Description of Historic Place

The Strathcona Hotel is a three-storey rectangular wood-frame structure built in 1891, with a two-storey annex to the west (built 1903) and a three-storey addition to the north (1907), situated on two city lots at a prominent corner location in Edmonton's historic district of Old Strathcona.

Heritage Value

The historical significance of the Strathcona Hotel lies mainly in its service as a stopover for countless immigrants after the arrival of the railway in Edmonton in 1891. It has added significance as the oldest known wood frame commercial structure in the region.

Built by the Calgary and Edmonton Railway Company in 1891, across the street from its railway station at the "end of steel," the Strathcona Hotel was the first hotel in South Edmonton (by 1899 the Town of Strathcona) and thus served as a stopping point for immigrants seeking to establish homesteads or businesses in the Northwest. From 1891 to 1904 it was the largest hotel in the region, it was an important meeting place and landmark for early Strathcona. Because it relied heavily on revenue from the tavern located in the west annex, prohibition forced the sale of the hotel. It was purchased by the Presbyterian Church, which used the building to house the Westminster Ladies College from 1918 to 1924. With the end of prohibition the building reverted to use as a hotel.

As one of last nineteenth-century wood frame hotels remaining in Alberta, the Strathcona Hotel is a good example of a frontier commercial building. On a prime corner location at the intersection of the historic Calgary Trail and Whyte Avenue, it plays an essential role in maintaining the historic character of the streetscape of a heritage area.

Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. 203)

Character-Defining Elements

The late Victorian commercial style of the Strathcona Hotel is expressed in character-defining elements such as:
-form, scale and massing;
- unusual L-shaped floor plan, with two annexes;
- large hipped roof;
- horizontal exterior wood siding;
- historic exterior colour pattern;
- detailing, including decorative brackets under eaves, pediments over windows and doors;
- fenestration pattern;
- masonry extension to north;
- sawn cedar roof shingles;
- sightlines of building from Whyte Avenue and 103rd Street, and corner entrance.