Experience the Bohemian Side of Old Strathcona

Experience the Bohemian Side of Old StrathconaCourtesy of Alhambra Books, 10115 - 81 Avenue

East of the tracks is becoming the artistic area of Old Strathcona, supplying must-haves to artists of all media.

— Alhambra Books

— Paint Spot

— Clay Works

— Stained Glass

— Silk Screen Shops

— Videodrome (Alternative Video)

— And More

The area has a history of its own. According to the book Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots, after the railway came in 1891, the east side of the tracks was earmarked to be the industrial area, with workshops, grain elevators and mills (hence the name of the one-time Mill Restaurant). But residences quickly mixed in and the community of Ritchie (south of Whyte Avenue between the railway line and Mill Creek ravine) became an enclave of German-speakers. They attended the German language Trinity Lutheran Church and worked at local German delicatessens and workshops. Zeidler’s woodworking factory at 10066 Whyte Avenue employed many German-speakers, some hired as soon as they got off the train at the nearby railway station.

There was also Minchau’s blacksmith shop building, built in 1925 and still standing after almost 90 years. Adolf Minchau, of German ancestry, came to Strathcona from Russia in 1907. He became a prominent businessman and landlord on Whyte Avenue, and a leader in the Canadian Society for German Culture. But during WWII the government, suspecting him of disloyalty, interned him and confiscated his Whyte Avenue buildings.

The German businesses in Ritchie are almost all gone. The Whyte Avenue Zeidler’s factory is no more, but many buildings on Whyte Avenue are the original pre-war (that is, World War One!) buildings. You can even see the rickety outside wooden stairs on some. This area has again and again shown itself to be unusual. In 1966 a tall tipi behind a store attracted the attention of the Edmonton Journal. A family was living in it, but without running water it was condemned by and city inspectors and the family had to find other accommodations. One of the largest survivors is the large building at 10008 Whyte. This building held Moreau & Sons store in 1912.

A short distance behind the Moreau Building is the old King Edward School, at 101 and 85th, built in 1914. This school replaced the 1902 Grandin Street School nearby, and in turn its students moved to a new King Edward School which opened in 1949 across the street.

Other character homes from the pre-war period can be seen scattered through the Strathcona Community League area, around King Edward School. It seems that finer larger ones can be seen north of Whyte Avenue and sometimes quite quaint smaller ones can be seen to the south. In the early days, when many of these were built, the only dry and free way across the river for a vehicle, horse-drawn in those days, was the Low-Level Bridge, opened in 1900. Thus those doing business in Edmonton preferred to live near Strathcona Road/99 Street, the route to Edmonton, and paid extra for the privilege. (Continued on overside)

Old Strathcona Before the Great Depression

The history presented here was taken from Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots by Tom Monto, available at Alhambra Books. This 500-page tell-all is the story of southside Edmonton from its start as a scattering of Metis/Indian pioneer cabins to a bustling section of the City of Edmonton in the boom times of the 1920s. Fort Edmonton and tradition drew many First Nations people to the area. The old ways changed dramatically with the coming of the CPR in 1891, giving rise to a European-style commercial centre of South Edmonton. The young community became the town of Strathcona in 1899, then a city in 1907. Amalgamation with the larger city of Edmonton in 1912 ended the community’s separate existence, but residents of “Old Strathcona” played a large role in the life of the combined cities, as the last section of the book reveals.

Today, 99 Street has preserved many of the old buildings that for decades have housed small shops for those passing by or living nearby. Many remember Tubby Bateman’s IGA on 99th. He owned and operated his own shop, and he appreciated his customers, most of whom he knew personally. The money he earned he put back into the community with selfless acts of giving. Another good reason to buy local, from local businesses. The corner of 99 Street and Whyte Avenue is the site of a fine but understated bank building. Its smoothly curved walls enhance the look of the corner.

The first church east of the tracks was an 1893 woodframe Holy Trinity Anglican Church at the corner of 100th and 81st. The wood Anglican building was moved a few blocks away, and in 1912 it was replaced by a clinker brick building, still standing at 101 and 84th. the minister’s rectory at

An historic German-language Lutheran Trinity Church now stands on that site. A German-language church, built of wood, was put on the religious corner in 1902. In 1914 the congregation built a brick church, which is now a registered historic site. The English-style rectory across the street is worthy of a look as well.

Other registered historic resources east of the tracks (named after their first resident) include:

10065 - 80 Avenue Adolph Adams Residence,

9633 - 83 Avenue Trinity Church rectory

9938 - 85 Avenue Thomas Scott Residence at

9944 - 85 Avenue Joseph Graydon

9945 – 85 Avenue Alexander Benson

Many historic East Strathcona buildings are now gone. Old buildings on the north side of 80 Avenue east of 102 burnt down in a spectacular flame around the turn of the century (Y2K that is). It started about 9 am and even by 4 pm additional firetrucks, from Stony plain and Beaumont, were still arriving. Telephone poles across the back alley show evidence of the conflagration.

A brick building built by J.J. McKenzie stood proudly at the corner of 102 Street and Whyte Avenue for almost 100 years but then was destroyed by a fire around 1998. Old woodframe buildings between 80 and 81 Avenues on the east side of 102 Street also burnt down in 1986. These included a building that had once housed J.J. McKenzie’s car garage and dealership. In 1912, a garage employee took a car, “a six-cylinder Everitt”, out for a test drive. Going west on Whyte Avenue, he met a horse-drawn wagon coming toward him on the wrong side of the road. The test-driver took the car off he road and was finally able to stop it after it had crashed through a fence. The horse and vehicle had been thrown down but suffered no lasting injury. In the 1960s, one of these old wooden buildings housed the Yardbird Suite folk club. (Edmonton Journal, December 9, 1966; Old Strathcona Before the Great Depression, p. 336)

Speaking of transportation. In the old days, a streetcar used to come south on the High Level Bridge then east on Whyte Avenue to 91 Street. The bridge across Mill Creek used today was built in 1961. It replaced a 1911 bridge angled northeast-southwest. The 1911 bridge facilitated travel as previous to its opening the best route was a “low-level” bridge at Wye Road (today’s 76 Avenue).

Worries about the safety of the streetcar crossing the CPR railway line caused the part of the route east of 104 Street to be replaced by buses in 1944. Eerily, the last streetcar crossing the railway line at Whyte Avenue did in fact crash into the side of CPR train. Luckily there were no injuries. Old Strathcona Before the Great Depression, p. 314)

The east view of the Strathcona Railway station is at least as good as any other. The octagonal baywindows harken to Scottish roots perhaps in reference to the Scottish ancestry of many CPR officials. The building’s wide bellcast (overhanging) eaves remind some of Oriental stylings. The station’s east view was used as a backdrop for a SNL skit entitled “Polynesia Town.” Yes, the skit’s director well-remembered John Candy once writhed in the snow in pretend anguish in front of 10119 - 81 Avenue. Unfortunately it seems this view will be obstructed by a new mega complex planned to be built there.

About the same time the station was built, CPR built a new roundhouse, in which railcars could be serviced and turned around on a “turntable.” This once-notable infrastructure investment can now be seen (at a distance) at 78 and 100th.

The first church east of the tracks was an 1893 woodframe Anglican Holy Trinity Church at the corner of 100th and 81st. The wood Anglican building was moved a few blocks away, and in 1912 it was replaced by a clinker brick building, still standing at 101 and 84th. the minister’s rectory at

An historic German-language Lutheran Trinity Church now stands on that site. A German-language church, built of wood, was put on the religious corner in 1902. In 1914 the congregation built a brick church, which is now a registered historic site. The English-style rectory across the street is worthy of a look as well.

Other residences registered as historic resources east of the tracks (named after their first resident) include:

10065 - 80 Avenue Adolph Adams Residence,

9633 - 83 Avenue Trinity Church rectory

9938 - 85 Avenue Thomas Scott Residence at

9944 - 85 Avenue Joseph Graydon

9945 – 85 Avenue Alexander Benson

And north of here a single block at the top of Scona Road is almost a time capsule. 92 and 93 Avenue east of 99 Street have no less than 10 historically-recognized homes.

The small–town character of Old Strathcona can be seen at the corner of 76 Avenue and 96 Street, where old-style strip malls provide needed services and goods to local customers. Another at 66 Avenue and 96 Street does the same for Hazeldean. (People looking for an available doctor should check out the new one here—just starting up business, he is advertizing for patients!) The corner grocery store next door (Shop Easy!) is a case where small can be good.

The street where John Candy once emoted -- 81 Avenue east of the tracks -- is carrying on his artistic drive. With its old-style small-town diagonal parking and historic buildings still hanging on and now finding new uses, some of the younger computer set may think they are in a different city. Certainly it is a world apart from the chain stores and the plastic existence found elsewhere. The area is working its way toward a future where humans and their potential, artistic and otherwise, will be respected, where money is not the real bottom line, a place where , writers, actors and artists of all kinds, storekeepers, customers and friends can find a common meeting point.

East Strathcona is the place where they are meeting.

Alhambra Books   10115- 81 Avenue

More than 40,000 books, used, and collectible.

Specializing in classic literature, spirituality, technical

and history, see above!

Historic Tour of Mill Creek Ravine

Notes from a Walk in Mill Creek

Conducted by David Borgstrom and Tom Monto, September 2010

Historic features of Mill Creek

Moving away from River

Bird’s mill remains (post in dry gulch)

Twin City coal mine evidences

Western Clays brick plant evidences

Now-disused roads west of railway line appear as open strips and are sometimes used as informal footpaths today

Vogel site (little evidence except Vogel Hill Road)

Bonnie Doon Swimming Pool

Railway trestle bridges

Papaschase Indian Band grounds south of 76 Avenue

Below is rough draft of a walking guide to Mill Creek starting at Whyte Avenue and moving north toward the river

…

Below John Logan’s house on 83 Avenue is an old stone fireplace and chimney, the remains of old squatter’s huts in use in 1910s or 1920s.

(see Ben Swankey of Work and Wages, which Jim Selby distributed to his class)

Nearby are old building sites that were not served by roads. (perhaps those once owned by Elmer Luck?) perhaps poorly-paid miners or packing plant workers lived there they could not afford cars anyway so did not need a road adjacent to their homes.

---------

Bonnie Doon Swimming Pool

…

88 Avenue steps descend to Mill Creek. You come to the Vogel Hill Road, the name referring to the large business enterprise (packing plant) owned by Wilhelm Vogel that was once located here.

North (to the right of the steps as you descend) is level ground where sat Vogel’s residence (removed in 1980s)

The house across Vogel Hill Road (at 9644 - 88 Avenue ?, replaced an earlier one, which had been used as on office for the packing plant.

Mill Creek flooded in 1976. The Noel? Kinniard (sp?) family living at ?? “Guinnard”? but at the time the building site was lower in the valley and beside the creek. The family living there was used to periodic flooding. But this flood was worse and the family ended up climbing on the roof for safety . They eventually were rescued by the fire department launch.

Cross the creek on the semi-elliptical vertical? culvert (concrete tunnel that carries Mill Creek underfoot). The culvert may be historic, maybe 100 years old.

The open area here was the site of the Vogel packing plant

The first plant, built of wood, burnt down, in part due to lack of water. A new plant built of brick was built.

To remedy the water situation, Vogel dug a well. It was hand dug so it had to be large enough to wield a shovel inside it. When it was finished, it was so large across that it had steps on one side.

The well has been filled in and is not visible.

It was near this spot that the Overlanders, gold-seekers on their way to the Cariboo Gold Rush of the1860s, crossed the ravine. As a member of the group later recalled, after two months on the road trip from Winnipeg, the 200 or so gold-seekers arrived at a particularly steep creek running into the river valley. The travellers had to cut a path through the dense growth of trees and brush, then use ropes to lower each wagon one at a time and to pull each one up the far bank. The ravine made for hard work. But a few hundred metres farther on, they looked down on the river flats—and on Fort Edmonton on the opposite bank of the river. They had arrived in “civilization.” (Supplemental information below)

Climb the hill. A triangular intersection of walking paths, near a look-out, is built on the site of the spur line that served the packing plant.

In the trees uphill is a brick foundation for an old garage, now gone.

Proceed north atop the ridge.

The Pre-WWI Western Clays plant sat in the open space west of the main walking trail (the old rail line). This plant operated from 1912 to 1914. According to Jack Manson, it was located south of Pete Andersons’ plant on Mill Creek, on lots 1-13. Block 126 and Lots 1-18, Block 130, Blk G, Riverlot #17). Western Clays (1913) Ltd., if it started in operation in 1913, was fast off the mark as the Edmonton Bulletin of April 28, 1913 announced that the plant had 300,000 bricks on hand. However the bricks produced by the plant were of poor quality as they had many cracks and were prone to premature disintegration. Apparently, this, plus the general slowdown caused by the world war, caused the business to close after only a couple of years. (Jack Manson, Bricks in Alberta, p. 115)

The EY&P railway…

Nearby steps lead to a flat area at the top of the ravine. This flat area is the site of the old road that served the brick plant and the Vogel packing plant

Half-way up the steps, to the north, the right side, is an old road grade winding into the trees (It is most visible by a person walking north on the main walking trail and looking left. It is easily discernible on old historic aerial photographs.

Twin City Coal Mine

When you come to where a “Multi-use Trail” comes out of the ravine on the right, look to the left. Slightly above the main footpath is an old beam lying on (in) the ground. Above that is an open space, probably the site of the tipple that carried coal conveyor-style over the rail line and from which coal was dropped into rail cars.

Remains of supports for the tipple lie east of the main walking trail. They are earthen bulwarks. You can see more easily when the leaves are gone.

The Twin City coal mine was a large operation with veins stretching underground in three (or more ) directions. One long working stretched almost to the river, ending near the old site of the John G. Auto Building. (refer to Taylor’s Coal mine Workings publication)

Rubble mound west of main footpath

openings for old roads off to the side of the footpath

Locate the fire hydrant opposite 9727 - 93 Avenue.

Walking into woods north of this landmark you will find the site of various mine buildings. Large pieces of conglomerate foundation are the remains of the change shack. Where the mine’s (number) employees prepared or debriefed after their shifts. (how many shifts did the mine work in a day?) One piece supported the north-east (south-east?) wall of the shack.

Northeast of these remains you will find a depression. This is the remains of the “lift hole,” which contained the lift that transported the miners below ground. Metal rods stick out of ground in at least two places

West of this depression is the historic vent shaft. Circular in size although one side is hidden by dirt, Quite large and lined with brick. It has been filled in but the “filling” has subsided, exposing the feature once more.

Returning to the street notice the fine, historic homes along this picturesque street. Proceed west to intersection and turn right.

An open area on your right (opposite 9316 98 Street) was once protected by a fence. Remains of the fence are still visible in some places. This may have been a garden, or a corral for the workers’ horses or for the pit-ponies that pulled miniature railway cars back and forth down in the mine.

Walking into the open area, you may find other evidences of past residences or business. The willow bunch offers some tantalizing evidences of past human activity.

A large, long rubble heap can be found in the trees to the south, roughly opposite 9340 - 98 Street

At the east end of the open space, away from the street, you can see reminders of an old building site.

Returning to the main walking trail (the old rail line).

At the top of the hill to the east is a neighbourhood that since its creation has been a toney part of town. During the City of Strathcona days, it was known as Knobb Hill, a reference to an exclusive part of town in San Francisco?. On one of the highest points there, you can see an old residence, now a recognized historic building. The Molstad House, at 9633 - 95 Avenue, is a private residence and not open to the public.

You are now near a modern footbridge across Mill Creek The bridge is number 278 as a small plaque informs you.

Proceeding along the creek you come to the large culvert/tunnel that carries Mill Creek under the Old Timers’ Cabin. The creek is underground for the entire rest of its journey to the river.

Climbing the large berm that forces the creek to enter the tunnel, you find a pleasant park. On the right (east) among the trees you may notice some old building sites, where private homes nestled in this park-like setting. Caragatas and maples still grow where these early residents planted them to decorate and shade their homes.

A walk past the Conservatory and along the now-dry bed of Mill Creek will take you to the site of William Bird’s mill, ca. 1874. (see supplemental information below)

Nearby is the site of one of the area’s first coal mines. In 1882, local entrepreneur Donald Ross started a simple “gopher hole” mine near the by-then-abandoned mill. Due to concern about the mine undermining the community’s future roads and buildings, Ross was refused permission to develop the mines and it was closed. (see supplemental information below)

1862 The Overlanders

After a two-month trip from Winnipeg, the “Overlanders” arrived at a particularly steep creek running into the river valley. The travellers had to cut a path through the dense growth of trees and brush, then use ropes to lower each wagon one at a time and pull each one up the far bank. The ravine made for hard work. But a few 100 metres farther on, they looked down on the river flats—and on Fort Edmonton on the opposite bank of the river. They had arrived in “civilization.” They had crossed Mill Creek ravine near today’s 89 Avenue.

The group stopped to rest in Fort Edmonton, where 60 men abandoned the trip to try their luck in the Edmonton area. The others, including the Schubert family, took to the trail again, first going to St. Albert, a mission established by Father Lacombe only a few years earlier. After passing St. Albert, the group was again forced to break a trail through wilderness that had not yet seen a wagon.

In October, after loss of life and serious danger and hardships, the survivors arrived in the Cariboo gold country. Historical records say only one of them made any kind of money out of the Gold Rush. (Monto, Old Strathcona Before the Great Depression)

Mill Creek

Mill Creek starts near 23 Avenue east of Meridian Street. Meridian Street marks today’s city limits at that point. The creek pours into the North Saskatchewan River near 96A Street. Tunnels carry the creek’s main branch underground from south of Wagner Road to 69 Avenue, intermittently through the ravine north of there and in its final length before joining the river.

A smaller branch, running from 54 Avenue and 94 Street, joins the main creek near 73 Avenue.

Mill Creek has had several different names: Stoney Creek, Bird Creek, Mill Creek. The district of Edmonton known as “Bruderfeld” by its early Moravian settlers was renamed “Mill Woods” after the creek that runs through it, as well as to meet developers’ need for a mock-pastoral identification for that suburb. Other names of this ilk are “Forestlawn” and “Pollard Meadows.” (Monto, Old Strathcona Before the Great Depression)

1870s Mill on “Mill” Creek

Permanent settlement in South Edmonton began in the 1870s as part of the settlement surrounding the Hudson’s Bay Company fort. Southsiders were not organized into their own group separate from the north side. In those early days, the “Edmonton Settlement” consisted of some farms, churches and businesses, strung along the river, the main route of traffic, and centred around the old Fort Edmonton on the site of today’s Legislative Grounds.

Across the river from Rossdale, which was the site of much fort activity throughout most of the 19th century, lie two different river flats: Walterdale in one direction, Cloverdale in another. Cloverdale seems to have been the location of the first southside offshoot of the fur trade.

In 1871, the HBC directed their resident miller William Bird to build a water-powered flour mill on the southside of the river near Mill Creek, in Cloverdale. According to one source, a sole relic marks the site of this mill. A wooden piling 56 centimetres (22 inches) in diameter stands in the abandoned creek bottom east of the Low Level Bridge. The piling is just northwest of the north end of the pedestrian overpass at 98 Avenue.

Over the next year, Bird carefully chose his mill stones, and it was arranged for a dismantled mill to be brought from England. The machinery was carried to Edmonton by oxcart.

Despite this investment of energy, the mill was not a success. The mill got going in spring 1874 and continued in use only until about 1878. Bird found the water level in the creek was undependable and often too low to power the mill properly. He switched to using a horse on a treadmill but found he could not compete with the steam-driven flour mills others were using.

After the mill’s demise, Bird shifted to farming in the area of his house, on land that would be identified in the 1882 survey as the north half of Riverlot #19. His farm also included upland that would become the southern half of Riverlot #23.

It appears that for many years families had been settling in the area around the fort but only in the 1870s, were their names recorded. Metis families such as the Daigneault family, the Donald family, Charles Gauthier, George Kipling, Joseph McDonald, John Ashen and the Garneau family, were recorded as establishing pioneer farms on the southside of the river in the 1870s. With the exception of the Garneau family, headed by acclaimed violinist Laurent Garneau, and Joe McDonald, member of an illustrious HBC family and later a prominent land-owner in the City of Strathcona, these families drifted, or were pushed, out of the area within a few years.

Coal mines

Since the 1860s, local residents dug coal from exposed coal seams in the area. The miners established informal “gopher hole” mines, usually by digging horizontally into the banks. The most suitable locations for these small “drift” mines on the southside were places where coal seams were exposed in the Mill Creek ravine, at the east end of Cloverdale (on Dowler’s Hill and in the Dowler’s Creek ravine) and in the river valley “cliffs” below Scona Hill and today’s Old Timers’ Cabin.

The exact number of mines in the Edmonton area will never be known as many small informal mines were never registered. Official government recording of mines was not established until 1897. Sometimes these mines pose a problem when the ground above slumps into the mines’ tunnels and cavities. A catalogue of Edmonton coal mines, published in 1971, stated that probably 90 percent of the slumping had already occurred, but that still leaves 10 percent still to fall.

According to the Edmonton Bulletin, a mining company owned by “Mr. Moore and W. Ross (interpreted to be Donald Ross by area historians) opened a coal mine in Riverlot #17 North in late 1880. The mine, located near William Bird’s old mill, had two “gopher hole” mineshafts, . Each of them burrowed about 30 metres into the west bank of Mill Creek ravine. In 1882, the mine employed six men and operated year-round. It thus was Edmonton’s first year-round commercial coal mine and was said to be one of the largest of the “gopher hole” coal mines in the area. It produced coal for the Hudson’s Bay Company steamboats during the summer and for heating of buildings during the winter.

The Edmonton Bulletin reported, “It was the intention of the proprietors to ship the coal to Winnipeg but as it was found impossible to make satisfactory arrangements [for steamboat transportation] the project was abandoned.”

Be that as it may, Moore and Ross were apparently forbidden from developing the mine as it was seen to be within the future boundaries of Edmonton. There was concern about the mine undermining the streets and houses that would be built there. Permission to enlarge the mine was refused, despite one of the owners declaring he “had squatter’s claims to the ground.” Although short-lived, this mine was recorded on the first land survey for the area, conducted in 1882.

The Mill Creek Ravine park map indicates a feature identified as #18 nearby but what the number indicates is not clear.

Perhaps someone at 496-7275 can provide more information.

A history of automobiles in Edmonton

Edmonton Car History
By Tom Monto

I hope you will enjoy an offering of jottings on the history of automobiles in Edmonton.

George Foote Foss is reported as building the first automobile in Canada in 1896 in Quebec. He made one car—no, not one model—one car. This same year, Henry Ford made his first automobile. It took him two years to recover from the shock, and he made another in 1898. In 1903, he founded the Ford Motor Company and geared up for mass production. However, it was not until 1908 that the first Model T came off the Ford assembly line. To get this simple $825 car going, drivers had to stand in front of it and whip a crank around. A dismantled 1908 Ford came up for auction in 1965 and the Calgary Antique Car Club and Wetaskiwin’s Stan Reynolds both bid hard to get it. The car club was successful in the end. But Reynolds amassed a great collection of other old automobiles, now to be seen at the Alberta-Reynolds Museum in Wetaskiwin.)

Getting back to the history “already in progress”—the Winton automobile factory at Cleveland, Ohio produced 21 cars in its first year of production, 1898. This was the first commercial manufacture of automobiles. In 1899, the company became the largest manufacturer of gas-powered automobiles in the United States by making more than one hundred automobiles.

In 1907, a successful Canadian carriage maker switched to making automobiles. The McLaughlin company, based outside Oshawa, later merged with other companies to become General Motors of Canada.

To my knowledge, there have been no automobiles built in Edmonton, although in the 30s two young Edmonton lads invented an early snowmobile, driven by a large propeller at the back to push it across slippery ice and snow. In 1914, several city folk planned to establish a car factory in Norwood. A Rex Motors Company factory, to be owned by P.S. Oser, Charles J. McMillan and A.A. Howard, was to produce so-called Baby Rex’s. These 16-horsepower vehicles, according to a newspaper advertisement of the projected factory, could develop a speed of 90 km/h and “in ordinary running will do 45 miles on one gallon of gas,” that is about 18 kilometres/litre. The engines would be air-cooled so, as the Bulletin pointed out, there would be nothing to freeze. The $500 car was to be a light 750 pounds (340 kilos) and to be equipped with a self-starter, eliminating the Model T’s crank start. However, despite the virtues of its expected product, the factory apparently never got into gear.

In the early days, three different modes of propulsion were considered: steam, electricity and gasoline.

At least two models of electric cars, cars that ran on battery charges, were produced in Canada. The “Canadian General Electric” was manufactured in 1899 in Peterborough, Ontario, while the next year, the electric “Canadian Motor” went into production. These cars could travel 70 kilometres on their battery charge.

Steam propulsion had a couple things going for it. You could burn whatever was handy… wood, hay, straw, etc. The heat was used to boil water, getting motive power from the incredible expansion exhibited by steam. Also, steam engines did not require transmission, so unlike what many might think nowadays, a Stanley steamer was fast enough to hold the world’s land speed title—until an automobile overtook it in 1911. The Stanley Company produced 200 vehicles in 1898 and 1899, more than any maker of gas-powered automobiles at that time.

The new ways to get around caused concern for many. The noisy vehicles scared horses, flighty enough even before these new irritants. The automobiles’ uncertain mechanics and inexperienced, unlicensed drivers were often a danger to all around them. The Red Deer News asked in 1906 “Is the automobile trying to make the mule look like a safe animal for children to play with?”

However, by 1910, gas-powered automobiles, and their drivers, had gained a better reputation. The “gas-burners” were becoming both cheaper and more reliable, and mechanics had figured a way to install an electric start, getting rid of the dangerous, quirky crank start.

The first automobile to come to Edmonton was gasoline-powered. Jasper Avenue merchant Joe Morris brought a two-cylinder Ford in by train from Winnipeg in 1904. The car was carried by the CPR to Calgary then up the Calgary & Edmonton Railway to the railway town of Strathcona. The Edmonton, Yukon & Pacific Railway could have carried it on to Edmonton, but at that time, that railway stopped just across the river at a little station below McDougall Hill. Apparently Morris figured Strathcona offered better expertise and resources for the lengthy process of fueling and energizing the stubborn mechanical beast. Whyte Avenue confectioner Art Baalim helped Joe Morris unload his car from its railway flatcar and then helped in the two-hour struggle to start it with the hand-crank. Becoming enthusiastic about the world of cars, Baalim later owned a Lethbridge car dealership. When the engine of Morris’s car finally sputtered to life, Morris drove the car down Strathcona Road and across the bridge. The two-cylinder car was so underpowered that it could not push itself up the steep McDougall Hill, emphasizing the need for a “high-level” bridge to connect the two communities. The High Level Bridge was to open 10 years later.

The following day, Morris’s car became the first in Edmonton to run out of gas, when Morris and a friend went for a drive. Morris ingeniously borrowed some benzene (clothes cleaner) from a farmer, and the car stuttered its way home. By the way, the City of Edmonton Archives has a good photo of this car (EA-10-2781), for those interested in paying a visit to this overwhelming resource of information on Edmonton’s history.

Morris’s car stood out in Edmonton’s story, being the only one of its kind in the city for a while and then one of only a few for much longer. When Grace Martin married fellow teacher D.C. McEachern, it was Joe Morris’ car that drove the couple to their wedding. Grace Martin has a school named after her. As well her childhood house (8324 - 106 Street) is a historic site in Old Strathcona.

Morris also got the first license plates in the city, when such things became required, in 1905.

In 1906, there were only 41 cars in the province and only a double-handful in the Twin Cities, as Edmonton and Strathcona were called at the time. Five southsiders had cars: Chester Martin (Grace Martin’s brother), Judge J.G. Tipton, Premier A.C. Rutherford, businessman Harold Ritchie (with licence number “16”) and public official Delmar Bard. Rutherford never learned to drive, and his teenaged children, Cecil and Hazel (later Hazel McCuaig) chauffeured him around. One old-timer recalled that when Mr. Bard was available on Saturday afternoons, he always had a line-up of kids waiting to go for free automobile rides up and down Whyte Avenue.

Harold Ritchie, whose family was the namesake of the Ritchie area, took Whyte Avenue lawyer Charlie Grant for a ride in 1906. They drove through the woodland trails in Riverlot #5, which a few years later became the home of the U of A. Both were immediately sold on the new technology. Grant became prominent in the Edmonton Automobile and Good Road Association and helped found the Alberta Motor Association (today’s AMA).

General stores, so common in those days, sold many of the supplies required by the pioneering motorists. In the city of Strathcona, a gas station was established at the southeast corner of 105 Street and Whyte Avenue (where a large empty lot is now). Its proprietors, Jack Smith and Lorne Scott, apparently had lots of time on their hands—Strathcona’s few car-owners put their cars up on blocks for the winter. This location later saw the start of the Turnbull Motors mini-empire. Harold and his brother William, grandsons of southside pioneer Robert McKernan, opened the Whyte Avenue Service Station there in 1928. The Depression soon came, William went on to other things, but Harold persevered and eventually came to own five automotive repair and retail operations in the Old Strathcona area.

On the northside, Edmonton’s first service station opened on 103 Avenue near 102 Street around 1910. It had one gas pump and also sold gas in square cans, packed in wooden boxes, two to a box. In 1914, Whyte Avenue Repair and Sales at 8108 - 103 Street advertized crank-less starting systems. Those interested could phone 31534 for more information.

But the best place to get your car worked on in those early days was the S’cona Garage, “nothing else larger or better equipped west of Winnipeg” as the Plaindealer described it. It was constructed in 1912 on the southwest corner of 81 Avenue and 105 Street in the building that now houses the Keg at that location. The newspaper said “the first storey, devoted to the needs of ailing automobiles, is probably one of the finest motor hospitals in Canada and certainly the finest in the west. There is storage for 65 automobiles and efficient and experienced engineers minister to their needs.”

Morris’s first car apparently has been lost in the mists of time, but another old vehicle from Edmonton’s past may still be around, in some city storage facility or other, waiting for the much-needed Edmonton Museum to be built. The Journal used to run an “oldest-anything” competition. One of its entries was an unusual 1/2 car-1/2 truck. This amalgam, built by the International Harvester Co. Chicago factory in 1908, came to Edmonton in 1927 as an antique and was owned by the Old-timers Association when it won the oldest-ever award in 1936.

The year that odd vehicle was built, the Twin Cities got its first commercial vehicle. The Bulletin reported that the Cloverdale meatpacking firm of Gallagher and Hull purchased “an express automobile for delivery of their goods in the city. This is the first machine of is kind in use for business purposes in Edmonton.”

Government was not far behind the meatpackers in jumping on the automobile —er—bandwagon.

In 1913, school superintendent James McCaig asked for a car for himself and one for his building commissioner. The schoolboard decided to give McCaig a car but offered his building commissioner $25 to cover his horse-and-buggy expenses. City roads were bad and the mechanical contrivance was often undependable, so it could be that McCaig got the worse of the deal.

The city police too received their first car in 1913, but police chief Silas Carpenter said that that was not enough to counter the growing problem of wide-open gambling, drinking and activities of “ladies of the night.” A reform mayor was elected, he fired Carpenter and re-hired former chief A.C. Lancey to the job. Many public-spirited citizens called for a general clean-up, but there was a powerful group that wanted to turn Edmonton into a wide-open city, modeled, it was said, on the Klondike of the gold-rush days. Prominent in the group, according to rumour, was alderman Joe Clarke, who had formerly lived in Dawson City. The city council chambers were stormy that year, and careers were short—police chief Lancey, hired in January, was only chief until June, McNamara was only mayor until October. But cars had little to do with that…

Edmonton’s pre-WW I boom brought personal wealth to many as well as public scandal to some. Delmar Bard, former Indian agent at Rivière Qui Barre, made a small fortune from real estate during the boom. In 1912, he built a huge house at 10544 - 84 Avenue, where it can still be seen today. The stone-detailed brick house features a two-storey carriage house. The carriage house contained a turntable so that Bard’s car could be turned around, eliminating the need to drive backwards into the street. The car was handy for Bard’s work as Inspector of Roads and Bridges for the Alberta Government.

1912 saw one of Edmonton’s first automobile traffic accidents. A car owned by J.J. McKenzie collided with a horse-drawn cart on Whyte Avenue. McKenzie was one of the area’s early pioneers. He had settled in the Edmonton area in 1886, finding work as ferryman for John Walter. When the Calgary & Edmonton Railway arrived on the south bank of the river in 1891, McKenzie took up blacksmithing and opened a farm implement dealership and later a car dealership. One of McKenzie’s demonstrators, as car salesmen were called at the time, was taking a Tudhope Six, which had just arrived on the train, for a trial spin. The car, going west on Whyte Avenue, was met by a one-horse rig coming east on the left side of the road. According to the Strathcona Plaindealer, the salesman “crowded the curb, expecting to pass without trouble but finding he could not, took the car off the road, attempting to apply the brakes without success. The car dashed through two vacant lots and crashed through a solid fence. This obstacle, combined with the grip of the brakes, stopped the six-cylinder Everitt. The horse and vehicle were thrown over on the pavement so narrow was the escape, but no other damage resulted. Driving on the wrong side of the road was a fault of the boy teamster, which nearly cost him his life.”

Rules gradually were formulated to lessen the frequency of incidents of this nature. As well, teamsters, used to letting their horses “free rein” to find the way home, learned to keep a lookout for the new speedy means of travel. Edmonton’s first traffic light was not installed until 1933, at the intersection of Jasper Avenue and 101st Street. Before this, police constables sporting British-style “bobby” hats did traffic duty at busy intersections.

For a short time, Edmonton had a “cycle-car,” This four-wheeled vehicle was powered by an air-cooled motorcycle engine. It was owned by John Michaels, in charge of street sales and newsstands for the Edmonton Journal. He bought the car in 1914, just two years after his arrival from New York. “Mike” was rushing copies of the Journal to the exhibition grounds on Canada Day 1915, when he totalled the car. He sold the wrecked vehicle on the spot for $100. The following year he opened Mike’s Newsstand on Jasper Avenue near 100A Street. This business became one of the largest newspaper and magazine distributors in Canada.

Some of those early cars were amazingly well built. Edmontonian William Rae bought a new Studebacker touring car in 1918. He kept it until 1950 when he sold it to another Edmontonian. In that time it had had no major mechanical work done on it. But Rae had put only 43,000 miles on its odometer. His longest trip with the car was a jaunt to Cooking Lake.

Others were much harder on their vehicles. A car was driven from Edmonton to Calgary for the first time in 1906. Calgarian H.W. White, having bought a car in Edmonton, left the city on the morning of March 2. At this cold time of the year, he did not need to contend with mud, so made amazingly fast time, arriving in Calgary on the evening of March 3. The length of the journey is demonstrated by the fact it was timed using a calendar. Conditions of the road and the vehicles would soon improve so that within a few years, people were able to use a watch to measure a trip between Alberta’s two main cities.

In 1908, U.S. car pioneers took on a larger task, to drive from New York to San Francisco. Last year Edmonton’s car enthusiast par excellence Ray Fowler drove a 1930 Chevrolet Speedster in the 100th anniversary re-enactment of this historic race. He proudly pointed out that his was the only antique car that made the whole distance unaided by tow or carry.

A shorter, but still memorable, distance was covered by T. Douglas, proprietor of the Queen’s and Brunswick Hotels, in 1913. He drove from Edmonton to Calgary in 10.5 hours, beating White’s 1906 time by, oh, say, 24 hours.

A few years later, city council approved a bylaw to widen 109 Street, leading to its use as the main road south to Calgary. The provincial highway, although still poorly signposted and muddy, was improving year by year. The improvements were such that Douglas’s time for a one-way trip was beat by a motorist going both ways.

Paul Welch, of McLaughlin Motors, set a record in 1922 by driving to Calgary and back in less than 10 hours. Welch started his record-breaking trip at the corner of 109 Street (Calgary Trail) and Whyte Avenue. He drove a McLaughlin-Buick Master Four automobile from that intersection to Calgary and back, a distance of 665 kilometres in 9 hours and 26 minutes, beating the usual time of four days (and three sleeps) on the way. Poor road conditions and vehicle problems held him up. His McLaughlin-Buick boasted fancy new shock absorbers. However, the “state-of-the-art” devices fell off during the rough trip. When pushed for an endorsement from the manufacturer, he wrote diplomatically that he would not think of starting a trip without them. Although Welch showed it could be done, it was not expected that many others could equal his time under the conditions of the time. You see Welch was an early Evil Knieval. A year after his epic trip to Calgary he set a world record with his car, by driving up an incline and through the air, jumping 22.3 metres (73 feet, two inches) before touching ground again.

But most people used their cars for more …um…down to earth purposes. Trains were rejected, as people turned to cars as the way for families to set their own pace and go their own way. Many families on the road wanted places to camp to avoid the cost of hotels. Neither motels, nor motor hotels, are to be found in the Edmonton city directory even into the 1930s. In 1925, the city saw fit to accommodate the demand for camping facilities for those travelling by “auto-car” who did not wish to stay at hotels. The Edmonton Auto Camp was located on 72 Avenue east of 105A Street, near both Calgary Trail and the Southside Athletic Grounds, the site of today’s Strathcona Composite High School.

So, what had started as outlandish machines driven by the rich and famous, or in Premier’s Rutherford’s case. by his teenaged children, had become part of established life. Now families out camping used the cars, businesses used trucks to carry produce as a matter of course, police and fire departments had put their horses “out to pasture.” Aside from the occasional farmer’s wagon, the only time a city resident heard a horse was every morning…whoa what? Yes, every morning until 1961, horse-drawn milk wagons still made their Edmonton rounds, delivering milk and other delicious dairy products to sleeping houses. Children were always amazed at how the horses stopped and started without the driver needing to signal them. Sometimes it seemed they knew the route better than the delivery-men! And that is something no simple automobile can do.

If anyone knows of any interesting garages, please pass their whereabouts on to me for an upcoming article on those little-considered structures. Thanks and best wishes for the coming year.

Tom Monto

montotom@yahoo.ca

c/o Alhambra Books,

10115 - 81 Avenue, Edmonton, T6E 1W9

(Information for this article was taken from my book, Old Strathcona Before the Great Depression, Edmonton Portrait of a City by Dennis Person and Carin Routledge, and various newsclippings collected and preserved at the City of Edmonton Archives, in the “Firsts” file, “Antique Cars”; “Transportation Automobiles”; “Meat market, Meatpacking” folders, including the following:

Edmonton Bulletin. Aug. 8, 1908; June 29, 1914;

Edmonton Journal, June 30, 1936; June 29, 1914; Ap. 17, 1934; July 21, 1951.)

How Strathcona County Got Its Name

How Strathcona County Got its Name

By Tom Monto

As Strathcona County celebrates its 120^th anniversary, it may be interesting for readers to learn about the origin of its name and its history. In the late 1800s, what is now Strathcona County filled with farmers, immigrants from eastern Canada, Britain and Continental Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world. The new arrivals were serviced by the nearby railway town of South Edmonton, later Strathcona. This centre gave its name to the various forms of rural government that oversaw development in the surrounding countryside, just as, for example, Lamont was the commercial hub and namesake of the County of Lamont. The larger centre of Edmonton on the northside was less convenient than southside Strathcona to residents of what would be the Strathcona County.

The earliest community in what would be Strathcona County was the settlement of Clover Bar that grew up in the 1870s on the west edge of the present county, centred on the pioneer home of gold-panner Thomas Clover. He also was the source of the name of the Edmonton riverflats community of Cloverdale, through which people travelled to get to Clover Bar from the “Twin Cities” of Edmonton and Strathcona. Clover Bar was officially recognized 120 years ago, in 1893, by the Territorial Legislature (it was then part of the North West Territories) as Statute Labour District #2. In a Statute Labour District, work on local roads was paid for by land taxes or as was usually the case, local farmers worked to pay off the land taxes they would otherwise have to pay. In 1913 this Statute Labour District was renamed Local Improvement District #517 (Clover Bar) and later re-organized again as a municipal district.

Meanwhile, a farming area east and south of the old city Strathcona and outside the legal boundaries of the City of Edmonton was organized as Local Improvement District in 1917. It was re-organized the following year as the Municipal District of Strathcona (#518). The Municipal District had offices in the Sheppard Block. This building, at 10318 Whyte Avenue, is still standing today (although basically re-built after a fire in 1990).

Areas as close in to Edmonton as the site of present-day Southgate Mall were outside the city and in this new municipal district. The book The Schools of Strathcona County, A Success Story lists numerous small school districts that oversaw schooling in those early days in areas that of course now are well and truly within the City's boundaries but at the time were in the Municipal District of Strathcona.

The earliest was East Edmonton School District (#98), formed in 1887 with its western boundary at Mill Creek and its southern boundary around 58 Avenue. The local multitudinous Inkster, Fulton and Rice Sheppard family filled its schools.

The Whitemud Shool SD (#293), formed in 1893, served pupils living southwest of present-day Fort Edmonton Park. It closed up after a new Ellerslie School was built in 1955.

The Oliver SD (#622), formed in 1901, drew children from families living in an area spanning Calgary Trail from 51 Avenue to 23 Avenue. Despite the large area covered, it had low enrollment and was given “rights” to pupils living on the southern edge of the Edmonton School District. The District's one school closed its doors in 1957, and its area would now be located within the city of Edmonton.

One of the last schools built for the East Edmonton SD, described above, was King George Park, which opened in 1951 at 85 Avenue and 73 Street, a location almost unbelievably close-in to be legally outside Edmonton as late as the 1950s. This school was rolled into the Edmonton Public School system in 1961.

Prior to the date of the establishment of the King George Park School, the municipal districts of Clover Bar and Strathcona had merged, in 1943, and taken the name Municipal District #83 (Strathcona). Twenty years later, Municipal District #83 joined with the local school divisions that had succeeded the school districts and officially became a county, the County of Strathcona (#20). This form of rural organization, relatively new to Alberta, oversaw all the facets of rural government services, including schooling, under one roof and within unified boundaries.

The county offices were, like the municipal districts before them, located in Old Strathcona, in a new custom-built building at 10426 - 81 Avenue. The “Rural Administration Building” also held the Leduc-Strathcona Health Unit and the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts. The county offices stayed there until new ones were built in 1976 in the hamlet of Sherwood Park, which had been created in the 1950s and 1960s. The County of Strathcona officially changed its name in 1996 to Strathcona County and received Specialized Municipality status.

Through the years, there was great overlap between the farmers of what was then the predecessors to Strathcona County and the city of Strathcona. Thomas Daly resigned his place on the Strathcona city council to return to farming on his Clover Bar farm. His life unfortunately ended tragically a short time later. Orlando Bush who also served on the Strathcona City council balanced his city involvement with his activities on his farm at Clover Bar.

Rice Sheppard, who would be one of the longest-serving aldermen in Edmonton's history, also had a farm just outside Strathcona in what is now Avonmore but at the time 1897 to 1910s in the rural area that would be covered in the East Edmonton School District, described above as one of the early schools of Strathcona County. William Ball, his friend and fellow political campaigner – they were both fundamental to the early development of the United Farmers movement – was a prominent farmer just east of present-day Sherwood Park. That is, he was a farmer there until he over-stretched his finances during the heyday of WWI and was caught short in the post-war recession.

And even after the creation of Sherwood Park, businesses and cultural sports facilities in what had been the downtown of the old city of Strathcona and areas surrounding it were depended on by Sherwood Park residents. For example, the swimming pools at Bonnie Doon and Strathcona High Schools, and the University Hospital, were well used by County residents, as the County, in an effort to keep taxes low for residents, did not build its own pool or hospital for many years.

The long-standing interconnection between the County of Strathcona and the one-time City of Strathcona is still shown by the name the county carries to this day.

(Further information on the people mentioned here is available in my books Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots and Protest and Progress, Three Labour Radicals in Early Edmonton, both available at Alhambra Books, 10115 – 81 Avenue.)

Who is Tom Monto, Old Alberta post-er

Passionate about truth in history, seeking outlet to write on topics too small or not yet formulated enough for inclusion in a book.
Tom Monto is the author of Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots and the recently-published book on Alberta politics Protest and Progress, Three Labour Radicals in Early Edmonton, outlining the life (lives) and times of farm leader Rice Sheppard, reformer/teacher Harry Ainlay and lawyer/``troublemaker`` Margaret Crang. Another recent publication is A Brief History of Alberta Politics, emphasizing the province's progressive politics pre-WWII/Big Oil.
(These books, and many others, are available at Alhambra Books, Edmonton, Alberta or through abebooks.com)
Just learning about blogging so bear with me, but hoping to acquire readers interested in the underside of history and how it is presented, rightly and wrongly. My view is history can be taken as a parable reflecting on today`s events. But also I am reminded of whoever it was who said ``History is not dead - it is not even past.` Whoever it was I agree, and I hope to help you see it that way too

On Prohibition, Moderation and Excessive Spending

On Prohibition, Moderation and Excessive Spending
A look at the website belonging to the
Calgary and Southern Alberta, Applied History Group, U of C
(webpage prohibition)
shows a bit of historical revisionism. Under a photo of a barroom counter of a Calgary saloon is an article carefully avoiding mentioning that Calgarians voted like most elsewhere in the province for Prohibition in 1915, as if Edmonton Liberals forced it down Calgary`s throat.
Truth is Calgary voted heavily in favour of Prohibition, with a majority of 3000 votes, a lot in those days when Alberta`s cities were much smaller than today.
And as I point out in my wide-ranging book Old Strathcona Edmonton`s Southside Roots, immediately there were social benefits. Banks reported more savings in famiy accounts (but obviously less in barkeepers`accounts), other institutions reported less insanity, less public drunkenness, less drunken driving (some cars, but also wagons - I have seen an old Canadian novel in which  a drunk wagon-driver caused a collision but as the author pointed out (obviously not a recent observation) it is the sober victim who often suffers more than the intoxicated one. So the point being that drunk driving can be dangerous even if it is not a car involved. and the incidence of drunk driving went down, even as under Alberta Prohibition drinking at home or of low-percent beer was still allowed.
But Prohibition is bad for business, the business of selling intoxicating liquor, and business interests fought against the restriction, finally gaining traction when they professed they merely wanted to replace it with Moderation. Local Moderation Leagues proliferated and collected signatures calling for a referendum on the issue. Some such as Irene Parlby, UFA cabinet minister in the previously-Prohibitionist UFA government, and Nellie McClung, a Liberal MLA, were aghast when the government accepted the signatures without question and called a referendum on the issue. Sale of full-test beer in beer parlours was chosen along with government sale of beer, wine and liquor, and that came to pass in 1924. However now 90 yeas later you can hardly say that we have Moderation. Now through successive loosening and privatization (opening the industry to the profit motive and cutthroat competition) we have pretty much the situation that we had exactly 100 years ago, with people hanging out of bar windows accosting passersby, liquor stores and bars open at almost all hours including mornings and Sundays, gambling (in casinos and at ubiquitous machines, not to mention lottery tickets).
It seems to me people do not drink shooters to enjoy themselves, they drink to numb themselves. Drink, not religion, has become the opium of the masses, or should I also include TV, or radio, or movies, or celebrity news, Today there is no end of distraction, Corporate world will do anything to prevent people thinking of their life-situations. That kind of thinking slows down the wheels of enterprise, and if the wheels slow or stop people will see much of it is fakery, The Luddite today is someone who does not try to keep up with the Joneses.
A pithy quote I read the other day is often people have so much stuff they are poor.
Another: nothing will ever be enough for those who think having enough is nothing.
Anyways those are some of my thoughts for today.

From the old NWMP to the UN

Researching Robert EnsorR.W. Ensor was police chief in Edmonton in the early 1910s at a time when the occupants of that official position rotated at great speed. He was police chief for only two months April and May 1911, replacing and then being replaced in turn by A.C. Lancey.

I thought to check his later career and using Google found him mentioned in the Wikipedia entry for Beatrice Ensor, who became his wife in 1917.

The entry describes Robert as a former North West Mounted Police officer who -- after serving as Edmonton police chief (not mentioned in the entry) -- became an army officer and was shipped to Murmansk -- as part of the Canadian government`s attempt to help put down the Communist Revolution there (not described that way in the entry).

What is interesting is that Beatrice and Robert met through their activities involving Theosophy. Who would think a police chief would be a Theosophist. Well-known theosophist author Annie Besant, among others, was named the godmother of their children.

Beatrice apparently with Robert`s support went on to help found the New Education Fellowship, which would help create UNICEF.

From the old NWMP to the UN, who would have imagined