The Edmonton Heritage Council is a voice for the city's memory, an active link between historians, educators, heritage organizations, artists, government and entrepreneurs: everyone who seeks to understand where our history meets our future.
We strive to make Edmonton's history and heritage indispensable to newcomers, to those already here, to those unconvinced about the power and resonance of this legacy.
From the personal to the public, our shared heritage is about Edmontonians making a beloved home and a place in the world. The Edmonton Heritage Council is committed to partnerships and projects that:
- provide a forum for analyzing, discussing and sharing heritage issues
- advocate for a vibrant heritage community and heritage programs
- unify Edmonton’s heritage community and give it a voice
- promote the awareness and development of effective, informed and recognized heritage principles and practices
Recent Activity
Herzog on Heritage: The Brewery in Rossdale
It’s been a brewery, a telephone exchange, a tile and timber outlet, an auto body shop, and may yet see life as a boutique hotel. Situated alongside the North Saskatchewan River in the Rossdale Flats, the Rossdale Brewery is one of the city’s great historic industrial treasures. The two-storey wood frame and brick- clad building is the oldest surviving unaltered brewery in the province, and now the City of Edmonton is designating it as a Municipal Historic Resource.
Opened in 1905 at what is now 9843 100th Street, the building was the original home of the Edmonton Brewing & Malting Company. The company was led by William Henry Sheppard, a local entrepreneur, Strathcona councillor and mayor, who ran the Strathcona Hotel beer parlour.
Herzog on Heritage: Edmonton's Sons of Norway
One hundred years ago, Edmonton’s small community of Norwegian newcomers gathered together to start the Nordpolen (North Pole) Lodge No. 143 as the local chapter of the Sons of Norway. It was just the third in Canada, after branches in Vancouver and New Westminster, B.C.
Sønner af Norge, as it was called in its mother tongue, was established in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1895 partly as a way to help Norwegians who were having financial trouble starting new lives in the new land. A sister society, Daughters of Norway, was formed in 1897.
Over time the secular fraternal organization made its mark as a valued tool to celebrate and preserve Norwegian language, culture and heritage. Today the Sons of Norway has nearly 62,000 members at 397 lodges in Canada, Norway and the United States.
The first meeting of the Edmonton branch was held on April 21, 1913. To mark the centenary, the lodge is planning a grand weekend of celebration on April 20 and 21, 2013.
Herzog on Heritage: Government House Marks 100 Years
Not every official vice-regal residence can claim fame as a refuge for wounded veterans, being put on the auction block, or used as a pawn in a dust-up between the premier and lieutenant-governor. But, as it marks its 100th year, Edmonton’s Government House can – and that’s just the beginning.
Earlier this year, the federal government declared Government House a National Historic Site. The grand sandstone mansion has stood for 100 years, built in the heady days after Alberta became a province in 1905 on a high promontory overlooking the North Saskatchewan River. The 29-acre site, at what is now the grounds of the Provincial Archives of Alberta at 12845 102 Avenue, was purchased in 1909 for $33,571 from James Carruthers, developer of the Glenora neighbourhood.
