Strathcona was a city in Alberta, Canada, located on the southside of the North Saskatchewan River across the river from Edmonton.
Strathcona's recorded history began in the 1870s. Its first residents were an off-shoot of the hangers-on and self-employed contractors who resided near the old Fort Edmonton on the north side of the river. This mixed community of British (especially Orkney), Quebecois, Cree and Metis fur trade employees, pioneer farmers, hunters, and their families, was mostly replaced by eastern Canadian pioneer farmers (and land speculators) in the 1880s.[1]
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 north side but Strathcona's geographic difficulties prevented this. However, Strathcona was in good enough position for businesses near the railway station to prosper. 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.[1]
On May 29, 1899, Strathcona was incorporated as a town named after "Lord Strathcona", Donald A. Smith.[2] Smith was a prominent official in the Hudson's Bay Company and the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was operating the Calgary and Edmonton Railway, the community's lifeline. It became a city on March 15, 1907.
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-resistant materials, such as brick. This, along with the limited municipal re-development occurring south of the river after amalgamation, means that Whyte Avenue and the surrounding area 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, in the building that is now Old Scona Academic High School.
Today, a part of the former City of Strathcona around Whyte Avenue is known as Old Strathcona, a provincially-recognized heritage district. The former City of Strathcona took in an area larger than today's Old Strathcona. It included land that was merely annexed and was not fully built on until after amalgamation, and sometimes not until after WW II.[1] 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.
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