archited
Senior Member
Boy, this restoration project looks to be a job and a half!
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.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 ;-)