SHERBROOKE REAL ESTATE
The Sherbrooke neighbourhood was subdivided in 1906, using a grid street pattern, during Edmonton’s early land boom era. The area was annexed to Edmonton in 1913, but it remained practically undeveloped and in agricultural use until after World War II. In the early 1950s, however, the Sherbrooke subdivision was replotted under the direction of the City’s first town planner, Noel Dant.
Apartment buildings located along 118th Avenue are adjacent to a major traffic and public transit route. The Sherbrooke subdivision was one of the first in North America to be designed using the “neighbourhood unit” concept as the basis of its plan. The design is based on a curvilinear street pattern with limited access points, landscaping, and variable housing set-backs to discourage through traffic and improve the attractiveness of the neighbourhood.
The streets and walkways focus on school and community league sites. Although these design features seem commonplace today, Sherbrooke was cited by the American Society of Planning Officials as a model of good subdivision design in the 1950s.
Originally opened in 1954, Sherbrooke Elementary and Junior High School, which was built to handle the post-war baby boom, closed in 1984 due to declining enrollment. The school has been used for other community and recreational purposes from the mid-1980s onwards.
The neighbourhood was likely named after Sherbrooke, Quebec, which itself was named after Sir John Coape Sherbrooke (1763–1811), who was the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia in 1811 and the governor-in-chief of British North America in 1816.
