The Stein Residence
11014 125th Street
Constructed: 1912
The Stein Residence is a one-and-a-half storey Craftsman bungalow located in the Westmount neighbourhood.
As Lori Yanish and Shirley Lowe write, Westmount “developed a reputation as the ‘place to be for the up and coming’” and as a result became a desirable location for white and blue-collar families alike. It was for Joseph and Jennine Stein, and their young daughter Ruth, the home’s long-time tenants. They moved in around 1913. Joseph’s enviable job as a salesman with the Great Western Garment Co., likely allowed him to purchase such a well-appointed residence. Joining the family was George and Harriet Roberts, Jennine’s parents. George was a well known Edmonton contractor and “builder of the Roberts Block on 102 st., which for a time housed the public library.”
Built at what was once 1622 25th Street, the Steins home is a prototypical Craftsman design. A Guide to Canadian Architectural Styles writes that these types of properties are “wonderfully informal and unpretentious, [and] sophisticated in a very subtle way.” They are “plain in the extreme, ornamented only with banks or casement windows. The eaves overhang in a picturesque manner,” and stress “informal, functional plans, [and] fairly spare decoration that suggested handcraftsmanship.”
Another dozen similar homes dot 125th Street. As Yanish and Low explain, “often an individual family who purchased a lot would buy a house design and hire their own contractors or would do much of the labour themselves. House plans were often purchased in the neighbourhood from the design department of Cushing Lumber or could be ordered from a special supplement of the Eaton’s catalogue.” Perhaps that sense of crushing conformity is why, in 1931, the family undertook a $1,500 renovation of their property.
Joseph Stein himself had a brush with death on September 25th, 1936. In the words of the Edmonton Journal:
“Carried over half-a-mile in his wrecked automobile on the front of an eastbound C.N.R. locomotive after his car was struck at the level crossing just north of Stony Plain Road at 11:00 a.m. Friday, Joseph O. Stein, 11014 125 st., commercial traveller, lived to tell the tale, without serious injury.
Stein is in the Royal Alexandra Hospital and is recovering from external and internal bruises and scratches.
According to eye-witnesses, a ‘way’ freight was standing on a siding parallel to the main track when Stein drove toward the level crossing. A brakeman standing by the crossing signalled the motorist to stop, but evidently the signal was not seen. The standing freight cars obstructed the view of the main track and Stein started to drive over the crossing. The approaching freight train struck his auto squad in the side, pushing the auto and its driver on the locomotive ‘pilot’. The freight train was reported to be travelling at about 30 miles an hour.”
According to the Edmonton Bulletin, “the impact tore up the planks on the crossing and badly wrecked the car, knocking off three wheels.” It didn’t overturn. Stein later clarified that “he mistook the switchman at the crossing for a pedestrian signalling for a lift and did not see the train.”
Over the years the Stein’s home got quieter and quieter. George Roberts passed in 1932 and little Ruth Stein left home in 1939 after marrying a Saskatoon man. Harriet Roberts died on June 30th, 1940, followed by Joseph on Christmas Day, 1944.
In the years after, Jennine sublet parts of the house to other tenants, including one Mrs. L. McCray. She stayed here until her death on October 19th, 1968.
Image Gallery:
Sources:
“Give 5 Permits For New Home,” Edmonton Journal, April 7, 1931.
“George E. Roberts Dies Here Monday,” Edmonton Journal, March 15, 1932.
“City Man’s Car Struck By Train,” Edmonton Bulletin, September 25, 1936.
“Carried Half Mile By Engine, Lives,” Edmonton Journal, September 25, 1936.
“Gleaned From The News,” Edmonton Bulletin, September 26, 1936.
“Miss Ruth Stein Married Here Friday Evening,” Edmonton Journal, June 24, 1939.
“Mrs. Harriet Louise Roberts,” Edmonton Journal, July 2, 1940.
“Slight Damage In Two Small Fires,” Edmonton Bulletin, November 13, 1940.
“Joseph O. Stein,” Edmonton Journal, December 26, 1944.
“Daily Calendar — Seneca Club,” Edmonton Journal, April 19, 1954.
“Stein,” Edmonton Journal, October 19, 1968.
Henderson’s Edmonton City Directory, (1913) s.v. “Stein,” pg. 277.
City of Edmonton Archives, 1913FireInsurance_vol2_no123,
Lori Yanish & Shirley Lowe, Edmonton’s West Side Story: The History of the Original West End of Edmonton From 1870 (Edmonton: 124th Street & Area Business Association, 1991), 76.
Leslie Maitland, Jacqueline Hucker, Shannon Rickets, A Guide to Canadian Architectural Styles (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1993), 164.
