Land Titles Building Restoration | ?m | 2s | Province of Alberta | Group2

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I'll withhold complete judgment until it's finished and the fencing's carted away, but can't say I love the addition. I know the mantra regarding heritage buildings is to make add ons as distinct as possible from the original building, yet the mid-century-esque buff brick and horizontal windows, along with that really weird pitched roof is almost too distinct from the original building for my liking.

Having said that though, the rest of the restoration is ace. I know I brought it up on a post on the last page — which in my defence was a year ago — but that spelling mistake on nameplate (Office's vs. Offices) still gets a chuckle out of me.
 
I love this building too and am very glad that they are keeping it. I was actually just reading about how this building almost caused a local armed rebellion in the late 1800's. The federal government tried to move the land titles office to 'new Edmonton' on the south side of the river because that's where the railway terminus was at the time and most new settlers were arriving. 'Old Edmontonians', already mad that the CPR had taken the southern route through Calgary for the transnational line, rang the alarm bell to rally citizens. Hundreds showed up (with guns) and occupied the office. After a tense standoff with the Mounties, the feds agreed to keep the land titles office north of the river and opened up a satellite office at the Strathcona rail station. Edmonton's first and only 'armed rebellion' was a success ;-)
 
Didama said:
I love this building too and am very glad that they are keeping it. I was actually just reading about how this building almost caused a local armed rebellion in the late 1800's. The federal government tried to move the land titles office to 'new Edmonton' on the south side of the river because that's where the railway terminus was at the time and most new settlers were arriving. 'Old Edmontonians', already mad that the CPR had taken the southern route through Calgary for the transnational line, rang the alarm bell to rally citizens. Hundreds showed up (with guns) and occupied the office. After a tense standoff with the Mounties, the feds agreed to keep the land titles office north of the river and opened up a satellite office at the Strathcona rail station. Edmonton's first and only 'armed rebellion' was a success ;-)
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Yeah, it's such a fascinating story! As a slight correction it was this building's far smaller predecessor that was the cause of trouble. It's funny, because that was literally a wood frame shack that the Federal Government was jacking up onto a wagon to take across the river. It wasn't anything remotely spectacular, but I guess to Edmontonian back in 1892 having your very own Federal building was some kind of major status symbol in the dusty plains of the North-West Territories. That's not to say the Feds were out to lunch — they reasonably wanted to move it closer to a train station, the only one of which was in Strathcona.

Allegedly, it was a Roman Catholic priest who alerted the townsfolk that the Feds were moving the small building. "The trumpet of Mars was sounded on Jasper Avenue" and "blue was the ozone with the deprecations which called the head of the offenders," The Bulletin wrote. Mayor Matthew McCauley organized a "home guard" to stop the Feds from going any further, leading to twenty N.W.M.P., led by Captain Greisbach, to ride in from their barracks in Fort Saskatchewan. From Jac MacDonald's book Historic Edmonton, "McCauley told Greisbach that 'the building will not be moved without any bloodshed. I am prepared to take my chances, if you care to do the same.' Greisbach backed off and, four days later, the land office was back in business in its old location."

MacDonald writes that the new building's construction the following year "was the culmination of a tumultuous tug-of-war that could easily have resulted in bloodshed. The tussle between Edmonton and Strathcona residents marked the beginning of the end for Strathcona's aspirations to become the major city. The success of the loyal Edmontonians who rallied around the defence of the land office may have bordered on treason, but it assured the preeminence of this city in the early struggle to become a leading provincial centre."
 
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