07/16/2026
Happy 104th Birthday to our building! 🎉🎉
In the summer of 1922, young pharmacist Matthew Maybank led a wagon of bricks and mortar up an empty street in Olds that no longer looked or felt familiar. Not to him, and not to anyone else.
The air was heavy; the acrid remains of burned wood and charcoal still caught on the prairie breeze. The bustling wooden sidewalks and thriving storefronts were gone. In their place lay twisted metal, broken glass, and melted rubber clumped into shadowy silhouettes. This was the road of broken dreams.
The heavy hush that fell over the Olds business district after the inferno was still there, waiting for someone to return. Matthew was that someone. He was the first to come back, taking an incredible risk. His insurance fell thousands of dollars short of what a rebuild would cost, meaning his entire life savings were piled right there on that wagon.
But he took those bricks and built a new dream—a building that wouldn't catch fire instantly. He set a new standard that inspired others to return. Within a few short years, the Olds business district was completely rebuilt with brick and stone instead of wood. New dreams. New hopes.
In 1980, Matthew's grandson sold the building to Leon Durand, owner of RIPS, and this year we celebrate its 104th birthday. Next time you're in RIPS, stop and take a look at the building itself. You are standing on a foundation built on a dream for the future—one that has held over a century of local innovation. 🧱✨
