Riverlot #11 - history and landmarks
- Tom Monto
- Apr 7
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 10
(work in progress)
ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞
Riverlot No. 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 was a huge dirt rampbluff built in anticipation of a mid-level bridge tht was planned in the 1970s. Nature being who she is, it now a grass-covered bluff (the one with the picnic table on its peak).
see "The Ghosts of Walterdale’s Past Assessing the fate of a venerable bridge over troubled waters." BY CORY HALLER | Edify NOVEMBER 1, 2014
(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."
It seems "Dantzer's Folly" has become such a part of the local contours that Haller overlooked its present incarnation.
the new Walterdale Bridge.
the old cement abutment of the first Walterdale Bridge (located on the southside river's edge west of the new bridge) 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 10706 84th Avenue built in 1934, in depths of the Depression
clinker brick cladding on lower levels
see City heritage site info:
(nearby is Heritage Siberian Elm)
Queen Alexandra School built in 1906
was first home of the UofA. because construction of the Strathcona Collegiate was not completed in time for opening of classes in 1907.
built at prominent location in line with 106th Street, which was a road in the old Dominion Land Survey.
University Avenue is set at an angle because it is end of the mile-long river lots and the river runs to the southeast north of here.
Barnett House 107th Street X University Avenue. built in 1914
John Walker Barnett (1880-1947) a British immigrant, was Edmonton teacher, vice-principal and music supervisor.
He helped found the Alberta Teachers Alliance (now the Alberta Teachers Association) in 1918. He gave up his teaching to devote himself to union activities in 1920.
The simple Craftsman-style cottage/house at this location was HQ for the ATA from 1920 to 1924.
He was active in the strike by Edmonton Jr High and High school teachers in 1921, which won them the right to be represented at school board meetings.
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jig around Grace Martin schoolyard on to 76th Avenue, then veer off onto University Avenue again
Queen Alexandra Community League Hall built around 1985
(previous hall burned down)
to the south is the Strathcona Composite High School track and athletic grounds.
formerly this was the Strathcona sports field (race track).
where runners on foot, horses and even motorcycles and 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. The ATBs are the only government-owned banks in U.S./Canada that serve the public.
Whyte Avenue
Baptist church
Tommy Douglas had option to come to this church in 1930s. Luckily for him (and Canada) he was placed in Saskatchewan.
old CPR railway track
now route of High Level streetcar.
Heritage House built in 1909
Hugh Duncan ran a pharmacy on the later site of the Uncle Albert's on Whyte.
bought by city as part of the Freeway plan (connected to "Dantzer's Folly" thing).
home of the Old Strathcona Foundation in 1970s.
home of UofA Shakespearean scholar John Orrel in 1990s.
small houses once owned by city in anticipation of freeway
when freeway cancelled in early 1980s, some were bought by private individuals; others were bought by the Hromada Housing Co-op.
Former co-op 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. built in 1913
brick house
my book Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots has info on this house and its former residents.
City of Edmonton info:
"The George Durrand Residence is a two and one-half storey brick dwelling built in an Edwardian style. It is located on the south side of Saskatchewan Drive...facing north across the North Saskatchewan River Valley to the historical city core.
"...The economic climate of 1913, when the George Durrand Residence was built, was generally optimistic, heightened locally by the amalgamation of the cities of Edmonton and Strathcona in 1912 and the construction of the High Level Bridge in 1911. This confidence was reflected both in the architecture and in the active business and social communities of the time. The generous proportions of this house’s interior reception spaces indicate an associated value with formal entertaining among the social and business elite of the affluent Strathcona and Edmonton communities.
The house was later home to Harold Gould MacDonald, a noted Edmontonian, and founder of the H.G. MacDonald Company of contractors that have grown into the well-recognized firm of Christensen and MacDonald, still till active to this day, as Christensen Developments. He lived in the house until 1923."
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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
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(a bit further west
is the ornate brick residence of John Joseph Duggan, at 10515 Sask Dr.)
not on the boundary of the river lot so perhaps not part of this tour.
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and back to the Queen Elizabeth Park.
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