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Arlington Apartments (Edmonton)

2005 fires in North AmericaApartment buildings in CanadaBuildings and structures demolished in 2008Buildings and structures in EdmontonBurned buildings and structures in Canada
Demolished buildings and structures in AlbertaMunicipal Historic Resources of EdmontonProvincial Historic Resources in EdmontonResidential buildings completed in 1909

The Arlington Apartments or The Arlington was the first apartment building to open in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in 1909. The 49 suite, five-storey redbrick building stood at 100 Avenue and 106 Street until 2005 when it was destroyed by fire. The building was a prime example of Edmonton's pre-Great War building boom that managed to survive into the 21st century. The building was financed by a consortium of local business leaders who formed the Arlington Apartment Company. Among the original owners were George Swaisland, an Ontario-born banker who managed the Molson's Bank in Edmonton and Patrick O. Dwyer, president of Northern Investment Agency Limited. Building construction was supervised by Robert Grant of Winnipeg; it was erected between July and December 1909 at a cost of $130,000. The building was purchased by the Northern Investment Agency in 1932 for $85,000. In 1943 G. Patrick Ryan purchased it and founded Arlington Apartment Limited. The building was a popular home for professionals and artists until the 1970s. By the 1980s residents were complaining of problems with prostitution. A fire in 1990 damaged but did not threaten the building. The building was designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 1995, and a Municipal Historic Resource in 1998. After the 2005 fire, there was an acrimonious confrontation between Edmonton's city government and the owner of the site, Saraswati P. Singh. The City demanded that the original facade (including the original bricks) be maintained during any reconstruction. In 2007, Singh agreed to incorporate three brick walls of the building into a 20-storey condominium project. In 2008, however, the site's architect said that that plan was no longer feasible, and asked for permission to demolish the ruins and reconstruct the facade with new bricks. In September 2008, the City finally give the owners permission to tear down the building. In mid-November demolition began.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Arlington Apartments (Edmonton) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Arlington Apartments (Edmonton)
100 Avenue NW, Edmonton Central Core

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Latitude Longitude
N 53.539 ° E -113.5024 °
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100 Avenue NW 10522
T5J 2R7 Edmonton, Central Core
Alberta, Canada
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Land Titles Building – Victoria Armoury
Land Titles Building – Victoria Armoury

The Land Titles Building was a federal government office built in Edmonton in 1893. It later became the Victoria Armoury, and was used by three Edmonton regiments. It is "likely the oldest existing Land Titles Office in Alberta, one of the oldest extant buildings in the province, and certainly the first purpose-built registry office".Located at what is now 10523 100 Avenue, the building was constructed as a larger replacement to the much smaller first Dominion Lands Office in Edmonton (which is now represented at Fort Edmonton Park). It housed the "Crown Land, Timber and Registry Office for the District of Alberta in the North-West Territories". This was the place that settlers registered their claims (land title) to free lands under the Dominion Lands Act.The design of the building is based on a basic plan drawn up by Thomas Fuller, Chief Architect of the Dominion, but is similar to the design of a typical Hudson's Bay Company warehouse. The original design is a bisymmetrical fenestration pattern, which includes a jerkinshead roof with narrow, hipped dormers. Two additions have been made to the building over its lifetime.At one point federal government attempted to move its offices across the river to the rival settlement of Strathcona, but an angry mob sabotaged the effort and there was an armed standoff with the North-West Mounted Police.In 1912 the Land Titles office moved out of the building and it became an armoury. It was then home to several different Edmonton regiments, in succession, over the next half-century: the 19th Alberta Dragoons (1915–39), Edmonton Fusiliers (1940–46), and the 19th Alberta Armoured Car Regiment (1947–48). Subsequently, the building became the offices and laboratories of the Provincial Government Department of Health.The building has been a Provincial Historic Resource since 1977. Since 1995, the building has the home of the Edmonton chapter of the Elizabeth Fry Society, a women's charity, which moved there from former offices in the McLeod Building.