Inglewood is a residential neighbourhood in north west Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Between 1946 and 1996, Edmonton's Charles Camsell Hospital was located in the neighbourhood. The hospital was named after Canadian geologist and map maker Charles Camsell.
The neighbourhood is bounded on the north by 118 Avenue, on the south by 111 Avenue, on the west by Groat Road, and on the east by the a former Canadian National Railway right of way.
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Residential development in Inglewood began prior to the end of World War II, when roughly one residence in eight was constructed. However, most of the existing residences (78% of the total) were built during the next 35 years. Residential construction tapered off during the 1980s and was substantially complete by 1990.[1]
According to the 2005 municipal census, the most common type of residence in the neighbourhood is the rented apartment; these constitute seven out of ten (69%) of the residences. Most apartments are in low rise buildings with fewer than five stories. Single family dwellings account for only one in four (25%) of all residences. Duplexes account for the remaining 6%.[2] Three out of four (76%) of residences are rented with the remainder being owner occupied.[3]
The population in Inglewood is highly mobile. According to the 2005 municipal census, one in four (25.4%) residents had moved within the preceding 12 months. Another one in four (26.8%) had moved within the previous one to three years. Only one in three (33%) of residents had lived at the same address for five years or more.[4]
There are four schools in the neighbourhood.
In 1946, Governor General of Canada Lord Alexander opened The Charles Camsell tuberculosis hospital in Edmonton. This hospital, which was located in the Inglewood Area, was named after Charles Camsell (1876–1958), a geologist and map-maker dedicated to the exploration of Canada's North.[5]
In 1964 the Department of Indian and Eskimo Affairs, which operated the Charles Camsell Hospital, established the Northern Medical Research Unit under the direction of Otto Schaefer. The Unit was created to address the overwhelming response to a 1959 paper about Arctic health Schaefer published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The paper was a summary of his medical and personal observations of the changes to Inuit lifestyle with the coming of the DEW Line and increasing southern influence. For the next two decades Schaefer and his staff travelled the Arctic collecting medical information, administering vaccinations to remote camps, and seeing to the general health care of Inuit and First Nations groups in the Arctic. The Unit spent two months a year in the Arctic, as well as occasional emergence trips, and at the Charles Camsell Hospital analysing the data collected and seeing to patients. The conclusions of this research indicated changes to traditional life by increased influence of southern non-Native culture on lifestyle, diet, and social structure had enormous negative health effects. Schaefer became a vocal advocate for a return to traditional lifestyles as a means of countering declining health and better treating medical problems in the Arctic and in hospitals like the Charles Camsell.
Between 1945 and 1967 the hospital operated an occupational therapy program for aboriginal patients. In 1990, the hospital donated a collection of over 400 arts and crafts items made by patients in the program to the Royal Alberta Museum.[6]
The hospital was an "Experimental Hospital" run by Canada's Indian Affairs and the United Church was known as the "Indian Hospital". Stigma surrounds the hospital as it is alleged that the aboriginal population was treated poorly, abused, and murdered. It is also alleged that south of the building near what used to be the staff garden is a mass grave of aboriginal children, though when officials questioned about this it is denied and stated that most of the people that died in this hospital were buried near a residential school in St. Albert north of Edmonton. These rumours and others regarding hauntings of the hospital are based more in urban legend than fact.
The hospital was closed and abandoned in 1996, condemned due in part to asbestos. The hospital has been owned by a number of people over the past few years with development in mind, and some construction & gutting of the floors done, but nothing substantial with no actual development finished. The movie "White Coats" released in 2004 was filmed in this hospital. In 2006 there was a fire in the building caused by a demolition crew, but firefighters had to fight the fire from the outside of the building as barbed wire had been wrapped around the railings of staircases in a poor attempt to keep the homeless population out of the building. The building and grounds as of 2009 sit empty with a fence around it, patrolled actively by a private security service, and hefty fines are given to trespassers.
| Dovercourt | Sherbrooke, Prince Charles, | Edmonton City Centre Airport | ||
| Woodcroft | Prince Rupert | |||
| Inglewood | ||||
| North Glenora | Westmount | Queen Mary Park |