Category: Historic Places Stewardship Section

Greenridge Farm, near Dewberry

Alberta's Historic Places

In 1905, the Canadian Northern Railway completed a line between Lloydminster and Edmonton. As it did so, vast areas of open parkland between the two centers became immediately viable for homesteading.  As the incipient farms spread out from the rail line, tiny farming communities sprang up to serve them.  One of these was called Dewberry, 50 km northwest of Lloydminster, where a store and post office was erected in 1907.  Among the settlers in the district was Lee Green from Illinois, who filed for a homestead on NE26 TP54 R4 W4, 10km north of Dewberry, in 1909.  He also took two quarters with South African scrip four miles to the north of this, and proceeded to prove them up before returning to Illinois to marry Aleta Fleming in 1912 and bring his bride back to his farm north of Dewberry where they intended to develop it and raise a family.

Before long, Lee and Aleta began to expand their farm.  During the next several years, they also raised four children.  Lee was a progressive mixed farmer, apparently bringing the first gasoline powered breaking outfit to the area.  He also brought in a highly valued stock of purebread Belgian horses, and built up a large herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle.  As his farm expanded, he required more land, so he purchased all of section 23 TP54 R4, just to the south, from the CPR.  It was on the southwest quarter of this section that he centered his operation during the 1920’s, having several buildings erected over the course of the next two decades, including a house, a large barn, a separate pig barn, a blacksmith shop, a machine shop, and a separate residence for hired help.  He even built a teacherage for teachers of the nearby Riverton School in 1948.  By this time, the farm became a model for the district, which had become known as Greenlawn, and the farm Greenridge.  The viability of the expanded operation had been given validity by the extension of a CPR line through Dewberry in 1927.

Being among the more prominent residents in the district, Lee and Aleta were active in community affairs, especially musical, for they were both musicians.  They were also both prominent parishioners of the local United Church.  Lee was active politically as well, being involved in the local branch of the United Farmers.  In 1949, he would run, unsuccessfully, as a CCF candidate in the federal election for the riding of Battle River.  Lee and Aleta remained on their farm, passing away in the 1960’s.

By this time, the operation had been taken over by their son, Harlan.  Because of its size and the innovations introduced by Lee and others, and the contributions of the Greens to the district, it continued its status as a model farm.  On 16 February 2006, 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 Greenridge Farm. 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 Greenridge Farm.

Markerville Lutheran Church

Alberta's Historic Places

Among the immigrant groups to settle in the Dakota’s during the latter 19th century were the Icelanders. Due to severe drought conditions during the mid-1880s however, several of these immigrants decided to seek new horizons in the more northerly climes of western Canada. By this time, the trail between Calgary and Edmonton had become a well used wagon road, and the community at Red Deer Crossing could offer many services to incoming homesteaders. As the district southwest of the Crossing was largely open, appeared fertile, and had just been surveyed, it was recommended by certain Icelandic South Dakotan advance scouts that it offered a good chance for a new life. These people possibly preferred this more hilly and wooded environment to the Dakotas as it was more similar to Iceland, and the Dakota flatlands had not brought them prosperity. They were also intent on mixed, and not just flatland, grain farming, a pursuit more suited to parkland than open prairie.

In the summer of 1888, some fifty Icelandic South Dakotans headed north from Calgary, crossed the Red Deer River, and took homesteads off the banks of the Medicine River, mostly to the east. A community was established called Tindastoll after a mountain in Iceland. The following year, another party of Icelanders arrived from South Dakota and settled further north. This party included Stephan Stephansson, who had founded the Icelandic Cultural Society of South Dakota. While in Alberta, he would become recognized as the greatest poet in the Icelandic language since the 13th Century. His concern for his Icelandic heritage was reflected elsewhere in the community, and, in 1892, a literary and debating society was formed, the same year that a school district was established. The women of Tindastoll also formed their own community club called Vonin, meaning “hope.” The first president of Vonin was Stepansson’s sister, Sigurlaud Kristinsson.

For years, social events conducted by the sisters of Vonin were presented from a Lutheran perspective. Indeed, their socials seem to have taken the place of regular church services until 1905, when the Reverend Sjera Peter Hjalmsson arrived from Winnipeg with his wife, Jonina, to establish a Lutheran church as part of the Icelandic Synod of western Canada, headquartered in Winnipeg. Serja had been trained in theology in Copenhagen and Reykjavek. He immediately began to conduct services in the newly constructed Fensela Hall, but strongly urged the members of his congregation to pull together to construct a regular church.  Finally, in the spring of 1907, a group of men, including John Olsen, Asmundur Christianson, John Hillman and Chris Johanson, formed a committee and planned the construction of a wood frame church building on NE26 TP36 R2 W5, on land donated by J.M. Johnson. This was in close proximity to the other buildings constituting the community of Markerville, which were also constructed on Johnson’s land.

Work on the new church began immediately, with sandstone for the foundation being hauled in from the Red Deer River. By the end of the year, the building was completed, with a bell tower and a wooden Celtic cross added the following year. Sjera Hjalmsson continued to serve the MarkervilleLutheranChurch until 1935, although, in later years, he was blind.  He passed away in 1950.  All the while, Jonina continued to play the organ, while A. J. Christvinson served as secretary-treasurer to the congregation from 1915 until 1964.

As a community, Markerville never became big enough to become incorporated as a village.  It was too close to Innisfail and Penhold on the Calgary & Edmonton Railway, and so grain shipment and major shopping for the district settlers took place at either of these two centers.  Markerville nonetheless continued to harbour the trappings of Icelandic culture, made stronger by the international reputation of Stephan Stephansson. Structural evidence of the founding of this community, including the community church, therefore survived, and, together, present strong trappings of Icelandic culture. In August 2009, The Markerville Lutheran Church 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 Markerville Lutheran Church. 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 Markerville Lutheran Church.

Dutch Settlement

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, about 3 kilometers east of the intersection with highway 33 (near the Town of Barrhead) I came across a heritage marker commemorating Alberta’s first Dutch settlers. The sign is about 19 kilometers south of the Hamlet of Neerlandia. Why is Neerlandia special? The sign explains:

Dutch Settlement

“Wij gann naar Alberta!” We are going to Alberta! This was the call of thousands of Dutch settlers who immigrated to Alberta in the early 1900s. A booming economy and the promise of free homesteads attracted Dutch immigrants from Holland and from the American Midwest. By 1911, Alberta’s Dutch population of 2,951 was the largest in Canada.

Most Dutch immigrants settled throughout Alberta on homesteads, or in the province’s growing towns and cities. There were several areas, though, where the Dutch presence was particularly strong. In 1904, Dutch immigrants from Holland and America settled near Monarch and Nobleford, while in 1908 nearly 100 families from North Brabant, Holland, settled near Strathmore. In 1912, a group of Dutch immigrants living in Edmonton established the colony of Neerlandia, near Westlock, the province’s only exclusively Dutch settlement.

More Dutch immigrants came to Alberta after both world wars and continued making contributions to Alberta’s political, economic, and cultural life just as the first pioneers had done.

Note: The text on the sign is repeated in Dutch. To view, click on the below photo.

Heritage Marker Location

On the north side of Highway 18 approximately 3 kilometers east of Highway 33, near the Town of Barrhead.

Alequiers is a Provincial Historic Resource located near Longview in the M.D. of Foothills, in southern Alberta. Although it’s not located near this sign, the property is associated with the well know painter Ted Schintz. Schintz migrated to Canada from Holland during the 1920’s.

Prepared by: Michael Thome, Municipal Heritage Services Officer

Capturing the Spirit

Alberta's Historic Places

Throughout the last few years the Municipal District of Spirit River No. 133 has supported the work of area volunteers that were looking at, listening to and learning about the history of the area. Older buildings, significant sites and places that have passed beyond recognition were identified and researched by these individuals. In essence, through history and heritage, the “spirit” of the M.D. of Spirit River was being uncovered.

Interested in building upon the great work already completed, the M.D. of Spirit River decided to explore opportunities provided through the Municipal Heritage Partnership Program.  Eager to begin evaluating sites for significance, but mindful of wanting to establish a successful heritage conservation program, the M.D. of Spirit River Council first established a Heritage Resource Committee (an advisory group of area residents that will support the M.D. with its heritage program).  After receiving orientation from Municipal Heritage Services staff (me!), and with having submitted a successful funding proposal to the Municipal Heritage Partnership Program (funded through the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation) the M.D. and the committee is ready, eager and committed to further identify the “spirit” of the M.D.

Over the course of the next year, a combined Municipal Heritage Survey and Inventory project will be completed. This project will see various sites within the municipality documented in a formal survey so that the information may be included in the Provincial Heritage Survey database. As well, approximately 10 sites will be evaluated for eligibility, significance and integrity, making them potential candidates for Municipal Historic Resource designation.

As the project progresses I hope to post updates on this blog. Stay tuned!

If you have questions about how your municipality can participate in the Municipal Heritage Partnership Program, please contact Municipal Heritage Services staff.

Written by: Brenda Manweiler, Municipal Heritage Services Officer

Barns & Cities: One Unexpectedly Goes with the Other

Alberta's Historic Places

Reading about barns you may first recall memories of those typical red buildings proudly standing in an agricultural landscape, but do you also remember those barns that were located on the main streets of hamlets, villages and towns?

Coming from Québec City as part of the Québec/Alberta Student Employment Exchange Program, I have worked on a research project meant to increase our understanding of the history of livery barns, and to promote awareness for their historic importance. To do this, I had to go back in time at various archives to learn that most livery barns in Alberta were actually important places, especially from the late 19th century to the 1940s.

Livery barns were located on strategic corners. They were the main logistic centres for cities during the time when horse power was mainly used for transportation. Gable roof, gambrel roof, cubic style, with or without a front wall – all a liveryman needed was a place with stalls to welcome and take care of  horses. Mostly located near railways, hotels and lumberyards, livery barns contributed to a great deal of economic activities. Merchants, settlers, travelers and cowboys would park their shire horses, ponies or mustangs with their carriages in a livery barn for a night or a couple of days. Liverymen could rent animals and agriculture implements, host auctions, organize “bus” tours, deliver milk and wood, and even move a catalogue house all according to the needs of the community. If you were marrying in the 1920s, you also could have called for a team of horses to gently carry you to your wedding ceremony.

G. Rowland Livery Barn Inside View, Edmonton, c. 1920, Provincial Archives of Alberta.

Some livery barns were more high-class than others but they were all meeting places; a place where men could play card games and talk about the weather. Livery barns might also have held suspicious activities. Empty bottles of alcohol dating from the prohibition period were surprisingly found in the walls of the National Hotel Livery Barn, in Calgary. This helps to explain the commonly bad perception that citizens had of the places. The job of the liverymen was dirty and the environment was crowded, as you can see by the photograph.

Livery barns sometime created urban sanitary issues. Hygienic laws and relocating the business mostly dealt with the concerns, but, after the 1930s, if a livery barn was accidentally destroyed by fire, it usually was not rebuilt. From the 24 livery barns registered in the Henderson’s Greater Edmonton Directory of 1913, the G. Rowland Livery Barn, which was located at 12705 on 65th St., shows typical historical trends. Built in 1912, exactly at the highest peak of number of livery barns, it changed proprietor 4 times before it disappeared as a company in 1939. The needs of the communities were changing and horses were gradually replaced for automobiles. World War II accelerated the shift and livery barns were abandoned, used for storage or converted to garages.  Because horses started better than cars in the morning, some livery barns still existed in the winter until the late 1950s.

If you think about it, there was once a time when searching for a place to park your horse was like today searching for a spot to park your car. It seems that livery barns are a forgotten part of Alberta’s history, but it might not be too late to recall the legacy.

Written by: Samuel C. Fleury, Historic Places Stewardship Research Assistant

Planning a future for St. Albert’s Historic Places

Michael

The City of St. Albert is hard at work on a heritage management plan, with assistance from the Municipal Heritage Partnership Program. A heritage management plan will help St. Albert conserve its historic resources. Would you like to help? Please take a few moments and share your thoughts with St. Albert on the conservation of historic resources by completing their survey.

St. Albert, like many of Alberta’s communities, is growing rapidly. Growth is certainly not bad in itself, but it can threaten a community’s historic resources if there are no plans to identify and mange them. This is particularly true in a community like St. Albert: many of their historic places were built during the 1960s in modern architectural styles. We often overlook modern buildings when thinking about historic places, although they can tell us a great deal about a community’s past.

Understanding why a historic place is valuable, even protecting it through Municipal Historic Resource designation, are first steps. A community needs to encourage proper conservation and maintenance and ensure each historic resource has a contemporary use that requires minimal change.

The St. Albert heritage management planning project had its first open house with a few dozen residents at St. Albert’s Musée Héritage Museum on June 20th. You can view the presentation given that night (available on the City of St. Albert’s website as a PDF). You can take a look at the Heritage Management Plan page on the City of St. Albert’s website for more information.

Stay tuned for future updates.

Written by: Michael Thome, Municipal Heritage Services Officer

Meet Dinosaurs, Coal Miners and Pioneers: Adventures in Southern Alberta

Alberta's Historic Places

Where else but southern Alberta can you dig for dinosaurs, ride in a horse-drawn carriage and explore a world-famous rockslide all in one summer? With the Experience Alberta’s History Pass, the whole family can visit all of Alberta’s Provincial Historic Sites, Museums and Interpretive Centres for just $75.

As you stand under the huge Brooks Aqueduct, you can see why it was the largest structure of its kind when it was built 100 years ago. Take a tour to learn how this enormous aqueduct channelled water to parched prairie farmland as part of south eastern Alberta’s vital irrigation network. Stop for a picnic at this National and Provincial Historic site.

In the early morning of Apr 29, 1903, a massive rockslide hurled down from Turtle Mountain and buried a portion of the sleeping mining town of Frank. The thunderous roar of Canada’s deadliest rock slide was heard 200 km away. Visit the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre to explore what Frank and the Crowsnest Pass were like before, during and after the slide. Take a rocky hike and breathe in the crisp mountain air.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Fort Macleod is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world’s oldest, largest and best preserved buffalo jumps. Learn why it was used as a hunting ground for 5,500 years and the important role of the bison for the Aboriginal people who hunted here. Hike 2 km of interpretive trails, watch drumming and dancing demonstrations every Wednesday in July and August.

In 1909, Fort Macleod’s Leitch Collieries was one of the most successful enterprises in the Crowsnest Pass with 101 coke ovens, a soaring wooden washery and a massive tipple. Explore the ruins of this huge mine on a self-guided walking tour or register for an interpretive program to find out what drove the Leitch Collieries  out of business just 10 years later.

Since it was built in 1891, Calgary’s Lougheed House has been a state home, housekeeping and nursing school, Canadian Women’s Army Corps barracks and a Second World War blood donor clinic. Now the sandstone mansion houses historical displays, an elegant restaurant and historic themed flower and vegetable gardens. Make a special stop at the colourful butterfly-themed flower beds.

The Okotoks Erratic – the world’s largest known naturally transported rock – weighs 16,500 tonnes and took over 8,000 years to travel from Jasper area on the back of a glacier. This is a perfect place to walk your dog and learn about glacial movement and the importance of the “Big Rock” to Aboriginal people.

Treat the horse admirers in your family to a carriage ride around Cardston’s Remington Carriage Museum and introduce them to the museum’s herd of Clydesdales and Quarter horses. Little ones can also try a new mini-chuckwagon exhibit – while watching actual footage from the championships held here, they’ll feel the ride move as if they’re really driving it around the track.

Dino-obsessed kids can prospect for fossils and work in a simulated quarry in “Jr. Dig Experience”, a program just for pre-teens at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, in Drumheller. The Museum’s new exhibit Alberta’s Last Sea Dragon, solving an ancient puzzle, gets you up close to a 12-metre sea dragon.

On your next daytrip, tour Stephansson House north of Markerville, the famous Icelandic pioneer poet’s early 20th century homestead. Costumed interpreters at the house provide a tour with hands-on demonstrations which may include poetry and baking. Stop at the Historic Markerville Creamery 7km south in Markerville to learn the intricacies of butter making.

Don’t forget about all the exciting Provincial Historic Sites, Museums and Interpretive Centres located in northern Alberta!

Search the Alberta Register of Historic Places to learn more about the above Provincial Historic Sites, which are also formally protected as Provincial Historic Resources.

Save the Date! 2012 Municipal Heritage Forum

Michael

Our sixth annual Municipal Heritage Forum will be held on November 8 and 9 in Calgary. Save the date!

If you’re a municipal staff member, heritage advisory board member or council member and heritage conservation is part of your work you should plan to attend.

A formal invitation for you to join fellow professionals who work for or volunteer with Alberta’s municipalities on conserving locally significant historic places will be issued later this summer.

The Municipal Heritage Forum is an annual opportunity for municipal leaders interested in the identification, evaluation, protection, management and promotion of locally significant historic resources to meet with peers and learn about heritage conservation. We will have presentations from municipalities on aspects of their historic resource conservation program and various presentations from heritage professionals.

The 2012 Forum will be in Calgary, at the Glenbow Museum and the Calgary TELUS Convention Centre. Stay tuned for additional information.

Want to get a sense of what happens at the forum? Contact us, or check out the blog posts about last year’s forum.

Written by: Michael Thome, Municipal Heritage Services Officer

Stephen Avenue National Historic Site of Canada, Calgary

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