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Coming Together in 2021
INFORMATION & visitor centre
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The hub of resources, programs, and services for all ages in our vibrant and growing community! Join us in celebrating 13 years!! Phone: 306-242-0362 • Email: martensvilleinfo@sasktel.net
YOUR ONE STOP SHOP FOR:
• Local community resources • Answers to questions about your community • Services to connect people, businesses and organizations • Programs for all ages
CURRENT RESOURCES:
• Community information • Community event information and promotion • Prairie Sky Chamber of Commerce information • Local business card display • Local job bank and rental postings • Public computers & internet access • Essential skills, education and career information • Resources for families, children, youth, adults and seniors • Local daycare & babysitter lists • Volunteer opportunities
CURRENT PROGRAMS:
1 on 1 Personalized Computer and Technology Sessions Complementary Income Tax Program
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Canada Day in Martensville Celebration (July 1st)
GET INVOLVED:
Drop in to the Centre, come out to our events or join one of our programs!
Participate! • Volunteer! • Contribute! • Spread the word! • Share ideas! • Ask questions!
Need a hand to prepare your tax return?
Do you need help preparing 2022 taxes? The Martensville Information & Visitor Centre continues to run the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program. Volunteers can assist you to prepare your income tax. Please contact us to find out more information at 306-242-0362 or email us at martensvilleinfo@sasktel.net
NEW THIS YEAR:
Online Programing Platform – We have been hard at work creating an online programing platform to better serve the residents in the community with opportunities such as: 1-on-1 Computers & Technology, Storybags & Mathbags, Baby Babble & Toddler Talk Parent Group, guest speakers for special seminar topics and more.
Seeds of Wellness (Full Circle Giving) – We are very excited to announce the new direction we are heading as we continue the Resource & Learning Centre. We will be expanding into a Food Bank & Gleaning Goods and Products Program for our local community and area. Gleaning is reaping what is left over after harvest or obtaining produce to products and necessities such as diapers, hygiene products, clothing or other necessary items among much more. It will be a program focused on collecting information and objects from various sources and re-dispersing.
HISTORY of Martensville
Martensville’s history begins in 1939, when Isaac Martens and his son Dave, purchased land twelve kilometres north of Saskatoon. Dave Martens then sold three small parcels of this land to a number of people who wanted to move out of Saskatoon. Although, most Saskatchewan towns began around an elevator and railway for grain handling; Martensville however began around a school for the area children. In 1953, Dave Martens succeeded in getting permission from the Saskatchewan Government to move an unused one room school onto property donated by another local farmer, Jake Gerbrandt Sr. This property is presently the site of the Martensville Civic Centre.
The school was attractive to people wanting to move out of Saskatoon and soon they began to purchase property from Mr. Martens (north of present-day Main Street) and eventually, Mr. Gerbrandt (south of Main Street). By 1961, the population scattered on Mr. Martens land was sufficient to form a hamlet.
In 1938, Peter F. Hiebert had purchased a business to serve the residents that lived in the area. The Avenue “A” Service Station was located on the old, graveled #12 highway, which was, at the time, an extension of Saskatoon’s Avenue A (current Idylwyld Dr.), where the Martensville Restaurant currently sits on Centennial Drive North. The original building burned down in 1958 and the business was rebuilt, and the name was changed to Martensville Shop-Rite – providing a wide variety of services such as; the first postoffice, groceries, toys, candy, ice cream, all weather footwear, clothing, records, coffee-shop with take-out options, gas, vehicle repairs and maintenance, vehicle towing, hardware, fishing/hunting licenses, utility payments and more. In 1961, when Martensville was named as a hamlet, the Avenue “A” Service Station officially became the first business in the community and Peter, along with his wife Kay and their family, provided service to the area until 1975.
Mennonite churches were two of Martensville’s first buildings. In 1954, a building was moved onto Mr. Gerbrandt’s land to become the Bergthaler Mennonite Church. In 1959, Saskatoon’s old North Park one room school was moved to the hamlet to become the Martensville Mennonite Mission Church.
In 1966, the population of Martensville had outgrown its hamlet status and applied to become incorporated as a village. Harry (Henry) Baycroft was elected by the 784 residents as overseer (term for mayor at that time) of Martensville as it attained village status. He and Councillors Gordon Unrau and Peter Fehr served for the 3 years Martensville was a village, 1966-1968.
Martensville had been unincorporated until this time with no restrictions regarding the types of housing allowed or where they were placed and because of this, many substandard houses had been moved in from Saskatoon and neighbouring communities. During the village years, bylaws and housing regulations were introduced and enforced and subdivisions were developed. About 27 houses were removed and 47 building permits were issued while the village grew to a population of over 1000 with over half under the age of 18. What had been considered a distant suburb of Saskatoon now became a bedroom community.
Within three years, Martensville grew from a village to a town (1969) and soon after, infrastructure began to arrive, except electricity, which was here before there was any type of settlement. Gas was brought to the town in 1970 and sewer and water followed in 1976. In 1975, Centennial Drive was the first street to be paved, and was originally done by the Department of Highways. The next street to be paved was 3rd Avenue South in 1980. In 2009, Martensville was granted city status and currently has a population of approximately 11,000.
