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Did You Know?

With such a rich and varied history, there are plenty of hidden gems in Old Strathcona. Did you know about these ones?

Did You Know?

  • The Tipton and Hulbert Blocks, built in 1911 and 1912 at 10355 and 10362 Whyte Avenue, share an internal staircase.
  • Whyte Avenue is named after a Calgary and Edmonton Railway Company official.
  • The McLean House at 10454 84th Avenue was built in 1896, making it Edmonton's longest serving modern residence.
  • Because of the well-preserved interior, Orange Hall at 10335 84th Avenue was used as the set for a documentary on the life of Alberta women's rights activist Emily Murphy.
  • The Hub Cigar Company began operation in 1910 in a building built in 1894. It was the longest continuously operating newsstand in Edmonton until it was destroyed by fire in 2004.
  • Strathcona was incorporated as a town in 1899 and named after Lord Strathcona, a pioneer fur trader and clerk whose real name was Donald A. Smith. Born in Scotland in 1820, he become Hudson's Bay Governor, Member of Parliament, railway financier and Canadian High Commissioner. When he was elevated to the peerage by Queen Victoria in 1897 he chose the title Strathcona, Gaelic for broad valley and the river Coe that ran through his Scottish property.
  • Many of the vintage buildings of Old Strathcona were to be demolished in the early 1970s as part of an ambitious plan to run a freeway into downtown. Community minded citizens pulled together to stop the project and the Old Strathcona Foundation was born.
  • When streetcar service across High Level Bridge began in 1913, it was the highest river crossing by a streetcar in the world.
  • From 1913 to 1951, the main streetcar line across the river had used the two outside tracks on the top deck of the High Level bridge. It shared the space with the Canadian Pacific Railway whose track ran down the centre.
  • Legend has it that a body was found in a well at the back of the Hub Cigar building. Somebody noticed the water started to taste odd and so a man was lowered into the shaft. There he discovered the body and one resident was heard to quip: “No more water for me. Just whiskey.”

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