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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-122-8 Details and BIG Picture | Edmonton Hotel (Built: 1876) Donald Ross`s Edmonton Hotel was a popular community gathering place during the settlement`s early days, and soon Donald had to build this three-storey addition. Public meetings were sometimes held here to discuss such current issues as hiring a school teacher or deciding to incorporate Edmonton as a town. At other times, it was simply a popular spot for an evening`s entertainment over a game of pool or billiards. When times were hectic at the hotel, even the billiard tables were used as extra beds. One morning a guest complained at having to pay 50 cents for such a night`s accommodation. His host obligingly offered to let him pay the usual billiard table rate instead, 75 cents an hour. Or if he preferred, he could move on to the next hotel - in Portage la Prairie. The hotel burned down in 1925 and today a park bench and a concrete replica of the old fireplace, made of river clay and Saskatoon bushes, marks the original site of Edmonton`s "pioneer house of entertainment" and serves as a memorial to its convivial landlord. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-10-596 Details and BIG Picture | Jasper House Hotel (Built: 1882) Edmonton`s second hotel was the Jasper House, shown here as it looked in 1890. It was built on the north side of Jasper Avenue, just east of 97 Street, in 1882 by James Goodridge (1852-1900) to replace his earlier boarding house. The hotel business has flourished there ever since, although the building has undergone extensive alterations, eventually becoming the Hub Hotel. For many years, Jasper House was Edmonton`s first and only brick building. Besides offering accommodation, food and drink, the hotel was used as temporary business quarters for newly arrived entrepreneurs, such as Emanuel Raymer, jeweller, and J.C.F. Bowen, lawyer and later Alberta`s Lieutenant-Governor. As well as being the headquarters for the Edmonton-Calgary stagecoach and a meeting place for many early sports clubs, it was home to the Goodridge family. The upstairs door with the treacherous landing was used for getting furniture up to the second floor. It was over fourteen years before a balcony was added. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-180-1 Details and BIG Picture | Imperial Bank of Canada (Photo: 1891) Opening in 1891, this was the bank`s first Edmonton branch and the first bank between Calgary and the Arctic Circle. The building was formerly a saloon occupied by Donald Ross. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-180-2 Details and BIG Picture | Imperial Bank of Canada (Photo: 1893) Do you know this building? Were you ever there? Do you know its history? Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EB-14-39 Details and BIG Picture | General Hospital (Built: 1895) Before 1895, Edmonton doctors had to send their patients to the small hospital operated by the Grey Nuns at the St. Albert Mission, and the doctors had to traverse the rough nine-mile trail there and back each time they visited their patients. Around 1893, six Edmonton doctors urged the Mission authorities to build a new hospital closer to the centre of population emerging in Edmonton. The Grey Nuns soon purchased a whole block from the Hudson`s Bay Company for $2,300 and began plans for their $30,000 36-bed General Hospital which, when it opened, was one of the largest and most expensive buildings in town, offering a splendid view from its attic balconies. A stable was built at the back of the hospital to accommodate the horses of the staff and visitors. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-500-260 Details and BIG Picture | McDougall Mansion (Built: 1898) One of Edmonton`s best examples of Late Victorian residential architecture was built in 1898 by the prominent pioneer businessman, John A. McDougall. A founder of McDougall and Secord Ltd., Mr. McDougall also served as Mayor of Edmonton and Provincial M.L.A. As one of the first elegant mansions in Edmonton, the McDougall estate also included expansive lawns, formal gardens, stables, and a tennis court. The McDougalls were often hosts to tennis matches and formal entertainment in the city`s higher social circles. The family resided in the mansion until 1946 when the I.O.D.E. purchased it for a veterans` children`s shelter. In 1968 the YWCA took possession of the mansion and operated a women`s rehabilitation center until 1974, when the house was demolished for the new YWCA building. An arch at the entrance of the YWCA commemorates the old mansion. Share your stories with us |
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 Misericordia Hospital: 85 years of service in Edmonton MH-096-001 Details and BIG Picture | Misericordia Maternity Hospital (Opened: 1900) The Maternity Hospital of the Misericordia Sisters, 1900. This building was originally a warehouse used by the Edmonton firm of Norris and Carey who operated a general store in the area. It was purchased and remodelled by the St. Albert Diocese for use by the Sisters. The utility pole carried the telephone line between St. Albert and Edmonton. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-10-865 Details and BIG Picture | Public Hospital on Boyle Street (Opened: 1900) Opened in December, 1900, the hospital had three private rooms, one public ward and a dispensary on the ground floor. The operating room was on the second floor, along with five private rooms, one public ward and a bath. The first superintendant, Miss Jessie Turnbull, received $35 a month as a salary. Patients were charged $1 a day or $6 a week for a bed in a public ward, and $2 a day or $12 a week for a private room. Many patients could not afford to pay and the hospital had difficulty collecting the fees, so it began to demand a deposit before a patient would be admitted. Medicare was still far in the future! In 1901, the verandah was added, plus an annex to provide a new kitchen and an isolation ward for infectious diseases. The Public Hospital was in operation until 1912, when it was replaced by the new Royal Alexandra Hospital, now known as the Glenrose. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-10-1787 Details and BIG Picture | Baalim Block (Built: 1902) The Baalim Block (photo - right) was built in 1902 by Arthur George Baalim, who arrived in Edmonton in the spring of 1900. The facade of the building featured cast iron elements as decoration, rarely used on buildings of that time in Edmonton. Destroyed by fire in 2003. Share your stories with us |
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City of Edmonton Archives EA-10-1787 Details and BIG Picture | Duncan Block (Built: 1902) The historic Duncan Block (photo - center), housing Alberts family restaurant, the adjacent 101-year-old Baalim Block and a one-storey wooden building constructed early in the 20th century were destroyed by fire in 2003. The Duncan Block and the one-storey building directly to the north, added sometime later, were built with a technique called balloon framing. The technique called for supporting walls framed at 16 inch intervals by two-by-four inch wood beams atop floors supported by two-by-10 wooden joists. Insulation, meagre as it was, was likely paper, sawdust and cardboard. Balloon framing provides fire with a straight run up to roof between the inner and outer walls, meaning that once fire takes hold within the walls, it can spread in a matter of minutes. The Duncan Block was where Albert Assali opened his first pancake house in 1962. From this first location, Assali built his Alberts Family Restaurant to become a franchised chain, with two dozen locations around Alberta. The history of the buildings that were lost will never be replaced, but the spirit of them will endure, just as Old Strathcona endured against all odds 30 years ago. The ensuing rejuvenation propelled by so many citizens who knew it was something special and those who have come to love the old in Strathcona, are a guarantee the replacement buildings will respect the past and build on it. Share your stories with us |
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 Provincial Archives of Alberta B445n Details and BIG Picture | Thistle Rink (Built: 1903) The Thistle Rink, home of the Edmonton Thistles hockey team, was located on 2nd Street (now 102nd Street) and 102 Avenue, behind the King Edward Hotel (now Manulife Centre). It was destroyed in a spectacular fire in October, 1913. In 1906 it was the site of first sitting of the Alberta Legislature. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EB-14-107 Details and BIG Picture | Cristall House (Photo: 1903) J. St. Clair Blackett moved into this house on Victoria Avenue in 1912, but remained here for only five years. Mr. Blackett was managing director of Alberta Agencies Ltd., an insurance, real estate, financial and steamship ticket agency. In 1921, Abraham Cristall, founder of Edmonton`s Jewish community, bought this house for $45,000.00. A prominent business man, Mr. Cristall was best known as the proprietor of a men`s clothing store, the Cristall Palace. The Cristall family sold the house in 1958, and it stood vacant until 1966. It was demolished c.1969, along with the old Mayflower Apartments for the construction of the present Mayflower Apartment building, completed in 1971. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EB-14-140 Details and BIG Picture | McDonald and Lessard Homes (Photo: 1903) Do you know this building? Were you ever there? Do you know its history? Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-500-121 Details and BIG Picture | Alberta Hotel (Built: 1903) The Alberta Hotel was built in 1903 by Fred Jackson and Del Grierson at a cost of $55,000. This was one of the best hotels in Edmonton and was not surpassed until the enlargement of the King Edward Hotel in 1910 and the construction of the MacDonald Hotel in 1914. The architect was James Wize, who also designed the McLean Block. The hotel is considered to be an important Edmonton landmark and is one of the few remaining structures built before Edmonton`s incorporation as a City in 1904. The hotel is constructed of brick and stone in the Victorian Romanesque style. The corner tower, stone stringcourses, rusticated base and detailing suggest a Richardsonian Romanesque influence, and reflect a hybrid of styles. Details which give the structure a picturesque, castle-like character include the round-arched windows on the second floor, segmentally-arched windows on the third floor, stone voussoirs and stringcourses, and the conical corner tower. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-500-125 Details and BIG Picture | Windsor Hotel (Opened: 1903) With its taxi team standing ready, the Windsor Hotel sits alone at the southwest corner of Jasper Avenue and 101 Street. To add to the comfort of guests, whose arrivals were announced daily in the newspapers, a local beer wagon pulls up for another delivery of barrels for the popular barroom inside. The 40-room hotel was formally opened on February 9, 1903. On July 1, 1913, Robert McDonald, who was owner of the Yale Hotel since 1911, bought the Windsor Hotel and the Windsor Block next door for $500,000. A month later he changed the name to the Hotel Selkirk. He did extensive renovations on it and when it officially opened on (November 10, 1913,)he advertised 100 guest rooms, as the renovations included extending the hotel into the Windsor Block on the second and third floors. In 1950, additions were made to increase the capacity to 97 rooms. Though modest in size, the hotel was a very popular meeting place, particularly with the sports set, due to its central location, convenience to taxis, comfortable pub and classy basement restaurant known as Johnson`s Cafe. The well-worn landmark was severely damaged by fire on December 18, 1962, and was consequently demolished the following September to make way for the Royal Bank of Canada tower. A replica of the hotel was built from the original blueprints and stands in Fort Edmonton Park. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-500-104 Details and BIG Picture | Alberta College (Built: 1904) The institution was formed in 1903, by Rev. T.C. Buchanan to fulfill the will of pioneer Rev. George McDougall, who stated that part of his land was to be devoted to education. This original building opened in November, 1904, and the adjoining 50-room addition was erected the following summer in time for Bulyea`s inauguration day visit. This first building, along with otheres built on this site in 1926, 1950, 1951 and 1959, served growing numbers of students, who took courses in academic, commercial and musical disciplines, until it was finally demolished in 1961 to make way for the new administration building which opened in 1964. Share your stories with us |
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 EA-10-604 Details and BIG Picture | King Edward Hotel (Built: 1904) The King Edward Hotel was built in 1904 with additions in 1908 and 1940s. The architect was M.A. Magoon. It acquired an addition in 1910 that allowed it to surpass the Alberta Hotel as Edmonton's leading hotel. It was located on 1st Street (now 101st Street) and 102nd Avenue and burned to the ground in 1982 to be replaced by the ManuLife Building. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-267-251 Details and BIG Picture | Empire Block (Built: 1905) The Empire Block was constructed in 1905 by McDougall and Secord, Ltd. as an office and retail building. Liggett`s Owl Drugs Company Ltd. occupied most of the main floor while the upper three floors were reserved for offices. In 1942, a fire severely damaged the building, but it reopened three months later. In 1962, the old Empire Building was torn down by the McDougall-Secord Company to make room for the new 11-storey Empire Building completed in 1963. The McDougall-Secord Company continues to maintain offices at this site. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-160-863 Details and BIG Picture | C.N. Station (Built: 1905) The original Canadian Northern Railway Station, built in 1905 west of 101 Street and demolished in 1952, was replaced by the Canadian National Express Office parking lot. (In 1925, Canadian Northern merged with other railways to become Canadian National Railways.) In 1928 the new Canadian National Railways Building was constructed east of the old station, and in 1948, a third storey was added because of increased railway business. This station was demolished in 1964 for the CN Tower, constructed in 1966. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-341-10 Details and BIG Picture | Shaw House (Photo: circa 1906) Do you know this building? Were you ever there? Do you know its history? Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-500-151 Details and BIG Picture | Federal Penitentiary (Built: 1906) Opened in 1906 with Matthew McCauley as Chief Warden, Edmonton`s federal penitentiary served as the holding place for outlaws and criminals for 15 years. In 1924, after three years of vacancy, the building became a warehouse. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-551-8 Details and BIG Picture | Misericordia Hospital (Opened: 1906) Like a dignified Victorian dowager, the Misericordia Hospital stands impressively in the bush at 98 Avenue and 111 Street. The Roman Catholic Sisters of Misericorde ("compassion"), ministering mainly to unwed mothers, opened a house shelter on this site in 1900. In 1904, a maternity hospital was added. The new 60-bed hospital opened in March, 1906, and after successive additions in 1922, 1939 and 1955, it reached a final capacity of 400 beds. Edmonton`s third oldest hospital closed its 63 years of service when the new 550-bed Misericordis Hospital opened on 1969. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-190-3 Details and BIG Picture | Edmonton Club (Built: 1906) The Edmonton Club is the City`s oldest private club, established in 1899. In 1906, this organization constructed its exclusive businessmen`s luncheon club at a cost of $22,000. A few years after its construction, the building was altered significantly with the addition of a third storey and mansard roof. The interior displayed subdued elegance with finely moulded mahogany and oak panels. The second floor featured a large billiard room, dining room, card rooms, and a balcony which faced the river valley. The club operated until 1967, and in 1968 Alberta Government Telephones demolished the building for the construction of the AGT Tower, completed in 1971. The Edmonton Club reopened in a new building just south of its former site. Share your stories with us |
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 EA-275-812 Details and BIG Picture | Cecil Hotel (Built: 1906) The 97-year-old Cecil sat empty since January of 2003 when officials from the fire department and the Capital Health Authority cited the tavern and rooming house for sanitation and fire-code violations. Ironically, the Cecil started life as one of Edmonton's finest hostelries. Designed by noted local architect Roland Lines, the hotel opened in 1906. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-500-149 Details and BIG Picture | Alberta Sanitarium (Secured: 1907) It is fitting that this new country, this lusty young city of Edmonton, should boast of one of these institutions for the promotion of health and the general good. The Alberta Sanitarium was organized in March 1904. A new location was sought but not until 1907 was a suitable place found when the splendid site on Third street was secured. Treatments are given in hydrotheraphy, electricity, and massage. An up-to date operating room, a Finsen Ray machine, sparays and electric light baths are being installed and are a considerable addition to the sanitarium. The institution is receiving not only the patronage of the best of Edmonton`s citizens, but has constantly on its list patients living in the towns and country in various parts of the province. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-9-163 Details and BIG Picture | Secord Mansion (Built: 1907) Richard Secord, pioneer Edmonton businessman, built this mansion in 1907. A family association with La Rochelle, France inspired him to name the house "Chateau Rochelle". It was designed by Henry Johnson, who was the architect for the McDougall Mansion. This Regency-style home was richly furnished with intricate ceiling mouldings, gold leaf, bleached mahogany, maple and oak. Venetian lace curtains graced the windows in the drawing room, and paintings from Europe adorned the walls. The Secord family occupied the house from 1908 until the death of Mrs. Secord in 1951. In that year the house was purchased by the City, and the Edmonton Art Gallery had its home there from 1952 to 1967. The City then sold the house to developers in 1967, and in 1968 it was demolished to make way for Secord House apartments. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-180-3 Details and BIG Picture | Imperial Bank of Canada (Built: 1907) This Neo-Classical style "temple" was built in 1907 on the site of Edmonton`s first bank, situated here since 1892. Built at a cost of $90,000, the new sandstone structure displayed an elegant marble interior and porcelain tile floor. An interesting feature was its special room for women customers who wished to deposit their real estate gains without the knowledge of their husbands. The second floor housed the offices of a law firm, and the third floor was reserved for bank clerk living quarters. In 1950, the building was demolished to make room for the present six storey Imperial Bank, constructed in 1952. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-500-148 Details and BIG Picture | Y.M.C.A. (Opened: 1908) The Edmonton YMCA was instituted by an act of Legislature in 1907, three years after Edmonton became a city. The original building officially opened in 1908 and offered a swimming pool, employment bureau, education classes, bible study, a gymnasium, running track, and residence. It was started by a group of prominent Edmontonians like Alex Rutherford and John A. McDougall, who helped raise nearly $28,000 to begin construction of a YMCA building. The Edmonton YMCA has grown concurrently with the City of Edmonton, and they have mutually supported each others` growth and development; the YMCA through its programs and services, and the City through working with the Y on capital projects. The first YMCA building was replaced in the 1950`s with the current Downtown Y building Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-500-16 Details and BIG Picture | Transit Hotel (Built: 1908) When built, the boomtown structure went up in an area known informally as Packingtown, due to the proximity of the J.Y. Griffin and Burns meat packing plants. The Transit`s exterior no longer sports its original styling. The two-storey verandah and the finialed roof line are gone. The wood siding is covered with stucco. One storey additions have been built onto the north and east faces. Little remains of its original interior decor, save for doors and trim, decorative radiators and the old boiler. When Patrick Dwyer bought the land it sits on in 1907 along with another 198 lots in the same area, he paid $3,000. The area is still known as the Dwyer subdivision. The hotel itself cost another $50,000. In September 1908, under the headline, "New hotel in Packing-town," The Edmonton Bulletin reviewed the Transit`s credentials. "The Transit Hotel, the commodious new hostelry that will supply the hotel accommodations for Edmonton`s thriving suburb commonly known as Packingtown opened to the public on Friday last." The watering hole measured 32 by 80 feet, had 40 bedrooms and the two upper flats were provided with lavatories and bathrooms. The first floor featured a roomy rotunda, office, a dining room and a kitchen. The hotel was built with electricity and was supplied with hot and cold running water. Share your stories with us |
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 Provincial Archives of Alberta B4220n Details and BIG Picture | Arlington Apartment (Built: 1909) It was a grand event the week Edmonton's first apartment building officially opened at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Sixth Street. "Edmonton's most modern and up-to-date residential apartment," proclaimed the Saturday News on November 6, 1909. That was the beginning, more than 95 years ago. The end came the morning of April 5, 2005, when a catastrophic fire left the five-storey red brick building at 100th Avenue and 106th Street just a barren shell of blackened bricks. It's a huge loss for Edmonton history. The Arlington was an exceptional example of early apartment architecture. The five-storey, 150-foot wide brick structure was distinguished by a bold dentilled cornice at the roof level, with stone keystones and sills at the windows. From the grand arched entranceway, with "499 Arlington" etched into marble (which refers to the building's former address at 499 Victoria Avenue), to hardwood floors, abundant windows and funky fixtures, the building brimmed with turn-of-the-century character. Its 49 suites boasted such features as retractable "Murphy beds (which pulled down from the wall), china cabinets, a bookcase and writing cabinets. Constructed by Winnipeg contractor Robert Grant, the Edwardian-influenced Arlington was erected between July and December 1909 at a cost of $130,000. The Edmonton Bulletin reported that the shell went up very quickly, "a storey a week," with a workforce of 25 bricklayers and 50 carpenters. No architect has been identified, although there were blueprints and it is possible Grant was also the designer. Share your stories with us |
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 City of Edmonton Archives EA-551-173 Details and BIG Picture | Post Office (Old and New) (Built: 1907-1910) Constructed from 1907 to 1910 by the Federal government, this building was Edmonton`s main northside Post Office for 56 years. It was a distinctive Edmonton landmark with its copper mansard roof, cupola windows, domed clock tower, and Manitoba Tyndall stone exterior. In 1967, the city purchased the building and in 1972 sold it to Leamar Developments for the construction of the Edmonton Plaza Hotel, presently the Westin Hotel. Leamar demolished the Post Office that year, and the famous clock and tower were dismantled and stored for future reconstruction on the original site. But the clock tower stonework was reused in a memorial gardens monument, so a modern clock tower was specifically designed for the original clock and mechanism. The new clock tower was installed in 1978 on the north end of the Westin Hotel site through the generosity of an anonymous donor. Share your stories with us |
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