Inside Edmonton
by Lawrence Herzog
Reprinted from Real Estate Weekly (Edmonton), November 2, 2000
For a bedroom community not exactly renowned for history, Sherwood Park certainly packs a lot of the past into a mile. They’re calling it the Heritage Mile and it’s a superb initiative, spearheaded by the Broadmoor Centre Business Association of Sherwood Park.
From the Broadmoor traffic circle to Main Boulevard, the mile includes five places with history — Smeltzer House, Ottewell Centre, Salisbury United Church, Smyth Farm and Monument Park. “When we started to try and identify anything of heritage value, a light went on,” explains John Ashton, project coordinator for Sherwood Park’s Heritage Mile Society. “We realized that a good chunk of Sherwood Park’s significant history is basically on one street.”
That street is Broadmoor Boulevard and the first four stops on the tour are pieces of the historical tapestry that were woven well before Sherwood Park was established in 1954. Monument Park, at the corner of Broadmoor Boulevard and Athabascan Avenue, is a modern addition to the Sherwood Park story.
It is home to a recently completed statue of Lord Strathcona, the gentleman who gave Strathcona County its name. The seven-and-half foot high fired clay statue was created in high relief style by University of Alberta sculptor Dawn McLean. Perched atop a two-and-a-half foot high pedestal, the statue is a commanding presence.
Lord Strathcona, born Donald A. Smith in 1820, was a pioneer fur trader clerk who rose to became Hudson’s Bay Company Governor, Member of Parliament, railway financier and Canadian High Commissioner. When he was elevated to the peerage by Queen Victoria in 1897, he chose the title Strathcona, Gaelic for broad valley and the river Coe that ran through his Scottish property. Lord Strathcona died in 1914 but in life and in death his name has been lent to all sorts of pieces of our part of the world, including a town, a neighbourhood, a hotel, a beer and, of course, a county.
The other stories offered up by Sherwood Park’s Heritage Mile are:
Smyth Farm (1911)
George M. Smyth was all of 16 years old when he left Ireland for Alberta in 1905 — the year the province was formed. His parents and sisters Jennie and Edie joined him two years later, and in 1911 the family purchased a farm on land now adjacent to Broadmoor Boulevard.
The farm expanded, with more land, a dairy herd and a new house constructed in 1936. By the mid-1970s, the home quarter was split up to become Broadmoor Centre business district. But the house still survives, occupied by tenants to this day.
Salisbury United Church (1915)
The area was known as Salisbury when settlers established the United Church congregation in 1886. But there was no money to build a church and so services were held in private homes and later a school. With the help of people from many faiths including Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic — a community church called Salisbury United was built in 1915 at Salisbury Corner.
A new church building was constructed in 1959. Five years later,to make way for a cloverleaf at Sherwood Park’s west freeway entrance, the building was moved to the present site. It was then enlarged in 1981.
Ottewell Centre (1916)
Members of the Ottewell family left England for Canada nearly 200 years ago. A descendant of the family, Richard P. Ottewell, arrived in Fort Edmonton in 1881. He chose land on what is now the Ottewell community in Edmonton.
Soon after, he moved to land on what is today south of Athabascan Avenue and east of Broadmoor Boulevard. In 1916, the family erected a brick two-storey house. In 1980, the residence was moved 50 feet west of its original site, the interior renovated and the brick exterior removed.
Smeltzer House (1920)
Maurice Smeltzer was born in Ontario in 1867 — the year of Confederation — and first travelled to Edmonton in 1891, when the railway arrived in Calgary. The Smeltzers settled on a 480-acre farm on what is now the Westboro subdivision.
In 1920, they built a new house across the road — in 1,800 square foot, two-storey brick structure. It was erected in the sturdiest four-square style of the day, with bricks from Acme Brick, near St. Albert, and hefty fir lumber. Minor modifications have been made to the interior, but the house endures remarkably unaltered.
The family’s land empire once sprawled over three quarter-sections of the Salisbury region. Today, the house, two outbuildings, the spruce trees (planted in 1921) surrounding the home and three acres of adjoining property are all that remain. As development pressures increased, the family gradually sold its farm property.
But the house itself remained in the family and Smeltzer’s son Frank lived in the structure until he sold it to the County of Strathcona in 1976. Smeltzer House is a provincial Registered Historic Resource.
The Heritage mile offers something that just cannot be duplicated elsewhere — and certainly not in the modern community of Sherwood Park, which was formed 44 years ago when a group of developers launched a grand plan for a new community east of Edmonton. On the doorstep of some of the region’s great remaining wilderness parkland and within easy commuting distance of emerging industrial giants, the new settlement was to offer the best of both worlds.
It was to be purpose-built for comfortable, quiet residential living, yet close enough to work for most people. The community, named in a school contest, was Sherwood Park.
Initially a place that attracted large numbers of young families, Sherwood Park’s demographic has aged with the community itself. Now, single family dwellings mingle with multiple-unit complexes, seniors’ housing and apartments — separated from industrial areas by buffer zones.
The community boasts some of the best schools, cultural and recreational facilities in the province and now, a mile that pauses to remember the past. Those who are working so hard to make it so deserve to be congratulated.
The Sherwood Park Heritage Mile Society is now developing a Master Plan for the operation and enhancement of the project and interested parties are invited to submit input. Call for more information.
Lawrence Herzog has been telling the stories of Edmonton people and places for more than a dozen years through his regular heritage column in Real Estate Weekly. His book, Built On Coal: A History of Beverly, Edmonton's Working Class Town, appeared on Edmonton’s best-seller lists for many weeks.
Real Estate Weekly is published by the Edmonton Real Estate Board to advertise properties for sale through member agencies. Each issue contains at least one, often several, articles on heritage buildings and issues in Edmonton and district.
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