Update: May 2012
by Colleen Chapman
Originally published in the May 2012 issue of Boyle McCauley News.
Things are getting exciting for the Friends of Church Street.
We are in negotiations for office space in the neighbourhood, and have begun working on our funding proposals. Our committee is vibrant, busy, and dedicated, and we are looking for more volunteers who would like to work with us. Check us out at
http://www.friendsofchurchstreet.com, or on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/FriendsofChurchStreet). You can also follow us on Twitter:
@ChurchStreet96.
Next summer on July 13 we will be holding our first annual Church Street Fair, and will need a lot of good volunteers for that. Please contact us at friendsofchurchstreet@gmail.com.
Our committee is:
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Colleen Chapman, Chair
Wendy Aasen, Vice Chair
Shauna Forsyth, Secretary
Fr. Jim Holland, Treasurer
Paula Kirman, Director of Communications
David Prodan, Member at Large
We will need volunteers for the office/gift shop in the future, and are hoping to be able to set up by the end of this summer. Join us in the fun!
Church Street Photos
We have a growing photo set of the churches along 96 Street at our Facebook Page. You don’t have to “like” our page to view the photos, nor do you eve have to belong to Facebook in the first place. However, if you are on FB it would be great if you could join our page. We want to send a clear message to the City of Edmonton that Church Street has a lot of support for an official historic designation.
Looking Behind the Cross
Looking through the window at First Christian Reformed.
The view through one of the windows inside First Christian Reformed Church on 109 Avenue and 96 Street.
Edmonton Church Photography Project
This is a former pet project of Paula, our Communications Director, long before she “discovered” Church Street. She is very interested in church architecture. Now, she takes many photos along 96 Street!
Introducing Friends of Church Street
Paula, our Communications Director, wrote a blog post about Friends of Church Street:
Church Street Awarded Plaque
Edmonton Historical Board recognizes 96 Street’s significance
By Wendy Aasen & Rob Stack
Originally published in Boyle McCauley News, December 2010/January 2011
In June, the McCauley Community League was informed that 96 Street, Church Street, had been selected by the Edmonton Historical Board for plaque recognition. That plaque was presented on November 4 at the 36th Annual Recognition and Plaque Awards reception held at the Prince of Wales Armouries and Heritage Centre.
The recognition came about because the McCauley Community League, the media, a few community members, and our former City Councilor Ben Henderson, while working to save St. Stephen’s church, brought Church Street to the attention of City of Edmonton heritage planners and the Historic Board.
As the Edmonton Historical Board has written, “These plaques act as a reminder to the public of the importance a site or building has in our community. A plaque places no restrictions on the building or limitations on renovations, modifications, or development . . . They are purely informational.”
The League Executive asked McCauley Community League Board Oral Historian, Antoinette Grenier, to accept the plaque for the community of McCauley because of her long residence here and in recognition for her individual advocacy work on behalf of the community
The plaque reads (excerpts):
“Stretching from just south of Jasper Avenue northward to 111 Avenue, and spanning some seventy years of Church architecture in Edmonton, Church Street features a remarkable collection of thirteen houses of worship built between the turn of the twentieth century and the early 1970s.
Church Street not only displays the construction that took place during this period, but also represents a wide variety of architectural styles, ranging from the Byzantine and French Gothic revival to the Prairie Church, Asymmetrical Modern, and Modern.
Church Street’s oldest building is the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, built in 1903 at a cost of $10,000.
Central Baptist (1913), Sacred Heart (1913), Grace Methodist (1913), St. Stephen the Martyr Anglican (1914), and Church of Christ (Disciples) (1914) were all built at the tail end of Edmonton’s first boom, before the outset of World War I. The new churches ministering to several Christian denominations reflect the growing plurality of Edmonton’s religious and spiritual needs.
Through the interwar period, the growing population required new churches. Included among these are St. Peter’s Lutheran Church (1928), and St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral and the Ansgar Lutheran Church, both completed in 1939 following the worst years of the Depression.
Following the Second World War four new churches called 96 Street home. The First Christian Reform Church (1948), the Chinese United Church (1953), St. Barbara’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral (1957), and St. John’s Lutheran Church (1971) illustrate various postwar architectural styles and have collectively lent a distinctively modern look to Church Street.”
The League thanks the following people for helping to save St. Stephen’s and on behalf of Church Street: Robert Geldart, David Holdsworth, Eric Strikwerda, Sonia Caligiuri, Ben Henderson, Paula Simons, Martin Garber-Conrad, Paula Kirman, the Edmonton Historical Board, the fabulous congregations of Church Street, and the wonderful people of McCauley.
Plaque placement will be decided at some point in the future.
Historic Designation for Church Street?
Something we are really hoping for is an official historic designation of Church Street by the City of Edmonton. Here is an article from the Edmonton Journal, which was published on February 27, with some very encouraging news.
Welcome to Friends of Church Street!
Welcome to the website and blog for Friends of Church Street. We are an organization that seeks to promote the historical significance of 96 Street in the McCauley neighbourhood (in Edmonton, Alberta), which is commonly known as Church Street. We are not a religious group nor affiliated with any one particular church.
A couple of the things towards which we are working is encouraging the City of Edmonton to officially designate Church Street as an historical location. We are also planning a Church Street Fair for the summer of 2013.
96 Street has already been honoured with a plaque in 2010 from the Edmonton Historical Board. Church Street is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest number of churches within a few blocks (there are currently around 20).
For now, you can stay up to date with what is going on by checking out our Twitter (@ChurchStreet96) and Facebook pages. You can also reach us at friendsofchurchstreet@gmail.com.
Friends of Church Street 