History of Edmonton
Pre-European Days
For centuries Europeans explored into the Edmonton area, the springs, sloughs, ponds and streams and the North Saskatchewan River valley were the home territory of Aboriginal people drawn to its shelter and wild game. For millennia, First Nations people visited the river valley as part of their seasonal round of hunting, and later to barter with the new Europeans who came to trade and settle.Fur Trade Expansion (1754 – 1821)
Anthony Henday, a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) explorer, passed near the site of present-day Edmonton in 1754. His trip was part of the HBC's effort to trade directly with the interior First Nations, rather than depending on Aboriginal middlemen to bring furs to posts located on Hudson Bay. This policy change in policy stemmed from the increased competition from free traders and other companies, such as the Montreal-based North West Company.
Throughout the 18th Century, the HBC and the North West Company established a series of trading posts westward along the North Saskatchewan River in search of new fur supplies. In 1795, the North West Company established a post called Fort Augustus. The HBC immediately followed suit by establishing a post nearby. It was named Edmonton House after an estate near London, England, belonging to the company's Deputy Governor.
The original post was located downstream from present-day Edmonton near Fort Saskatchewan and was not moved to its Edmonton site until 1801. When the two companies merged in 1821, the HBC post was retained, as was the name Fort Edmonton.Fort Edmonton (1821 – 1870)
After the two companies merged, Fort Edmonton increased in importance under the leadership of Chief Factor John Rowand. The fort became the distribution centre for the whole northwest and, with the opening of the Fort Assiniboine Trail in 1824, it became a major supply centre on the HBC’s trans-Canada route.
After 1870, when the region became part of the new Dominion of Canada, the settlement’s character began to change. In 1871, legislation finally made it possible for private individuals to own land that had formerly belonged exclusively to the HBC. Edmonton soon emerged as a separate entity outside the secure boundaries of the fort.
The Town of Edmonton (1870 – 1900)
The Hudson's Bay Company received a land grant of 3,000 acres around most of its posts as part of its agreement to give the vast HBC territory (most of northern and western Canada) over to the new dominion. In Edmonton, the boundaries of this land grant, known as the Hudson's Bay Reserve, were roughly present-day 101 Street on the east, 121 Street on the west, the North Saskatchewan River on the south, and 127 Avenue on the north.
At first, the HBC would not subdivide its land, and the town of Edmonton developed some distance away from the fort. Its first significant building – a Methodist church – was erected in 1871 about one mile from Fort Edmonton.
Within a few years, straggling along the top of the cliff, Jasper Avenue emerged as Edmonton's main street. The centre of town initially developed on 97 Street and Jasper Avenue, but things changed after 1881. That year, the HBC decided to subdivide its land west of 101 Street and south of Jasper Avenue. This move allowed the town to develop in another direction. In 1882, the settlement was surveyed, making longstanding land claims official.
When the northern terminal of the Calgary and Edmonton Railway was built on the south side of the river in 1891, Edmonton decided to incorporate as a town. Incorporation was made official in 1892. Another small settlement south of Edmonton was not part of the incorporation.
Years of rivalry – not always friendly – ensued between Edmonton and South Edmonton as the two communities grew during the prosperous years before World War I. South Edmonton was incorporated as the town of Strathcona in 1899.
The City of Edmonton (1900 – 1950)
Edmonton was incorporated as a city in 1904. The city became the provisional capital of the new province of Alberta in 1905, and official capital in 1906. Strathcona was incorporated as a city in 1907 and became the site of the University of Alberta the same year. The rivalry between the cities ended in 1912 when Strathcona and Edmonton amalgamated.
Edmonton was a lively place before the First World War. In 1901, the town had only 2,626 inhabitants, but then the population exploded, rising to more than 70,000 by 1914.
Business boomed – especially the real estate business. Wood construction was still the norm in 1899 and false-fronted stores sprang up in a sometimes uneven line along Jasper Avenue east of 101 Street. Within 10 years, brick, concrete, and steel had become the standard building materials and development had moved westward along Jasper Avenue into the Hudson's Bay Reserve.
Almost overnight, Edmonton took on the appearance of a mature city. When the HBC decided to sell the remainder of its land in 1912, Edmonton was at the height of its early prosperity. The city's boundaries expanded in all directions, and commerce and commercial construction were booming. During the last 5 years before World War I, Edmonton developed the skyline that it would have for the next 40 years.
Speculation in real estate made many of Alberta's pioneers wealthy. Speculation eventually reached excessive proportions, causing the bottom to drop out of the real estate market in 1913.
The combination of a worldwide economic slump and the outbreak of the First World War resulted in a drastic drop in Edmonton's population as thousands left to join the army or search for greener pastures. It was many years before the city recovered, and in the interim there was little new building.
The Great Depression of the 1930s brought slow and steady population growth to Edmonton, but the economic upheaval meant that many families lived on very meager budgets.
Recovery came in the 1940s when, during the Second World War, Edmonton became the base of operations for the construction of the Alaska Highway, the Canol pipeline Project, Northwest Staging Route and other large projects. Prosperity was ensured with the discovery of oil near Leduc in 1947.
The Edmonton of Today (1950 – Present)
Edmonton entered a new post-war cycle of economic and physical growth. The city boundaries expanded, as first Beverly (1961) and Jasper Place (1964) were annexed. Suburban growth flourished and new construction began in the downtown core.
Edmonton prospered through the 1960s and ‘70s as an oil boom brought thousands of jobs and newcomers. Downtown was transformed as many historic buildings were replaced with modern structures. The old buildings that remained were renovated for new uses. The University of Alberta expanded and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology opened in 1960 to meet the growing need for skilled technical workers.
Edmonton also became nationally renowned on a number of fronts; as the Alberta provincial capital during the heady days of the 1970s oil boom, and one of Canada’s fastest growing cities. It also was the home of the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos, Grey Cup champions from 1978 through 1982, and the home of the National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers, who won four Stanley Cups between 1984 and 1988.
Edmonton also garnered international attention by hosting the Commonwealth Games in 1978. The Commonwealth Games brought more than elite international athletes to Edmonton; Commonwealth Stadium opened in 1978, and spectators got there on the new Light Rail Transit (LRT) line.The construction boom in the 1970s also fostered a sense that Edmonton’s historical resources were threatened. Heritage preservation came to the public agenda in a large way in the early 70s when a proposal to build a freeway through Old Strathcona led to a community initiative to preserve the historic area.
The City’s first Register of Historic Buildings was developed in 1984 to help identify historic buildings in the downtown area. Subsequent expansions of the Register identified historic buildings in neighbourhoods across the city.The 1980s brought economic recession and slower growth. The strength of Edmonton’s community caring was tested on July 31, 1987, Black Friday, when a tornado ripped through the eastern edge of the city, killing 27 people and injuring more than 300.
Several landmark buildings rose on the city skyline in the 1980s and 1990s. The West Edmonton Mall, an entertainment and shopping complex under one roof, was built in phases through the 1980s and became a major tourism destination. Edmonton’s new City Hall, with its distinct glass pyramid, opened in 1992, Grant MacEwan University’s downtown campus, with its distinctive spires, opened in 1993, and the acoustically-superior Winspear Centre for Music opened in 1997.
Edmonton’s population growth, which had slowed through the 1980s and 1990s, resumed with the strong growth of the northern Alberta oil industry in the late 1990s. The city population topped 750,000 in 2008, and the Edmonton region population exceeded one million in the same year.
For more information:
City of Edmonton Archives
Located south of Royal Alexandra Hospital, just west of Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts
10440 108 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
T5H 3Z9
| Telephone | 780-496-8711 |
|---|---|
| cms.archives@edmonton.ca | |
| Website | (http://archivesphotos.edmonton.ca) |
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