The first big step has been taken in the project to restore an old police barracks and turn it into a living prohibition interpretive centre.

For the past few years, The Crowsnest Pass Historical Society has been working hard to restore the Alberta Provincial Police Barracks Building in Coleman. Last Wednesday, a sod-turning event was held for the new rear addition to the historic building.

One of the most historically significant buildings in the Pass, the barracks was the site of the shooting of Constable Stephen Lawson in 1922, which led to the hanging of Emilio Picariello and Florence “Filumena” Losandro. It was the culmination of a prohibition conflict between bootleggers and law officials and was the first and only time a woman was executed in Alberta.

The barracks will be the site of a new exhibit, which will explore this crime and trial in future detail along with stories about the Alberta Provincial Police, the prohibition area and rum running.

“The exhibit that’s going in there will be a top-notch world class exhibit,” said Crowsnest Museum manager Chris Mathews. “It’ll be another feather in the cap of Crowsnest Pass tourism.”

The project is expected to cost about $760,000.

A Canada 150 Infrastructure Program and other grants will cover some of the cost. The Crowsnest Historical Society is launching a fundraising campaign to raise $398,000 over the next two years.

“We will be aggressively pursuing fundraising for the project and hope to raise the money externally,” Fred Bradley, chair of the Crowsnest Historical Society, told the Herald in May.

A Calgary firm, Westwind Design and Display, has won the contract to develop a permanent exhibit in the barracks while work on both the interior and exterior of the building will be awarded to local contractors. The building’s roof, chimney and foundation have already been restored.

The APP barracks was built by the international Coke and Coal Company and eventually leased to the provincial police. It acted as barracks, office space, jail and living space for Constable Lawson and his family.