The Foster Residence
10958 87th Avenue
Constructed: 1933
Garneau was a neighbourhood that struggled. Despite its proximity to the University of Alberta and bustling arterials, the recession and Great War halted any hopes it may have held of becoming a complete community. For the first twenty years of its existence, development was sporadic. Holes in its urban fabric existed everywhere and in sections it resembled a nature reserve more than a neighbourhood. Only in the 1920s did development again pick up. During those years, “heritage homes made way for bungalows and semi-bungalows as styles leaned more toward ease of management and care.”
The Foster Residence speaks to that era. Built in the popular English Cottage or ‘Storybook’ style, it’s one of several dozen similarly styled Garneau homes constructed during those years. Elements of these designs were borrowed from traditional British vernacular. They stressed “informal, functional plans, fairly sparse decoration that suggested handcraftsmanship, and a harmony with [their] setting”. These properties’ most defining features are their sharply pitched “witches peak” gables, sloping catslide roofs, and recessed entranceways. Decorative faux stonework is often a common fixture.
Henderson’s Directory lists Gordon A. Foster, a civil-service employee with the provincial government, as this home’s first long-term occupant. It’s apparent that the difficulties of the Depression personally affected Foster — in no short time he went through three jobs. After his time as a provincial employee, he worked as an office manager for Aircraft Repair Ltd. and later as an inspector for Central Mortgage.
Foster remained in Garneau’s little yellow home until 1958.
Sources:
“Garneau”, Edmonton Historical Board: Edmonton’s Architectural Heritage, accessed February 10, 2021,
https://www.edmontonsarchitecturalheritage.ca/neighbourhoods/garneau/.
Leslie Maitland, Jacqueline Hucker, Shannon Rickets, A Guide to Canadian Architectural Styles (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1993), 164.
Henderson’s Edmonton City Directory, (1935) s.v. “10958 87”, pg. 138.
Henderson’s Edmonton City Directory, (1957) s.v. “10958 87”, pg. 92.
