Riverlot #11 - history and landmarks

(work in progress)

ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞

Riverlot 11 runs from 104 Street to 107th Street, and from the river to University Avenue.

it includes the Queen Elizabeth Park (formerly known as the Riverside Park) and, on the uplands, prominent history buildings of Old Strathcona and many blocks of city housing.

Part of the old Queen Elizabeth Park has been dedicated to full-size displays and memorials and tutorials to Indigenous identity and history in the area.

then walking the perimeter of the old river lot in counter-clockwise direction.

 Mountain Bike Skills Park in river valley

Dantzer's Folly huge dirt ramp/bluff built in anticipation of a mid-level bridge tht was planned in the 1970s.

see "The Ghosts of Walterdale’s Past Assessing the fate of a venerable bridge over troubled waters." BY CORY HALLER | Edify NOVEMBER 1, 2014

https://edifyedmonton.com/urban/structures/the-ghosts-of-walterdales-past/#:~:text=Up%20until%20the%20construction%20of,dirt%20known%20as%20%E2%80%9CDantzer's%20Folly%E2%80%9D

(article says "Up until the construction of our present-day new Walterdale, the telltale sign of the project – a piling heap of dirt known as “Dantzer’s Folly” after the strongest proponent of the bridge, Mayor Vic Dantzer – stood as a testament to the nearly two decades of pipe dreams."

But actually the pile still stands today. It seems it has become such a part of the local contours that Haller did not even know what Dantzer's Folly was and is.)

the new Walterdale Bridge.

the old abutment of the first Walterdale Bridge on the southside river's edge is all that is left of the old bridge that stood for about a hundred years.

crossing Walterdale Road and ascending the Old Fort Hill Road.

old Brewery building

now a City of Edmonton storage building.

(an old spring used to run out on the road here, causing major ice problems in old days)

Old Fort Hill Road

old trail into the river valley to the Walter Ferry

(likely built on old trail made by migrating bison)

go south on 106A Street to 85th Avenue then kick over to 107 the Street.

at 85th Avenue X 107th Street

the old University Grocery building owned by Reg MacDonald,

this old commercial/apartment building was where Margaret Atwood lived in the 1960s when she lived in Edmonton and taught at the UofA.

suffered a fire last years and now on brink of demolition.

Emery Residence 84th Avenue X 107 Street

[I don't know about this landmark currently]

(nearby is Heritage Siberian Elm)

Queen Alexandra School

Barnett House 107th Street X University Avenue.

jig around Grace Martin schoolyard on to 76th Avenue, then veer off onto University Avenue again

Queen Alexandra Community League Hall built around 1981

(previous hall burned down)

to the south is the Strathcona Composite High School track and athletic grounds.

formerly this was the Strathcona Race grounds.

where runners on foot, horses and even automobiles would race.

to be preserved as a Park by terms of the Strathcona-Edmonton amalgamation.

turn left on 104th Street and proceed north.

80th Avenue

old site of the Park Hotel

now site of branch of ATB.

The Treasury Branches chain is a legacy of Alberta's Depression-era Social Credit government, the first SC government elected in the world.

Whyte Avenue

Baptist church

old CPR railway track

Heritage House (home of John Orrel)

small houses once owned by city in anticipation of freeway

when freeway cancelled in early 1980s, some were bought by private individuals; others bought by the Hromada Housing Co-op.

Former residents include Halyna Freeland, mother of Chrystia Freeland, former federal deputy prime minister; and writers Candas Jane Dorsey, Myrna Kostash, Olenka Melnyck and myself.

Durrand House at 10417 Saskatchewan Drive.

brick house?

my book Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots has info on this house and its former residents.

========

other fine houses on Sask. Drive (may have been torn down or redeveloped)

10423 Sask Drive (if still standing) is old Dr. Harry Wilson residence (occupied by the Swimming Smith family in the 1970s)

10433 Sask Drive Thomas Bull public accountant lived there in 1936.

10447 Sask Drive Alfred Carter, coal and wood [fire wood] dealer, lived there in 1919

======

(a bit further west

is the ornate brick residence of John Joseph Duggan, at 10515 Sask Dr.)

======

and back to the Queen Elizabeth Park.

=================================