Gorging on pastries: Former Yellowknifer shares stories from demolished downtown building

As the demolition of a historic building on Yellowknife's 50th Street got underway this weekend, locals may have been thinking fondly of its most recent guest, theFat Fox Caf.

But the structure next to the SaigonSmoke Shop and Gold Range Hotel hasbeen standing since the1950s.On Facebook, people reminisced about how it used to be aperogyhouse, and a great place to run into friends.

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One former resident, Lynn Carrier, used to live on the building's second floor in the late 1950s and 1960swhile her family ran The Yellowknife Bakery below.

"We baked the best bread anywhere," she said. "I still have people saying they wish they could get my dad's bread."

Building has changed over time

Back in those days, Carrier's father the baker would start work at 3 a.m. Her mother would spend the day delivering the bread around town while Carrier and her brother were "free to roam," she said.

When her family first moved into the building, it looked much different.

"Shortly after we moved in, my dad extended the back of the building and put another warehouse there for the flour," said Carrier. "Then he totally renovated the second floor so we had a really nice house over there."

Carrier remembers her bedroom overlooking the back roof, where she and her brother would throw stale bread to the seagulls in the summer.

Gorging onpastries

Sometimes, late at night, she'd bring people downstairs to raid the kitchen freezers.

"They would gorge themselves on pastries, and then everybody was kind of sick the next day," Carrier laughed.

But her parents didn't mind.

"They got a kick out of it," she said.

Carrier, who now lives in Edmonton, said she likes to go back and visit places where she used to live, butshe hasn't been back to Yellowknife since about 1995.

"I'm really sorry to hear that the old building's going to be demolished," she said.

As for the building's most recent guests, they said by email they are proud of what they achieved there.

"That chapter definitely feels closed and we're very excited about planning our next," said Emma Atkinson, who managed the Fat Fox Caf.

With files from Lawrence Nayally