Strathcona, Alberta

Not to be confused with Strathcona County, Alberta.

Strathcona was a municipality in Alberta, Canada, located on the southside of the North Saskatchewan River opposite of the City of Edmonton.

Strathcona's recorded history began in the 1870s when its residents were an off-shoot of the hangers-on and self-employed contractors who resided near the old Fort Edmonton on the northside of the river. This mixed community of British (especially Orkney), Quebecois, Cree and Metis furtrade employees/pioneer farmers/hunters, and their families, was mostly replaced by eastern Canadian pioneer farmers (and land speculators) in the 1880s. The Calgary and Edmonton Railway arrived in 1891, establishing an urban hamlet centred on what is now Whyte Avenue. Businesses, at first located in quickly-built primitive shacks, some made of logs, provided goods and services to a flood of immigrants from eastern Canada, Britain and continental Europe, U.S. and other parts of the world that came by train to the area. It was thought that "South Edmonton" would overwhelm "Old Edmonton" on the northside but Strathcona's geographic difficulties prevented this, as local historian Tom Monto explains in his book Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots, (available from Alhambra Books, Edmonton). However, Strathcona was in good enough position for businesses near the railway station to prosper and over the following 20 years the centre's primitive buildings were replaced by more substantial two-storey wood or even brick buildings, many of which exist to this day.

On May 29, 1899, Strathcona was incorporated as a town named after "Lord Strathcona", Donald A. Smith, a prominent official in the Hundson's Bay Company and the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was operating the Calgary and Edmonton Railway, the community's lifeline. ref>Real Estate Weekly</ref> It became a city on March 15, 1907. It amalgamated with Edmonton on February 1, 1912.

In 1902, alarmed by fires that swept through many prairie communities at the time, Strathcona's town council passed an ordinance requiring that all buildings be constructed of fire-resistent materials, such as brick. Construction boomed until the 1912 crash caused by the coming World War. There was little municipal re-development south of the river after the cities of Strathcona and Edmonton amalgamated, so Whyte Avenue and the surrounding area today has one of the largest stocks of vintage buildings in western Canada.

Premier A.C. Rutherford, Strathcona's MLA, established the University of Alberta in the City of Strathcona in 1908.

Today, a part of the former City of Strathcona around Whyte Avenue is known as Old Strathcona, which is a provincially-recognized heritage district. The former City of Strathcona took in an area larger than today's Old Strathcona and included land that was merely annexed and was not fully built on until after amalgamation, and sometimes not until after WW II, as local historian Tom Monto explains in his book Old Strathcona, Edmonton's Southside Roots (available from Alhambra Books, Edmonton). Today's neighbourhood of Strathcona covers most of the territory of the old City of Strathcona east of 107 Street between Whyte Avenue and the river.