I Heart Edmonton

Alberta Legislature Grounds By Emil Tiedemann “Edmonton was still very much a frontier city with many inhabitants living in the roughest of shelters, in tents and wooden shacks,” wrote former Alberta Legislative Assembly Speaker Moragh Macauley in an article celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Legislature Building, in 1987. “The population of the province was, for the main part, made up of homesteaders, recent immigrants who had come to settle the land and make new lives for themselves.”    The grounds are stunning year round, but perhaps more so in the autumn! It was the turn of the century and Edmonton had just been declared the capital of Alberta, shortly after it was incorporated as an actual city. The first provincial legislative session happened in 1906 at the Thistle Rink, which happened to be the largest building in the whole town at that point.  Future sessions took place at the MacKay Avenue School (1906-08) and then at a hall in the governmen...

e Built over a six-year period (1907-13), the Alberta Legislature Building was designed in the Ècole des Beaux Arts style by architects Allan Merrick Jeffers and Richard Blakey , who incorporated Greek, Roman and even Egyptian elements into the $4 million project. It resembles similar government buildings in the capitals of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, which was a style that had originally been linked to Paris' School of Fine Arts. Located at 10801-97 ave. (NW), the Leg serves as the seat of the 83-member Legislative Assembly of Alberta and the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta ( Norman Kwong ). Free tours are offered at the Edmonton staple throughout the week (780-427-7362), though most prefer to just hang out at the free "pool" and fountain outside the front doors. PHOTO BY EMIL TIEDEMANN e