government Kitami High School for Girls, and then to Kitami Girls’ High School in 1948.
I could not find out how long the school building remained in use, but the school itself became coeducational in 1950 and continues to exist today as Kitami Hakuyo High School.
The last building is Notsukegushi Town Office.
On May 23, 1932, a fire destroyed the Notsukeushi Town Office at that time.
After that, the town office of this photo was newly built in 1938.
After Kitami City was established in 1942, it was used as Kitami City Office until 1955, when a new city office building was constructed.
After that, the building was used by Fuji High School as a temporary school building until December 1957, but I couldn’t find out how long the building existed.
The new Kitami City Office, built in 1955, was demolished in 2011 and no longer exists.
These are the photos of the seven buildings I introduced above, and I am planning to choose some of them to make a pop-up card.
[Reference] (all written in Japanese)
“Notsukeushi Town History” (Notsukeushi Town History Compilation Committee / Notsukeushi Town, Tokoro County / 1927)
“Directory of Notsukeushi 1933” (Directory of Notsukeushi Publisher / 1933)
“The Sixtieth Anniversary of Yasuda Bank” (The Sixtieth Anniversary of Yasuda Bank Memorial Project Committee / Yasuda Bank / 1940)
“The Seventieth Anniversary of Fuji Bank” (The Seventieth Anniversary of Fuji Bank Memorial Project Committee / Fuji Bank / 1940)
“Kitami City History” (Takeo Ando / Kitami City/ 1957)
“Hokkaido Development and Architecture, vol.2" (Hokkaido Architects Association / Hokkaido / 1987)