Down & Gone

Edmonton has a history of tearing things down to make way for something new, be it city hall, historical homes, or even a lake! In this featured collection, explore some local places lost to “progress” and discover their significance to the history of this place.

Leilani Muir and Eugenics in Alberta

Kristine Kowalchuk

NOTE: this article contains historical but outdated and offensive language related to mental illness and neurodiversity. Leilani Muir was born…

From Parking Lots to Palm Trees (And Back Again): A Look Back at Heritage Mall

Matthew Dutczak

Brenda Hall was just 18 years old when she stepped off the bus in the community of Kaskitayo on a…

Ah-Yin’s Chinese Persons’ Street or Amy’s Chinatown

Amy Wong

I want to share my personal history of growing up in one of Edmonton’s Chinatowns in the 1970s. The Chinatown,…

McKernan’s Lost Lake

Katherine Koller

Although the lake is no longer visible, its “ghost” is discernable on early maps and in the form of flooding…

Signs of Another Time

Lawrence Herzog

Drive around the heart of Edmonton and you’ll see them. Worn by time, pounded by the elements but still clinging…

The Story of Sylvancroft

Lawrence Herzog

The grand residence that Harry Marshall Erskine Evans built starting in 1911 has survived the passage of 100 years virtually unaltered. Now…

Cloverdale Bridge

Kristine Kowalchuk

The Cloverdale footbridge crosses the North Saskatchewan River in central Edmonton, connecting Henrietta Muir Edwards Park in Cloverdale and Louise…

Oliver’s Beer Castle

Lawrence Herzog

Since then, the 1913 building and an adjacent red brick office addition, built in 1924 and added to in 1955,…

Buena Vista Building

Lawrence Herzog

Streetcars trundled down Jasper Avenue and turned northward to travel along newly-laid tracks on 124th Street. It was a vibrant…

Edmonton’s Lost Banks

Lawrence Herzog

Jasper Avenue has a long tradition as Edmonton’s centre of commerce and financial enterprise. At one point in the early…

End of an era: Goodbye, Avenue Theatre

Mike Ross

The word was given by general manager and talent buyer Steve Derpack, who explained on Facebook that it’s “primarily a…

Edmonton's Old City Hall

Edmonton’s 1957 City Hall

Lawrence Herzog

Edmonton’s second City Hall was a news-making building right from the beginning. Completed in 1957 as one of Canada’s first…

Silver Heights Peony Garden

Dawn Saunders-Dahl

Photo credit: Dr. James Brander and children, Silver Heights Peony Garden. Provincial Archives of Alberta  #B6794. Photographer: Ernest Brown Prominent Edmonton physician James…