Queen Elizabeth II Planetarium: The Crown Jewel in Coronation Park
Royal Beginnings Coronation Park is a 35-hectare park in west central Edmonton. It was named to honour Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953…
Stories tagged: 1950s
The Starlite Drive-In Theatre in Jasper Place
The concept of a drive-in theatre was first experimented in 1933 in New Jersey, though it soon spread to Canada…
Woodward’s & the $1.49 Day Tradition
As a kid, I remember the downtown Woodward’s store as a treasure trove of sights, sounds, and smells. It was the…
Architect Doris Tanner: What did she do? Work and life in fine balance
It’s 2003, early in the new millennium but regrettably late in the story I’m aiming to tell. Doris Tanner died…
Judi Singh: A Black & South Asian musician from 1950s-70s Edmonton
Last year, while exploring South Asian music history in Edmonton, I randomly searched “Singh + artist + 70s Edmonton” and…
The Porter: Building a Better Canada for All
The Canadian National Railway Pullman train bustled through the Rocky Mountains on the way from Vancouver headed for a stop…
The Last Black West: Oklahoma Freedmen Seek Refuge in Alberta, Part 2
Read The Last Black West: Oklahoma Freedmen Seek Refuge in Alberta, Part 1. As we noted in Part 1, early…
The Ice Age in Edmonton
There is a fascinating series of photos in the Hubert Hollingworth Collection at the City of Edmonton Archives which shows men…
Committed to Community: Hilwie Hamdon and The Muslim Ladies’ Association of Edmonton
Edmontonian Hilwie Hamdon (née Taha Johma, 1905-1988) was a community leader and founding member of the historic Al Rashid Mosque, the…
Forest Heights: A Hidden Pocket of History
I grew up in Forest Heights, a neighbourhood in southeast Edmonton, overlooking the North Saskatchewan River. The neighbourhood is known…
Jake Superstein: A Man for All Faiths
During one of the most tumultuous times in European history, Jake Superstein was born in Pinsk, Poland, into an Orthodox Jewish…
A Brief History of the Edmonton Jewish Community
Edmonton, Alberta was first incorporated as a town in 1892. At that time, there were about 700 permanent residents. Founded…