Category: Historic Places Research and Designation

Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator, Castor

Alberta's Historic Places

When the Canadian Pacific Railway began to survey a grade west from Lacombe to Kerrobert, Saskatchewan in 1904, a number of prospective farmers began to apply for homesteads on land just off of the rail grade.  By 1906, interest began to subside, for the line had not gotten east of Stettler. In the spring of 1909 however, the government of Alberta announced lucrative bond guarantees for the extension of branch lines, and, during the following summer, construction activity was intense throughout the province.  This included the CPR line east from Stettler to the Beaver Dam Creek. Here, at the end of steel, a station was erected and a townsite subdivided called Castor, the French word for Beaver.  As the agricultural hinterland instantly filled up with settlers, the community of Castor became an agricultural boom town. In November 1909, it was incorporated as a village, and, in June of the following year, it became a town with over 500 people, holding all the commercial and social facilities required of a farming center.

Among the necessities for such a town were grain elevators.  As early as June 1910, it was announced that the Alberta Pacific Grain Company was building at Castor, Halkirk and Tees.  The 35,000 bushel structure at Castor would be completed later that fall.  During the winter of 1910-11, local farmers were able to market their grain.  In an unusual move, the elevator was located on the same side of the railway track as Main Street.  In 1913, the rail line was extended eastward past Coronation, eventually reaching Kerr Robert.  This gave Castor a direct line to the grain terminals at the Lakehead.  As a result, three other elevators were soon built, and Castor soon began to benefit from the high grain prices of World War I.  Indeed, by 1917, the original Alberta Pacific elevator was proving too small, and so the Company constructed a larger one, designed to store upward to 45,000 bushels.

Although Castor soon began to decline as a community, its population dropping to 625 by 1941, the elevators continued to survive, being in the center of such a rich agricultural district.  In 1967, The 1917 Alberta Pacific structure was taken over by the Federal Grain Company, and, in 1972, by the Alberta Wheat Pool.  Its most recent owner/operator was the United Grain Growers, which closed it down in the mid 1990’s in favor of a larger and more efficiently run concrete structure in the district.  The structure survived however and was eventually acquired by the Castor & District Museum Society, which is attempting to undertake its restoration.

The historical significance of the Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator in Castor lies in its provision of structural evidence of the method of storing and marketing grain in rural Alberta during most of the 20th century.  This structure is particularly important in that it dates from 1917, a period in time when crops were bountiful and the demand for wheat was high because of the war in Europe.  It is important also for the role it played in the development of Castor, a community which sprang to life in 1910 with the arrival of the railway, and continued to serve a large agricultural hinterland, the existence of which depended upon the marketing of grain.

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator.

Klondike Trail

Michael

You have all probably seen them – large blue heritage markers located at highway rest areas or points of interest throughout Alberta. These interpretive signs tell of Alberta’s rich heritage. Come, travel Alberta and read a featured heritage marker:

Driving westward on Highway 18, I found this roadside sign a few kilometers east of the Highway 33 intersection, near the Town of Barrhead. Stopping to read it, I learned how close I was to the “all Canadian” route to the Klondike, used during the gold rush. Continuing on my way, I used part of the trail (now Highway 33) to get to High Prairie.

Klondike Trail

When gold was discovered on the Klondike River in 1896, a frenzy swept North America. By 1897 a full-scale gold rush was on. Most “Klondikers” traveled by ship to Skagway in Alaska before crossing the White and Chilikoot Passes to the Yukon. Some, however, chose alternative routes. The Canadian government, the Edmonton Board of Trade, and Edmonton merchants promoted use of an “all Canadian” route. Gold seekers were encouraged to travel from Edmonton to the Yukon via the Peace River Country. Existing trails were very rudimentary, so the government hired T.W. Chalmers to build a new road between Fort Assiniboine and Lesser Slave Lake.

After an initial survey in September 1897, construction of the road was started in the spring of 1898. The Chalmers or Klondike Trail began on the Athabasca River at Pruden’s Crossing, near Fort Assiniboine. Located to the east of this sign, the trail skirted the present site of Swan Hills before following the Swan River north to what would become Kinuso. From there, travelers followed the shore of Lesser Slave Lake west before turning north to the goldfields – a mere 2,500 kilometers away.

The trail followed a very difficult route and was a challenge to all. Countless numbers of horses perished along the way, and travelers’ accounts describe the back-breaking labour and dangers of this trail. By 1901-02 use of the trail declined, and soon after it was abandoned altogether in favour of other routes to the Peace River area. Highway 33, just east of here, roughly follows the route of this early trail, which is linked to one of the most colourful episodes in Canadian History.

Heritage Marker Location

North side of Highway 18, 1 kilometer east of Highway 33.

 

Prepared by: Michael Thome, Municipal Heritage Services Officer

A Big Rock and a Colliery?

Alberta's Historic Places

Whenever I travel Alberta for business I try to return to the office with fodder for future blog posts. As the last instalment from my April 2012 business trip, today’s blog post will feature the Big Rock Erratic, near Okotoks and the Leitch Collieries, in the Crowsnest Pass (near Burmis). Both sites are formally protected as Provincial Historic Resources and can be found on the Alberta Register of Historic Places.

Other blog posts stemming from my April travels include:

For those of you wondering if I only write about southern Alberta – don’t worry! At the end of June I will be travelling up to the MD of Opportunity. I wonder what kind of northern Alberta fodder I will discover….

Big Rock Erratic

Located off Highway 7, ten kilometres southwest of Okotoks, the Big Rock Erratic is, well, BIG! Measuring 9 metres high, 41 meters long and 18 meters wide, it is the largest rock in the Foothills Erratic Train. Essentially, some 10,000 years ago when the glacier covering the area melted, this rock and others were left behind – far from their mountain origins. Despite erosion, it still serves a huge landmark on the flat prairie.

One interesting feature of Big Rock is the large split down the middle. As shared on our Alberta Culture website, a Blackfoot story describes not only how this may have happened, but why bats have squashed-looking faces:

One hot summer day, Napi, the supernatural trickster of the Blackfoot peoples, rested on the rock because the day was warm and he was tired. He spread his robe on the rock, telling the rock to keep the robe in return for letting Napi rest there. Suddenly, the weather changed and Napi became cold as the wind whistled and the rain fell. Napi asked the rock to return his robe, but the rock refused. Napi got mad and just took the clothing. As he strolled away, he heard a loud noise and turning, he saw the rock was rolling after him. Napi ran for his life. The deer, the bison and the pronghorn were Napi’s friends, and they tried to stop the rock by running in front of it. The rock rolled over them. Napi’s last chance was to call on the bats for help. Fortunately, they did better than their hoofed neighbours, and by diving at the rock and colliding with it, one of them finally hit the rock just right and it broke into two pieces.

When driving along Highway 7, this site is difficult to miss. A large parking lot accommodates travellers and interpretive signs explain the science behind the rock’s presence. To read more about this site, click here.

Note: Quartzite is slippery to climb and although it is hard, pieces can break off in climbers’ hands. Please do not climb the rock, as tempting as it looks. Also, there are aboriginal pictographs on the rock, and these could easily be damaged by climbers. Enjoy the beautiful colours, textures and feel of the rock, but stay on the ground. Please help us protect this Provincial Historical Resource for others to enjoy.

Leitch Collieries

When established, in 1907, Leitch Collieries was one of the largest and most ambitious mines located in the Crowsnest Pass. Initially, a washery and tipple were erected along with railway connections to the CPR. By 1910 a total of 101 ovens were installed. A manager’s residence and a combined powerhouse/round house were also built on site. In an area immediately west of the Collieries, the town of Passburg grew. Ultimately, the coal mined at the Collieries turned out to be of poor coking quality and only five of the 101 ovens were used. Poor quality and economic hard times resulted in the company ceasing its operations in 1916. Most of the buildings in Passburg were relocated to Bellvue (another mining community in the Crowsnest Pass).

Both a Provincial Historic Resource and a Provincial Historic Site, Leitch Collieries is managed by the Government of Alberta as an interpreted historic site. At this site (located just east of the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre on Highway 3), visitors will find the remains of the tipple, powerhouse, coke ovens and manager’s house. Walking paths and interpretive signs allow visitors to explore the buildings and learn about the Collieries operations. The site is staffed from May 15 to Labour Day (10:00am to 5:00pm). After hours, and for the remainder of the year, the site is self-guided.

Unfortunately, my visit to Leitch Collieries was very brief. I quickly walked through the site and photographed some of the ruins. The next time you drive through the area consider pulling off the highway – spend some time wandering the remains and learn about an aspect of Alberta’s coal mining history. To read more about this site, click here.

Written by: Brenda Manweiler, Municipal Heritage Services Officer

Inglewood Telephone Exchange, Calgary

Alberta's Historic Places

When it was announced, in 1881, that the Canadian Pacific Railway would be passing by the site of Fort Calgary, interest in land around the Fort, which was east of the Elbow River, began to grow. By the time the railway was approaching, a community had sprung up outside the Fort. As land prices were consequently high, the CPR decided to skirt the existing community and acquire cheaper land to the west of the Elbow on which to erect its station. An exodus of people from east of the Elbow soon followed.  A few earlier residents stayed however, including Major James Walker of the North-West Mounted Police, Major John Stewart, also of the NWMP, and William Pearce of the federal Department of the Interior. Walker’s home, called Inglewood, would later give its name to this community, and it was from his house that the first crude telephone system was installed in Calgary, when, in 1885, Walker ran a line from it to his lumber mill, two miles away.

Walker’s telephone system eventually had several other subscribers, but it was scrapped shortly after 1887, when Calgary Town Council invited the Bell Telephone Company to erect a system in the rapidly growing town. By the turn of the 20th century, Bell had a complete network throughout the City, operating from a central exchange. The City however was not pleased by the monopoly enjoyed by Bell, a feeling reflected by the new provincial government which came into being in 1905. By this time, Bell had set up systems in both Calgary and Edmonton, and in most towns in Alberta, but it would not extend costly services to most rural areas. As a result, the government bought out Bell’s interests in the province and set up a Crown corporation called Alberta Government Telephones.  Soon, telephone services were moving to the rural areas, while those in the larger centers were improved.

In Calgary, which reached a population of 29,265 by 1909, the manual exchange system was proving woefully inadequate, and so AGT decided to install an automated one. This was a red brick structure at 1311-9th Avenue East, which was designed by Alberta’s Provincial Architect, A. M. Jeffers who designed most of the first major government buildings in the province. The new Calgary telephone building, which was opened in 1909, served as a sub-station to the main exchange on 7th Avenue.  It was equipped by the Automatic Electric Company to handle 300 telephone lines, but, as this soon proved inadequate, the building was enlarged the following year to enable it to handle 1,000 lines.

Before long, other exchanges became operational as, by 1921, most homes and businesses in Calgary were equipped with telephones. What became known as the East End Telephone Exchange continued to serve the southeast end of the City until 1957, when it was closed down in favor of newer and more modern facilities. The building was then leased to various other interests and served different purposes, including a nursery and a shoe repair store.

In 1972, the building was sold by AGT to the Inglewood Community Association and began to serve as the Silverthreads Community Center. In 1981, it was declared a Registered Historic Resource by the Alberta Minister of Culture, and, in April 2009, it was designated a Provincial Historic Resource.  Its historical significance lies both in its representation of the introduction of an automated telephone system to Calgary in 1909, and the establishment of Alberta Government Telephones, the province’s first Crown Corporation, the year before.  It is important too as a structural representative of the rapid urban development of Calgary prior to World War I, and as a landmark in the Inglewood district.

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Inglewood Telephone Exchange. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Inglewood Telephone Exchange.

Hull Block, Edmonton

Alberta's Historic Places

With the turn of the 20th century, Edmonton was beginning a period of rapid development, initiated mainly by its position as the commercial gateway to northwestern Canada.  In 1904, Edmonton became a city, and, in 1905, two other events occurred which would solidify its position as a metropolis. First, the city was named the capital of the new province of Alberta, and, second, just as the first Legislative Assembly was convening in September, the tracks of the Canadian Northern Railway were being laid, giving the city a direct line to Winnipeg and the markets of eastern Canada.  Four years later, the Canadian Northern was joined by the Grand Trunk Pacific, with a line through the city’s north end and a spur to the city center.

The arrival of these railways brought dramatic change to the city center where, to the west end, a large warehouse district evolved.  The north side also saw extensive development as many large industries chose to locate plants and warehouses near the tracks.  The railways and the industries they spawned brought masses of working class immigrants to Edmonton, most of who chose to live in neighborhoods near their centers of employment, such as McCauley, Norwood, Riverdale and Bellevue.  As a result, small community commercial areas sprang up to provide easy shopping for residents, and facilitate local businesses.

Being close to the city center, the McCauley district had little need for a separate shopping district, and yet there remained an inclination for many small businesses to locate as close to the people as possible.  As a result, Namayo Avenue (97th Street) was soon developed into a commercial artery, extending from Jasper Avenue all the way to 111th Avenue, with sections of the street also holding small dwellings.  North of the tracks, the street soon assumed the appearance of a small community shopping district, with grocery stores, drug stores, hardware stores, restaurants, barber shops, laundries and convenience stores. The shops were mostly modest two story structures, and often the proprietors would live in the same buildings.

In June 1914, when the commercial boom in Edmonton had actually just passed its apex, a headline in the Edmonton Bulletin read “New $35,000 Block for Namayo Avenue.”  The owner of the property on the corner of Namayo Avenue and Sutherland Street (9664-106th Avenue) was the Calgary business tycoon, William Roper Hull, who apparently saw the need for an office complex in the area.  As designed by E.C. Hopkins and opened the following year, the building was no doubt expected to facilitate small retail businesses and apartment dwellers, as well as office space.  The concept of the combined facility was not unlike the Beuna Vista Apartments and the Gibbard Block recently erected among small commercial buildings in other areas of the city that were surrounded by extensive urban development.

Among the first tenants in what became known as the Hull Block was Herb E. Thomson Drugs, which would occupy the premises until 1940.  Countless other tenants also came to occupy the building, which today appears to be serving the same purpose for which it was built 87 years ago.  Its historical significance lies in its representation of the tremendous commercial growth of downtown Edmonton during the early part of the 20th century.  It is also representative of the kind of commercial structure intended to evoke the ethos of a large office complex, but, due to its location near an urban population, was also made to facilitate small retail businesses and apartment dwellers.  It is also a significant landmark in the McCauley district of Edmonton.  In July 2003, it was designated a Provincial Historic Resource.

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Hull Block. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Hull Block.

Leighton House and Art Centre

Alberta's Historic Places
Leighton House and Art Centre

Two of the most influential individuals in the history of painting in Alberta were Barbara and Alfred Crocker Leighton.  Alfred was born in Hastings, England in October 1901.  He attended the Hastings Grammar School, and the Hastings Municipal School of Art, where he studied architecture.  He served with the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, and was severely injured after a crash.  Following the war, he began to paint landscape scenes and was encouraged to submit his work to the Royal Society of British Artists.  He became influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, established earlier by William Morris, and his paintings in this genre began to draw attention in the early 1920s.

Alfred Leighton

In 1924, the Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned Leighton to do paintings about the western Canadian landscape in order to attract potential immigrant farmers.  In 1925, he was sent out to paint the scenic Canadian Rockies.  He produced paintings exclusively for the CPR until 1929 when he resigned and accepted the position of Director of Art for the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Art, a position he held until 1935 when he was forced to return to Britain due to ill health with his wife, Barbara (Harvey), an art student whom he had married in 1931.  Barbara was born in 1909 in Plymouth, and would become a direct associate in all of Alfred’s undertakings.

While at the SAIT, Alfred Leighton had been instrumental in founding the Alberta Society of Artists.  In 1933, he established a summer school in the Kananaskis which was the precursor to the Banff School of Fine Arts.  Upon returning to Canada in 1938, he resigned from SAIT and moved with Barbara to southern British Columbia.  Here he tried farming in Chilliwack, but soon moved to Crescent Beach, where he and Barbara did commercial art work.

Leighton, Barbara. Evening, Bow Lake. Printmaking, woodcut. Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

In 1952, the Leightons purchased an acreage near Millarville where they designed and built a one-room dwelling with the idea of having it serve as a art studio, with adjoining rooms to be added later.  It was named Ballihamish after the school district of which it was a part.  The structure was designed in the form of a cross, which allowed painters to focus on different perspectives of the Millarville Valley and Rocky Mountains at different times of the season.  It was completed over the course of many years, with the inheritance from Arthur Leighton’s father in 1960 being a major contributing factor.

Alfred Leighton painting in mountains.

Following Alfred Leighton’s death in 1965, Barbara Leighton established the Leighton Center for Arts and Crafts, which was officially opened in November, 1970.  The 1928 Billihamish School was also brought in to become part of the complex.  In 1974, she established the Leighton Foundation for the encouragement of art, and an arts and crafts center for all people to engage in landscape painting.  The Foundation is currently housed in the Leighton Art Centre, which includes a museum, art gallery, and educational programming.

In May 2009, the Leighton House and Art Centre was designated a Provincial Historic Resource.  Its historical significance lies primarily in its direct association with Alfred and Barbara Leighton, two of the most influential people in the history of art in Alberta.

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

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Leighton, Alfred C. Moraine Lake. Painting, watercolour. Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

In the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection of over 7500 works there are paintings by Alfred and Barbara Leighton. The collection represents more than 1700 Alberta artists. Like the Leightons, many of these artists have significantly contributed to the development of the visual arts throughout Alberta. You can search the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection, and other provincial art collections here.

To view works by Barbara Leighton, click here.

To view works by Alfred Leighton, click here.

________

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Leighton House and Art Centre. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Leighton House and Art Centre.

Moving Mountains – My Visit to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre

Alberta's Historic Places
View of Turtle Mountain from the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre

Last week I was in southern Alberta for meetings with Vulcan County and the Town of Pincher Creek. To fill a meeting-free morning I decided to visit the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre (a thirty minute drive west of Pincher Creek on Highway 3). Throughout my visit grey clouds blanketed the sky, which befitted the destruction, sorrow and magnitude of the Frank Slide disaster.

On April 29, 1903 at 4:10 in the morning the east face of Turtle Mountain toppled and slid four kilometres into the Crowsnest River valley. In a mere ninety seconds, 82 million tonnes of limestone collapsed upon the southern end of the Town of Frank, a section of the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) and the mine plant of the Canadian-American Coal Company. In total, at least ninety people were killed. To date, this is Canada’s deadliest rockslide.

In 1977 the Government of Alberta designated the site a Provincial Historic Resource for its significance as the site of Alberta’s worst natural disaster, for it being a geological phenomenon and for it serving as a provincial landmark (to learn more about the site’s heritage value, read the Frank Slide Statement of Significance). Visitors to the area can learn first-hand about the disaster through interactive multi-media displays at the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre, and by walking the Frank Slide Interpretive Trail.

Interpretive Centre

What force can you exert on a mountain by jumping, stomping, pushing, pulling, lifting ... ?

Four levels of display space recount not only the horrors and triumphs of the people that awoke one morning to find their town buried, but provide geological and seismic information about the causes of the disaster. Audio-visual components and 3-D models allow visitors to visualize how Mother Nature could wreck such havoc. My favourite display was a set of three mountain monitoring sensors that are like those currently installed on Turtle Mountain to detect movement. Visitors are encouraged to stomp, jump, push, pull and lift blocks of concrete connected to a crack meter, tilt meter and seismic sensor. Computer screens reveal how sensitive the monitors are AND how strong YOU are! Yes, I jumped, stomped, pushed and pulled … the next time someone asks I will now be able to confidently state that I really can move mountains!

Interpretive Trail

View of Turtle Mountain near the trail head.

A 1.5 kilometre trail, beginning from the Interpretive Centre parking lot, winds through mounds of limestone rubble. Looming views of Turtle Mountain offer a stark reality check when walking along the trail. Hopes, dreams and memories lay beneath.

I walked the trail with an interpretive brochure in hand. Waypoints marked along the path explained what I saw and some of the events that occurred on that fateful day. The last quarter of the trail winds along the western edge of the fallen rock and loops back up to the parking lot through a wooded area. I paused during this reconnection with nature to read that, “mammals such as bears, deer and moose use these cool, sheltered woodlands to skirt the slide’s harsh, open environment as they move through the Crowsnest River valley. Mule deer can frequently be seen along this portion of the trail, particularly early and late in the day.” Taking a step to carry on my way, I thought how great it would be to see some deer. The breaking of twigs caused me to again pause. To my amazement I looked up to discover four deer staring at me!! All five of us stared. Soon enough they returned to their feeding while I continued staring. What a joy!

Turtle Mountain Web Cameras

The Alberta Geological Survey has installed two web cameras for viewing Turtle Mountain. One is in the valley looking up at the mountain and the other is positioned on the south peak providing a view of the valley below. Click here to see a current view of Turtle Mountain.

The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre is open to the public, daily, from 10:00am to 5:00pm. July 1 through Labour Day, the Centre is open daily from 9:00am to 6:00pm. Click here for additional information.

Written by: Brenda Manweiler, Municipal Heritage Services Officer

P.S. I must extend a big thank you to Monica and Myriah for welcoming me to the Interpretive Centre and for providing a great tour! I really enjoyed my visit.

Strathcona Fire Hall No. 1

Alberta's Historic Places

When the Calgary & Edmonton Railway arrived at the south bank of the North Saskatchewan River in 1891, the C & E immediately subdivided a town site which it named South Edmonton.  Being at the end of steel, the community steadily grew throughout the decade until, in 1899, it was incorporated as the Town of Strathcona with a population exceeding 1,000.  To serve this burgeoning community, which consisted primarily of wood frame buildings, it was obvious that some method of organized fire protection was needed.  A volunteer fire brigade was organized in 1901, and, that same year, Town Council provided for the construction of a wood frame fire hall on lot 2, block 79, just north of main street, and near the Town water well.  A horse drawn fire wagon with a wooden water tank was then acquired.

As with Edmonton to the north across the river, Strathcona grew rapidly in the wake of the Klondike gold rush.  In 1907, it was incorporated as a city with an estimated population of 3,500.  It was soon evident that the old fire hall was inadequate, and, so, provision was made for a newer and larger structure.  As the City waterworks was right next door to the old fire hall, it was felt appropriate to build the new structure at the same location.  The firm of Wilson and Herrald was thus contracted to design, and the firm of J.M. Eaton contracted to build a modern two-story red brick facility which could accommodate three fire wagons.  The estimate for construction was $13,715.  A stable in the rear was designed for nine horses, while a bell tower extended from the middle of the structure 77 feet in the air.  The second floor was made to accommodate a chief’s office, a general hall, bedrooms, a band room, and a bathroom with showers.  Two fire poles facilitated instant access to the ground floor.

The Strathcona Fire Hall with its horse-drawn wagons served the City of Strathcona until its amalgamation with Edmonton in 1912.  It was then designated as Edmonton Fire Hall #6 and became part of the Edmonton Fire Department.  A permanent salaried chief was assigned to the Hall, and the number of salaried firefighters grew over the passage of time.  The crews were always supplemented by volunteers in times of emergency.  By 1954, however, the facility was considered dilapidated and outdated, and, so, a new fire hall was constructed nearby.  The old structure was apparently slated for demolition but was considered adequate for storage, and, so, it was leased to Strathcona Furniture, which used it as a warehouse.

By the early 1970’s, there was a growing appreciation in Edmonton about the early buildings of Strathcona, and, so, when the Walterdale Theatre began to plan for a new home, thoughts turned to the old fire hall, which seemed to provide adequate space for a live theatre building.  The Walterdale group moved into its internally renovated facility in 1974, and, in 1976, the structure was designated a Registered Historic Resource.  In the years that followed, it became a central venue for Edmonton’s Fringe Festival.

In September 2007, the Strathcona Fire Hall was designated a Provincial Historic Resource.  Its historical significance lies in its provision of structural evidence of fire fighting facilities in a large urban area in the early 20th century in Alberta.  It is the oldest major fire hall in the province.  It is also important as one of the surviving early public buildings of the City of Strathcona, which tells of life in general in this community.      

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Strathcona Fire Hall. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Strathcona Fire Hall.

Rowley Grain Elevator Row

Alberta's Historic Places

In the spring of 1909, Premier Rutherford of Alberta announced his government’s commitment to a vast program of railway expansion in Alberta.  To do this, the government offered to guarantee the bonds of major railway companies to the extent of $20,000 per mile of completed track.  Taking advantage of this, the Canadian Northern Railway decided to incorporate several subsidiary companies to undertake specific lines in Alberta.  One of these was the Alberta Midland, which was chartered by the provincial government in May 1909 to build a line from Vegreville south through Drumheller to Calgary.  One purpose was to open up new land for farming, another was to tap into the coal reserves around Drumheller which had hitherto been unavailable to the Canadian Northern or any of its subsidiaries.

By the end of 1911, the Alberta Midland line was completed.  Along it, several stations were built.  One of these, 25 km north of Drumheller, was named Rowley, after the Manager of the Calgary branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce.  The Bank itself had provided substantial backing to the Canadian Northern.  Behind the station, a townsite was subdivided, and, before long, a community evolved, the main purpose of which was to provide services to the surrounding hinterland where mixed farming was the staple economy.

It was essential therefore that Rowley be provided with grain elevators, and, in 1915, the first one was built by the Home Grain Company.  It was apparently not well constructed however, for, shortly after its completion, it collapsed.  Though rebuilt soon after, another mishap occurred when an annex burst, and, not long after that, the elevator burned down.  In the wake of these mishaps, two other elevators were built in 1917.  These were owned by the National Grain Company and the United Grain Growers.  The UGG had only recently been incorporated as a farmer-owned company, and it was a good time for it to build for, like most of the western prairies, the Rowley district was seeing high yields and much demand because the war in Europe was diverting the activities of farmers there to other matters.

The National and the UGG had a monopoly on the local grain export at Rowley until 1923, when the Searle Grain Company, formerly the Home Grain Company, decided erect another elevator on the site of their first one at Rowley.  At 40,000 bushels, this would be the biggest of the village’s three elevators.  It was an unusual time to build, for grain prices had recently collapsed in the wake of the post war overproduction of wheat.  Also, during 1919-20, both the Canadian Northern and the Grand Trunk Railways had been taken over by the federal government and consolidated into Canadian National.  This meant reduced services, and, in 1922, rail traffic between Vegreville and Drumheller were significantly reduced.

The three grain elevators in Rowley managed to survive however, and, in 1928, the UGG structure was acquired by the Alberta Wheat Pool.  Formed five years earlier, in the wake of plummeting grain prices, the Pool was a business concept advocated by UFA president Henry Wise Wood which saw farmers pool their wheat in a co-operative to ensure that no member would suffer unduly in times of stress.  Such stress occurred during the early 1930’s, when the price of #1 wheat fell to 32 cents a bushel and many farmers could not afford to ship out their wheat.  During the end of the decade however, with Great Britain gearing for war, the demand for wheat began to rise, and, with it, productivity on the Canadian prairies.  In 1940 therefore, the Wheat Pool decided to twin its elevator in Rowley with a new 40,000 bushel structure.

The three grain elevators at Rowley continued to serve the district long after the war.  In 1967, the Searle elevator was sold to the Federal Grain Company, and, in 1972, to the Wheat Pool, which then owned all three elevators.  In 1989 however, the CN line between Rowley and Morrin was closed down, and farmers soon began trucking their grain to Morrin or elsewhere.  The elevators therefore were closed also.  They remained standing however, and, in recent years, have been acquired by the Rowley Community Hall Association which is seeking to preserve them.

In June 2010, the grain elevators in Rowley were designated a Provincial Historic Resource.  Their historical significance lies in their representation of the major economy of Alberta for most of the 20th century, the growth and export of grain, and mainly wheat.  They are also important as landmarks in Rowley, providing structural evidence of the community dating back to 1917, when the district was prospering.  The first elevator represents the main source of that prosperity, and the three of them the economy of the district in the years that followed.    

Written by: David Leonard, Historian

Click here for statistics on remaining grain elevators in Alberta.

Visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the heritage value of the Rowley Grain Elevator Row. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance. To properly assess the historic importance of a resource, a historian crafts a context document that situates a resource within its time and place and compares it to similar resources in other parts of the province. This allows staff to determine the importance of a resource to a particular theme, time, and place. Above, is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Rowley Grain Elevator Row.


Alberta’s Wooden Country Grain Elevators

Alberta's Historic Places

In February one of our Facebook fans asked how many grain elevators still stand on the Alberta horizon. Dorothy Field, our Heritage Survey Program Coordinator has compiled some statistics.

The twentieth century saw the rise and fall – literally – of the wooden country grain elevator in Alberta. As rail lines spread across the province, grain elevators sprouted like mushrooms after a spring rain. The high water mark for wooden country grain elevators was in 1934. New elevators were added in every decade, but this has been exceeded by the rate of demolition or closure ever since. Check out the following “index” of Alberta’s wooden country elevators, called “elevators” for short in this list.

Rowley Grain Elevator Row, Provincial Historic Resource

Number of elevators in Alberta:

  • in 1934:  1,781
  • in 1951:  1,651
  • in 1982:  979
  • in 1997: 327
  • in 2005: 156
  • in 2012 on railway rights-of-way:  130

Number of communities with:

  • at least one elevator:  95
  • 2 or more elevators:  26
  • 3 or more elevators:  7
  • 4 or more elevators:  1 (Warner)
Alberta Pacific Grain Elevator Site Complex, Meeting Creek, Provincial Historic Resource

Additional statistics:

  • Number of elevators in Alberta’s longest row:  6
  • Oldest remaining elevator: 1905 (Raley)
  • Number of remaining elevators that pre-date 1910:  3 (Raley, St. Albert, De Winton)
  • Newest remaining elevator: 1988 (Woodgrove)
  • Decade with the largest number of surviving elevators:  1920s (33)
  • Decade with the second largest number of surviving elevators:  1980s (26)
  • Decade with the fewest (after pre-1910) number of surviving elevators:  1940s (5)
  • Number of elevators that have been designated a Provincial Historic Resource (PHR):  13
  • Number of communities with at least one elevator designated as a PHR:  10
  • Oldest designated elevator: 1906 (St. Albert)
  • Newest designated elevator:  Leduc (1978)
Alberta Wheat Pool Grain Elevator, Paradise Valley, Provincial Historic Resource

For a list of communities in Alberta with designated and non-designated elevators, please click here.

Please Note:

  • Grain elevators that have been moved off railway rights-of-way – to a farmyard or a museum, for instance – are not included in these statistics.
  • Grain elevators located on railway rights-of-way where the rails have been torn up are included in these statistics.
  • Concrete or steel elevators are not included.
  • Elevators used for other purposes, such as seed cleaning or fertilizer storage, are not included.
  • Most of these elevators were last documented by the Heritage Survey in 2005. It is possible that some of the elevators on the list are now gone.

Additional Information:

Written by: Dorothy Field, Heritage Survey Program Coordinator