Tag: City of Edmonton

The Orange Hall in Edmonton was designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 2007. In order for a site to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it must possess province-wide significance for either its history or architecture. 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. Below is some of the historical information used in the evaluation of the Orange Hall.

The Orange Order was founded in Ireland in 1795 as a fraternal social organization devoted to upholding the cause of the (Anglican) Church of Ireland and exposing and denouncing the purported evils of Catholicism.  It was named for William of Orange, who, with Queen Mary, was King of England from 1688 to 1696.  The Order began as a grass-roots organization, but made inroads into upper-class British Society in the 1820’s, when the King’s brother, the Duke of Cumberland, became a member and was elected Grand Master.  On the whole, with its rituals and penchant for secrecy, it appears to have served as an Anglican counterpart to the Presbyterian oriented Masons.  In time, however, it attracted people from all areas of British society who had strong anti-Catholic feelings.  Read more →