History by Bike

It was a beautiful (hot, very hot) sunny day as Sadie & I loaded up to head to Edmonton for an Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society event: Bicycle Tour of Edmonton's History.

You can find the EBCS calendar here.

Arriving at Bikeworks North, Sadie hopped out of the truck and turned a few donuts in the parking lot while waiting for the group to arrive. Sadie tends to be chronically early to bike events and finds that the nice thing about being a bike is that she is always ready to roll down the road whereas I tend to need to gear up - helmet, sunblock, socks, bike shoes, you get the idea... I took a few minutes to check out the shop and gear up while Sadie puttered around. I love the colors that Bikeworks (North & South) have gone with.

The tour was lead by Karly & Chris who each did a fabulous job of providing interesting historical information on the buildings we were seeing. While I can't recall everything, here is a bit of what Sadie & I saw:

Church Street - Click the link to see the church list and learn more about them.

The above image may not look like much but in a 5 block strip, starting here, there are 22 churches (one or 2 may have moved/closed) on this street.The oldest church is 1903. I'll be back to take photos soon and update. Besides, why spoil the fun of you exploring this street yourself. :)

Stops also included several "block" buildings - warning, most stuff was built around 1903-1913 on this tour so I'll save you the info on years unless it is built later.  The above is the Hecla Block. Many of these blocks are now apartments, some with stores downstairs. The nice thing is that they appear in the middle of the city, when you least expect them. Have a ride around and see what you can find! Someone referred to them as invisible history - you don't realize they are there until you go looking.

The above is on the side of the Imperial Bank of Canada building, built in the 1950's. If you do visit this building, look around for the Canada Permanent Building about 1 block down and across the street. You can't miss it and the architecture is fabulous. 

Sadie's favorite building was the St. Josaphat Cathedral - a Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral:

The tour paused briefly for coffee on 101A Ave and a quick trip around the corner to visit a 1920's Horse Chestnut tree! This tree is in the center of a back alley - see if you can find it and enjoy a sit on the bench in front of it.

Returning to Bikeworks, Sadie hopped in the truck for the ride home, eager to have a rest after her second ride of the day. As for me, I am planning a return trip in August when I have the time to stop and photograph everything, including the historical markers on each of these sites, as well as locate additional sites. Stay tuned!