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Arthur Erickson’s Dyde House: Rediscovering a hidden masterpiece

Arthur Erickson’s Dyde House: Rediscovering a hidden masterpiece

Jared

Editor’s note: The banner image of Dyde House above was taken by an unknown photographer, Edmonton, 1961-1962. Source: University of Calgary, Canadian Architectural Archives, Arthur Erickson fonds, CA ACU CAA F0002.

Written by: Robb Gilbert, Archivist, Canadian Architectural Archives

Dyde House, located a short distance outside Edmonton, is one of Canadian architect Arthur Erickson’s first notable projects in residential design. The house is located southwest of Edmonton, in Parkland County, on the grounds of the beautiful University of Alberta Botanic Gardens. The project was designed by Erickson in the Spring of 1960 and completed in late 1961 after returning from travels in Japan and Southeast Asia on a Canada Council for the Arts fellowship.

2024 marked the centenary of the birth of Erickson so I wanted to highlight one of his most important works from his early years as an architect: a rare Erickson project located in Alberta and a work that has recently been the subject of a documentary and an ongoing preservation campaign. The Canadian Architectural Archives at the University of Calgary houses the work of Erickson from 1953 to 1973 in the Arthur Erickson fonds. His archive includes thousands of original drawings and dozens of boxes of files documenting the design process behind his revered works of architecture.

Arthur Erickson, Sketch of the Dyde Residence, Edmonton, [1960-1961]. Source: University of Calgary, Canadian Architectural Archives, Arthur Erickson fonds, CA ACU CAA F0002.
Arthur Erickson, Sketch of the interior of the Dyde Residence, Edmonton, [1960-1961]. Source: University of Calgary, Canadian Architectural Archives, Arthur Erickson fonds, CA ACU CAA F0002.

Erickson was born in Vancouver in 1924. He studied at the University of British Columbia and served overseas during World War II in India and Malaysia. Pursuing a career as an architect, he studied at McGill University and established his practice in Vancouver in the mid-1950s. In the span of the next 40 years, Erickson became Canada’s most renowned architect, nationally known but also the one of the few Canadian architects with an international reputation. His work includes icons of Canadian architecture such as Simon Fraser University, the University of Lethbridge, Robson Square and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.

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Architectural camaraderie: the friendship of Tanner, Wallbridge and Imrie

Architectural camaraderie: the friendship of Tanner, Wallbridge and Imrie

Jared

Editor’s note: Jillian Richardson is the curator of Labour and Industry at the Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) and worked on both the Doris Tanner Architecture Collection and Wallbridge & Imrie Architecture Collection there. Devon Owen Moar recently wrote his Masters thesis on Wallbridge & Imrie and worked as the cataloguer for the RAM’s Tanner Collection.

The banner image above is a composite image composed of portraits of the three architects. The portraits of Jean Wallbridge (left) and Mary Imrie (middle) are sourced from the private collection of Mary S. E. Wallbridge-Lillis. The portrait of Doris Newland Tanner (right) is sourced from Cheryl Mahaffy’s “Women Building Alberta” website.

Written by: Jillian Richardson and Devon Owen Moar

While cataloguing the Doris Newland Tanner architecture collection for the Royal Alberta Museum, we noticed something interesting. A few of Doris’s books and technical manuals were inscribed with the names of former colleagues, Mary Louise Imrie and Jean Louise Wallbridge. Finding these inscriptions made us wonder—were these books exchanged as references?  Left to Doris after Jean and Mary’s passings? Or, do they hint at an ongoing professional and personal dialogue that extended far beyond the drafting table? This discovery pointed towards the deeper connection between these three architects, beyond being professional acquaintances. The presence of Wallbridge & Imrie’s names in Doris’s books offers a rare glimpse into the professional and intellectual network of Alberta’s pioneering women in architecture at a formative moment in the province’s history and urban development. 

Exploring these materials raises broader questions about how museum and archival collections—including architectural tools, books, drawings and correspondence—can illuminate the network of support and influence among professional women. While this research is still in its early stages, this small but compelling kernel of evidence points toward a larger story—one of friendship, mutual mentorship, collaboration and lasting bonds.

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Township maps at the Provincial Archives of Alberta

Jared

Written by: Michael Gourlie, Government Records Archivist, Provincial Archives of Alberta

Township maps are a popular research source at the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA). An outcome of the Dominion Lands Surveys beginning in 1881 that captured most of what is now Alberta, the township maps document a grid system using meridians, ranges, townships and sections established by federal surveyors. Known as the Alberta Township System (ATS), this grid forms the basis of legal land descriptions used for Alberta land titles to the present day.

The original township maps were subsequently published in several editions, with the published maps used for a variety of operational purposes. They acted as a template or index for various offices to identify land uses for programs such as grazing leases, timber berths, mineral leases, land grants and homestead applicants. They also provided a standardized perspective to administer and oversee land use.

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Where Wallbridge and Imrie lived and worked: a quick guided tour of Six Acres

Where Wallbridge and Imrie lived and worked: a quick guided tour of Six Acres

Jared

Editor’s note: The dwelling Wallbridge and Imrie created remains standing today, bequeathed to the Province of Alberta upon Mary’s death along with several other parcels of land. It is still owned, managed and maintained by the province, with its current tenants being the Land Stewardship Centre. However, its name has since shifted to “Imrie House.”

The author, Devon Moar, recently completed his Master’s thesis on this very topic.

Written by: Devon Owen Moar

First, I want to open with a quote from the poet Muriel Rukeyser:

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”

The hope is that this line sets the tone for how I believe this dwelling exists, shaped both by structure and story. This place is not only a physical, humble shelter but holds a profound account of its inhabitants.

Welcome to Six Acres

Gathering at Six Acres in the Living Room, back inscription: “French Class Finish, 1971”. Source: Private collection of Mary S. E. Wallbridge-Lillis.

Six Acres is a place where architecture, nature, and personal stories blend into one remarkable narrative. The following isn’t just a tour of a building; it’s an adventure through the living history of a place that served as both an everyday sanctuary and a bustling office for two groundbreaking Albertan women, Jean Wallbridge and Mary Imrie. Now, I’m going to share some anecdotes, quirks, and standout moments that make Six Acres far more than just a simple structure.

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John Utendale: From the Monarchs to the Miracle on Ice

Jared

Editor’s note: All images below courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Alberta.

Written by: Michael Gourlie, Government Records Archivist, Provincial Archives of Alberta

From his start playing hockey on the northside rinks of Edmonton to winning a gold medal the 1980 Winter Olympics, John Utendale had a remarkable career as an athlete and coach, but his achievements during his career as educator were no less distinguished.

Born in Edmonton in 1937, Utendale played rugby, baseball and hockey while attending Victoria Composite High School.  He continued to play softball at the provincial level while also playing hockey for the Edmonton Oil Kings.  It was his skill as a hockey player that landed him a contract in 1957 with the Detroit Red Wings organization as a member of the Edmonton Flyers of the Western Hockey League. Utendale would become the first Black hockey player to sign a contract with an NHL team.

Utendale with the Edmonton Oil Kings, Oct. 26, 1954.

He later played for the Quebec Aces, joining Willie O’Ree, who broke the National Hockey League’s colour barrier, and Stan Maxwell for an all-Black line.  He also played for the Windsor Bulldogs and for teams in Sudbury and Windsor.

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New Town Centre 58°

New Town Centre 58°

Jared

Editor’s note: David Murray is an architect in Edmonton and met Arni Fullerton in 1981 while working for him on an alternate, traditional plan for the development of a new town at 58˚ N as required by his contract with the province, led by Montreal architect Ray Affleck. Fullerton and his wife Merle were interviewed on Zoom in April 2024 at their home in Nanaimo.

All images courtesy of the Arni Fullerton Collection at the Provincial Archives of Alberta, unless otherwise noted.

Written by: David Murray, Architect AAA, FRAIC

In the late 1970s, the Alberta Government’s Department of Housing and Public Works, initiated a planning process with the intent to design a new community in northern Alberta, north of Fort McMurray, specifically to house workers and their families at the expanding oil sands extraction developments. It would be a most imaginative and provocative approach to living in the north, the culmination of a lot of precedent research by a team of planning and engineering visionaries.

Illustration prepared by David Murray.

Architect Arni Fullerton was hired by the Alberta government to design the proposed new town. His vision, on which he collaborated with Britain’s Buro Happold Engineers and German structural engineer Frei Otto, was a 35 acre air-supported, weather-controlled, transparent dome, covering a town centre that incorporated housing, recreation fields, a sports complex, commercial properties, a shopping centre, schools, an amphitheatre, parks and a children’s plaza. The town was intended to grow incrementally, outside the town centre dome, over time. All parts of the town would be connected by public transit.  

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One building, three stores: building recycling at Pakan

One building, three stores: building recycling at Pakan

Jared

Written by: Suzanna Wagner, Program Coordinator, Victoria Settlement and Fort George & Buckingham House

The Hudson’s Bay Company kept a close eye out for anywhere their business might flourish. So, in 1864, when it came to their attention that large groups of people were gathering at the McDougall Methodist Mission on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River (south of the present-day town of Smoky Lake), setting up a fur trade fort next door was an enticing prospect. Rather than reprise the “Fort White Earth” name of the HBC fort that had operated in the vicinity at the turn of the century, they chose to call the place “Victoria Post.” Victoria was the same name as the mission, and it was a “post” because it wasn’t large enough to merit being called a fort. Despite the technicalities, most people call it Fort Victoria.

By 1874, the fort contained the Clerk’s Quarters (still at Victoria Settlement Provincial Historic Site today), a warehouse, a house for other fort employees, a blacksmith shop, a stable, a dairy, a palisade, and of particular interest, the trade store. The trade store was built by local men Sam Whitford and Joe Turner, likely between 1866 and 1867. The humble post-in-sill built trade store went through almost as many changes as did the community which surrounded it, and unique within the history of Victoria Settlement, a series of photographs have shed light on many of the changes this building underwent.

Artist’s conception of Fort Victoria, based on Richard Hardisty’s 1874 scale map. Source: Government of Alberta, 1971.
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Sapaces Gambler Okayas Meskanas: The Jean Baptiste Gambler Historic Trail

Sapaces Gambler Okayas Meskanas: The Jean Baptiste Gambler Historic Trail

Jared

Editor’s note: The banner image above, of Sapaces (seated fifth from left) and family at the Athabasca Bridge opening ceremonies in 1952, is courtesy of the Athabasca Archives.

Written by: Darren DeCoine, Bigstone Cree Nation and Laura Golebiowski, Indigenous Consultation Adviser

Historic trails crisscross much what is now known as Alberta. They serve as reminders of past occupation and travel and, in the case of Bigstone Cree Nation, continue to be used to access sites and landscapes significant to Indigenous Peoples. This is the story of one historic trail, known locally today as Sapaces Gambler Okayas Meskanas: the Jean Baptiste Gambler Historic Trail.

The Matchemuttaw and Gambler families signed Treaty as part of the Peeayseas First Nation near Lac La Biche. They travelled northwest and established themselves in the Kito Sakahikan (Calling Lake) area by 1875, and transferred to the Bigstone Band in 1911. By 1915, patriarch Sapaces (colonial name Jean Baptiste Gambler) had built a house, storehouse and stable along the north shoreline of Kito Sakahikan, and was advocating for reserve lands to government representatives.  

In the early 1900s, a trail extended between Kito Sakahikan and Wapaskow (Wabasca), connecting the families and communities contemporarily comprising Bigstone Cree Nation. In 1914, the route was identified as a “pack trail” on the Pelican District sectional map; a parallel trail to the west was the, “sleigh road from Athabaska to Wabiskaw Settlement.” Sapaces and his descendants travelled the region on these trails for generations.

Alberta Section Map No. 454, Pelican Sheet. Second Edition 1st May, 1914.
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Happy holidays from RETROactive

Jared

Wishing everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday season! The images below, courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Alberta, were taken from the John Glascow Family Christmas, Edmonton, 1963.

Far away and close to home: An Alberta historian travels to Orkney

Far away and close to home: An Alberta historian travels to Orkney

Jared

Editor’s note: All images in this post were taken by Suzanna Wagner. The image above is of a view across the Stromness Harbour, Orkney.

Written by: Suzanna Wagner, Program Coordinator, Victoria Settlement and Fort George & Buckingham House

Have you ever travelled vast distances only to find pieces of home?

Intent on exploring new vistas, seeing the ocean, and walking through Neolithic sites, this Canadian historian jetted off to Orkney, Scotland for a vacation. Orkney and Canada share a strong historic connection since the Hudson’s Bay Company hired a great many of their labourers from Orkney. Working with fur trade history made me aware of this, but the only concession my trip plan made to the Orkney-Canada connection was an as-of-yet unread copy of Patricia McCormack’s paper, “Lost Women: Native Wives in Orkney and Lewis” tucked into my suitcase.

After three flights, I arrived bleary-eyed on the largest island of this archipelago north of the Scottish mainland, feeling as though I had travelled to a rather remote part of the world. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Orkney may feel isolated today, but when the Atlantic was bridged with boats instead of planes flying out of densely populated southern urban centres, Orkney was much more central.

Maps of the world on display in Orkney did not have the equator as the centre of the image. Rather, they tilted the globe northward, bringing into focus areas of the northern Atlantic which usually shrink into obscurity- including Orkney itself. By changing the angle from which I considered the globe, I was able to see connections that had never before been made clear to me. One of those connections bridged the wide watery expanse between Orkney and western Canada.

Orkney’s northerly latitude made it a geographically convenient place for the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). The oceanic entrance to the Hudson Bay is substantially further north than the mouth of the St. Lawrence seaway, which means that starting the journey from Orkney makes far more sense than leaving from a “more central” port in southern England. Hudson Bay-bound ships “called in” (made a stop at) at the Stromness harbour on the western edge of Orkney as their last landing place before braving the Atlantic crossing. Once in this harbour, they visited Login’s Well (pronounced “Logan’s”) to fill their all-important supplies of drinking water.

Login’s well today: an important part of a Stromness historic walking tour, but if you want to refill your water bottle, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

But it wasn’t just Orkney’s fresh water the HBC wanted. Orkney’s men were also in high demand.

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