Heritage, Commmity and Commerce
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University of Alberta Fort Edmonton Maii: Heritage, Commmity and Commerce Karen L. Wall O A thesis submiüed b the Facuity of Graduate Shidies and Research in partial fÙi6ihent of the requirements for the degree of Docbr of Philosophy. Facuity of Physicai Education a.Sport Studies Edmonton, Aiberta Fall1998 National Library Bibliothèque nationaie 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaON K1AON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to ~ib~iothequenationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thése sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT Critiques of heritage production typicaiiy conceni current practices of repmmting or reconstnicting the pst. As a piut of departure, îhh study examines the socidtural context of heritage constniction in twentieth-century Canada and Alberfa Case studies are drawn kmconstnicted spaces in the city of Edmonton which raise guestions of the discourses and historiai contexts of focai heritage deyelopment. As reconstnicted history, geographicaily isolated and gmunded in principles of traditional museology, Fort Edmonton Park represents a didactic cuiû.mil eniphasis which has been contiktently acconpanied by the discourse oftoiarism and mafketing. The OId Strathcona Heritage Conservation District is a dramatized space, an economic rwitalization project which began as an episode of commwiiîy reSiStaTlce to mban deveIopment, The West Edmonton Mali snidy extends themes of enclosure, chic identity, commerce and aesthetics into an examination of the nature of wban consumer space in the present en These spaces are approached, nrst, in terms of their various chhsto represent locai cultural identity in successive conkxts of community and &an growth. Culturai ideologies intersect with sociai, political and economic agendas in the selectnre construction of the@ast and present) and space (urban streetSc;ipes and heritage zones.) Overail, this study concerns ways in which forms of public space take on social force and legihaq. In ali cases, questions arkof the extent and implications of the privatisation of public space. While the cornmon focus of dysisis the contemporary social conssuction of rueanhg and of correspondhg public space, the central point of reference remains the theory and practice of mediating the past (and thus the present) sense of place and the. The concIusion suggests that in the context of a heritage of commerce, cousumerism and retail culture, the present identity of the city as a node in a global market of consumption and tourism may be represented as well by shopping maik as by mod reconstructions of commercial districts. TABlLE OF CONTENTS htrochiction: Ghost Towns and invisiile Cities........................................................ 1 Chapter I : RetaiIiog Time: the "Language of Goodsn as Narrative of Progress..................................................... 4 Chagter 2: "Avaifab1e elements": the Selective Construction of Heritage in Canada and Aiberta .................................................... 23 Chapter 3 : "Siiveers of the tme Fort": the Iourney to Fort Edmonton Park ............... ... ... .....*......................39 Chapter 4: "The thing that shinesn: Packaging Community in Old Strathcona ................................................................. 59 Chapter 5 : "A world apartn: Western Fort to West End Mail ........................ ..74 ConcluSon: Losî and "Distressed" in Urban Space........... ...,.,... ........................ -93 AR -Report AHRF Aiberta Historie Resources Foundation ES Edmonton Bulletin CEA City of Edmonton Archives. - CMA CanadianMuseamsAssociation FEim Fort Edmonton Hktorical Ftmndaîion ET Edmonton Jaunial HCF Heritage Canada Foundation GgtM Globe and Mail HSA HistoncalSocietyofAfbert;l HSMBC Histonc Sites and Moments Board of Canada NrnA Northem Alberta Pioneers and Old Tiers Association OSF Old Strathcona Fomdation PAA PrwinciaI Archives of Alberta RCE Rotary Club of Edmonton WEM West Edmonton Mali For consistent enamragement, good advice and patient teadings of this dissertation, 1 would Like to thad my supervisor- Dr. Dave Whitson, I am ahgratefiil to contri'brrtions at various stages made 'by m&rs ofsupervisory and ermmining cornmittees incIriding Dr. Debra Shogan, Dr. Jan Jago&uisla, Dr, Olenka Bilash. Dr. Janiœ Win,and, at MaiUniversity* Dr, Will Straw. Thanks also to those imoived at earlier stages, incinding Dr, Michael Smith and Dr, Bill Bearâ, and members ofthe Depiutment of Modem Histoq at MordUnhxsity- Other past and present colleagnes working in relateci fields have ammito the development of Mkrent chapters or werail approach through conversations, suggestions or expressions of interest. Thanks to Radomir BIlash and Ema Dominey of Alberta's Historic Sites Services, stanmembers of te Provinciai Archives OfAlberta, Dr. PeariAnn Reichwein at this University, and ekwhere, Jose Arroyo, Ian Chunn, Mïke Gasher and Momi Naughton. My students in the Canadian Stndies Program here have aiso helped me to cl- and explain reiated issues and inmes&. Fi,the focus of this siudy on the ci@of Edmonton derives hmyears of encomters with Idpeople to numerom to name whose enthnsiasm, actMsg and contn'bution to the mmmunity consti~ethe red "invisib1e city" which inspires it. Thanks to Inends and extended -y, and especially to Cm ValIentgoed and Ramona Litwimvich, who &are my space, DEDICATION For my parents: my mother, Jane Waii and to the memory of my fhther John Waii 193 1-1998 Introduction: Ghost Toms and Invisible Cities A. Vanisbing points: varidies of urüan experience The academic iinquj. into heritage produdon ohbegim with curiosity about current practices of revisiîing the pst. Begixining in this field of research, the present study aftived in the city of Edmonton with questions concerning the prochrction of public space under the rubric of cultural identity in the context of the growth of a communiîy in the twentieth century- As an accounf of a city moving through time, this is necessarily an account of processes of mnstnictiog deconstnrction and reconstruction, In the city that su- the fort on the river, these processes have been compressed into a relatively short span of theePhysical consüuction of buildings and streets has been paralleleci by f/mmeworh of myth, legend and marketing schemes: selected aspects and meanhgs, of what it was, is now and milid üecome. In sum, both the utilitarian forms of the prairie city, and its ixvisiile, imagined and rhetorical versions have been ephemeral in natutie, addressed to both insiciers and otrtsiclers- The elusive Quality of locai identiîy, though, is suited to Edmonton's historid role as a node in the *der network of comrminications upon which tbe Canadian deveîopment of the northwest depended Thme who came to stay ohdid so mon or les by accidau of ecnm&c opporhinity- ~e~inningas a and tracting post, it bewme for a tirne a supply depot for the Mon*, later an agricultural &ce centre, and later sîdi the "Gateway to the North" and the petroleum industry, though never the metropolis ofdevelopers' dreams. Weusually encounter the "ghost town" as an abandoued townsite surviving past its role in Iocal development, sheIîer for workers or entrepreneurs and now for tourists. At several points in its history, the tom of Edmonton could well have vanisbed to this point, T&y, nwiving its long history as a point of depamire for eisewhere, still literaly and me&horidyon the margins of urban North America, Edmonton might be seen as a kind of a ghost town bauuted by invislbfe tities. To the driver appmaching on the highway, the city appears on the horizon agaîmt Qy, bright skies or dense pairie thmheads as a suddenjzimble of paie stone, random as a mirage. Even in the centre of town, the river in its shallow bed seems more substantial than the sketchy towers high on its banks like fiotsam. In facf the material city has been ephemeral, Mdings vanishing and replaced accordhg to a rapid succession of economic iwestment, architectural style, political expediency, pophiion shifts and so on. The spdof this change has amtn'buted to the sense of living in a ghost tom its residents haunted with past fonns persisting in I;iyers of memory and conversation. This hamting is mediated, of course, by the technologies of historicai preservation, recording and sometimes reproducing fbgments of what has vanished dong with what bas been imagineci or desired. As shared public space, to some extent always serving as symbol, the city is a form imported to the region in the con- of European-Canadian ideaïs and metaphors which, in material form, served to Link a new society to older, mo~-enchh~places and institutio&. Nevertheles, nich processes have ahq%to some extent, holved the political and emnomic struggie