ALBERTA AVENUE REAL ESTATE

Located within Edmonton’s inner city, Alberta Avenue is one of the city’s older residential neighbourhoods. It dates back to 1894, a time when Edmonton had about 1,000 residents and when a two-block area—between the now-90th and 92nd Streets—was sub-divided out of the dense bush. At the time, this area was a part of the “Village of North Edmonton,” which lay outside Edmonton’s town limits.

This first small pocket of housing remained quite isolated for several years until 1906, when a major portion of what is now known as Eastwood was sub-divided. The Alberta Avenue area developed in a more piecemeal fashion between 1906 and 1912 as Edmonton’s real estate brokers and speculators capitalized on the “land boom” that was sweeping the prairies during this period. This rapid growth period in Edmonton and its surrounding areas peaked around the year 1912, by which time the basic physical layout of Alberta Avenue as we know it today had been established.

Close to the city’s downtown, the area contains a large proportion of small residential lots, with housing styles ranging from small bungalows to larger two-stories that face streets lined with large trees. A strong commercial element exists along three of its major traffic corridors: 118th Avenue, Norwood Boulevard (111th Avenue), and part of 95th Street.

The name of the neighbourhood was adopted from the former designation for 118th Avenue. Alberta Avenue has been used since at least 1922, which was also the year the Community League was formed.