Live music and theatre, shopping, festivals, restaurants and services, Old Strathcona has it all. With over 600 of Edmonton's coolest businesses, Old Strathcona has everything you need for a modern lifestyle in a historical district. The area offers a variety of choices including fashion, music shops, lodging, food, salons & spas, gifts, books, decor, health, sporting goods, professional services and even vehicles.
Walking down the streets of Old Strathcona is a journey into the past. It’s all here – more than 100 years of glorious history that began in 1891, when the Calgary and Edmonton Railway Company decided to complete its line from Calgary to a terminus south of the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. Despite pressure to cross the river and end the line at Edmonton, the company wanted to monopolize the benefits of future land sales and so created a new settlement it called South Edmonton
Strathcona took its first steps over 117 years ago when the Calgary and Edmonton Railway Company completed its line from the Canadian Pacific Railway line in Calgary to a terminus south of the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. Despite pressure to cross the river and end the line at Edmonton, the company wanted to monopolize the benefits of future land sales and so created a new settlement they called South Edmonton. With it they developed a new commercial centre - one that would soon overtake Edmonton.
Learn more...Audacious and enterprising, they came from near and far to help grow the new settlement at the northern end of the Calgary & Edmonton Railway.
The pioneer entrepreneurs gave birth to the early businesses in what was then called South Edmonton. In 1899, the fledgling community was incorporated as a town called Strathcona, after Lord Strathcona, a fur trader and clerk whose real name was Donald A. Smith.
Learn more...The railway put up the first buildings along 103rd Street and Whyte Avenue including the railway station, section house, engine house and hotel, called Edmonton House (now the Strathcona Hotel). The risktakers did the rest, starting businesses and constructing buildings that today remain as the backbone of Whyte Avenue’s richly historic district. These buildings and those of government offer a glimpse into the spirit of the past and the built heritage that makes Old Strathcona such an invigorating place.
Learn more...Historic Old Strathcona almost didn’t survive. In the early 1970s, many of the vintage buildings of Old Strathcona were threatened with demolition by an ambitious plan to push a freeway from the southside into downtown. Community-minded citizens pulled together to stop the project and the Old Strathcona Foundation was born.
Today, Old Strathcona enjoys status as a protected historic area, including thirty historic properties, of which fourteen have been designated by the city or the province.
Learn more...Between 1891 and 1912 the village of South Edmonton, renamed Strathcona in 1899, lived its own remarkable civic history on the south banks of the North Saskatchewan River. The little community known as Strathcona was first incorporated as a town in 1899, and then was incorporated as a city in 1907. The amalgamation of Strathcona and Edmonton came into effect in 1912. As a "district" of the larger city, Strathcona's fortunes followed a path determined by the larger city, and eventually became regarded as just a somewhat "run down" part of the capital city.
Learn more...With such a rich and varied history, there are plenty of hidden gems in Old Strathcona. Did you know about these ones?
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Friday, May 11
“Desk Pain” Workshop
Friday, May 11
Old Strathcona Businesses Treat Mom to Sumptuous Services and Pampering Products
