The Connaught Armouries
10310 85th Avenue
Constructed: 1911-12
Architect: David Ewart of the Department of Public Works
Designation: Municipal & Provincial Historic Resource
Work on the Connaught Armouries, Alberta’s first purpose-built military drill hall, began in June 1911 and completed in November 1912. The Edmonton Journal wrote that:
“This new structure, which has cost in the vicinity of $40,000, will be used as quarters for the 19th Alberta Dragoons. The exterior has been built of red pressed brick, with trimmings of ornamental stone, and is very attractive, while the interior is laid out in such a manner as to meet every demand of such a building. Large assembly halls, lectures rooms, harness rooms and officers’ quarters are all to be found in the building, while in the basement a shooting gallery and bowling alleys have been arranged.”
Its design is typical of pre-war armouries — fortified and castle-like. Iconography helps that appearance. Stylized battlements along the parapet give it the air of a citadel, while cast-stone cannonballs and shields make its purpose bluntly obvious. But as Janet Wright explains, the Department of Militia and Defence tended to hate the style:
“The military generally felt that the buildings designed by the [Department of Public Works] were too expensive and elaborate. Crenelations, towers, and decorative stonework were unnecessary and costly frills; the department argued for a simple, functional type of building to house militia regiments.”
Be that as it may, the soldiers couldn’t care less. “A jolly good time was the slogan of the evening’s entertainment” the night it formally opened. “Colonel Jamieson, who dealt with the Civil War and Phil Sheridan’s raids,” gave lectures and tours. “It was the consensus of all opinions that the new quarters were all that could be desired.” The basement bowling alley drew the most praise — “several good scores were rolled, and a number of interesting and jovial bowling games were played.”
The building’s primary tenant, the 19th Alberta Dragoons — originally the 19th Alberta Mounted Rifles — formed in 1908 as a unification of four separate Edmonton-area squadrons of the Canadian Mounted Rifles. Local military historian Ian Edwards describes their duties during the Great War:
“On August 6th, 1914, with war declared two days earlier, a Canadian Militia General Order was issued that placed a detail of the 19th A.D. on active service. These soldiers were used for local port active duty, guarding key military and civilian installations such as armouries and railway bridges.”
Meanwhile, another element of the 19th Alberta Dragoons, the Special Service Squadron, saw service in Europe as Edmonton’s first overseas detachment. There they fought at the Second Battle of Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Amiens, and during the Hundred Days Offensive. As Edwards writes, “two-hundred and three all ranks of the 19th A.D. Special Service Squadron had left Edmonton for war. Twenty of the original men returned to Edmonton four and a half years later, on April 11th, 1919.”
During the war, the armouries — plural, in reference to storing the arms and munitions of more than one unit — also housed the 151st (Central Alberta) Battalion, a Strathcona-based outfit. They never went on to see combat in Europe. Other beleaguered regiments needed their manpower, so the 151st was unceremoniously disbanded to provide reinforcements.
Edmonton’s mounted troopers maintained their presence at Connaught for decades, and “during the Second World War, they provided soldiers to various other units.” In 1946, they became the 19th Alberta Armoured Car Regiment following their amalgamation with another local unit, the Edmonton Fusiliers. The unit regained its historic title in 1958.
In 1964, the Alberta Dragoons were transferred to a Supplementary Order of Battle — a personnel-less stasis, where a unit exists only on paper. The Journal explained:
“It will be a passive surrender.
In the military you don’t fight official orders — especially from the federal government.
So the 19th Alberta Dragoons will ‘lay away’ their colours at Holy Trinity Anglican Church Sunday [November 29th, 1964].
The order to ‘dormatize’ the unit came with recent defence department re-organization of militia units.
The colours — the loss of which once meant death before surrender — will be kept safe at the church by the 19th’s padre, Canon T.L. Leadbeater.”
Today the South Alberta Light Horse officially perpetuates the lineage of the 19th Alberta Dragoons. The unit’s old colours are still proudly displayed at Holy Trinity.
In 1965, the Department of National Defence sold the building to Edmonton. At first, the City suggested that it be converted into a southside police station, but that quickly gave way to another idea: demolition.
As a small part of the overarching Metropolitan Edmonton Transportation Study — planned to build an American-style ring-road highway through the heart of Edmonton — the City proposed that a new 105th Street bridge be constructed in the river valley. A whole series of connecter roads and street realignments was needed to make that possible, and the Connaught stood in the way. A spiteful Journal article explained:
“The city’s transportation plans have always had one aim: to move traffic as quickly as possible through Strathcona on the surface, with little regard to the area itself. Present city plans call for a new 105 St. Bridge, with elaborate access roads that would destroy about 70 houses, most of Queen Elizabeth Park, and probably the old Connaught Armoury on 103 St. At 85 Ave.”
When community pushback and a lack of funds canned those plans, the City leased the building to the Old Strathcona Foundation. By then it had sat idle for fourteen years, a target for vandals and petty crime. Through the O.S.F., a string of tenants were secured, including a short-lived high-end restaurant, aptly known as “The Armoury,” and a bar known as Garfields.
In the years since, the building has operated as a branch of the Youth Emergency Shelter Society:
“The non-profit society spent nearly a year and about $1.6 million gutting the historic brick structure on Gateway and 85th Avenue. They tore away the interior of the old Club Malibu University (the previous tenant) and stripped the walls down to their original brick.
What they unveiled… looks more like artists lofts than a youth shelter: Three floors of offices, rec rooms, kitchens and bathrooms they hope can fill the hours of homeless kids who are often turfed at shelters at 9 a.m. and left with nowhere to go until they open again at night.”
Image Gallery:
Sources:
“News of Strathcona,” Edmonton Bulletin, June 10, 1911.
“Armory is Completed,” Edmonton Journal, November 21, 1912.
Alberta Dragoons Have Jolly Evening,” Edmonton Journal, November 29, 1912.
“Proud 19th Dragoons To Lay Away Colors,” Edmonton Journal, November 27, 1964.
“Police May Not Get Armouries,” Edmonton Journal, January 25, 1966.
Strathcona Historical Group, “Plan Promises New Era For Old Strathcona,” Edmonton Journal, June 27, 1973.
Jan MacDonald, “Soldiers Once Toiled Where Yuppies Play,” Edmonton Journal, May 31, 1985.
Richard Warnica, “Saving Kids From Tough Streets,” Edmonton Journal, September 26, 2009.
Janet Wright, Crown Assets: The Architecture of the Department of Public Works, 1867-1967 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), 95.
Ian Edwards, Our Quarrel With The Foe: Edmonton’s Soldiers 1914-1918 (Edmonton: 49th Battalion, Loyal Edmonton Regiment Association, 2020), 289, 343.
