For those frequenting the area around Churchill Square, it may just be a nice looking building on the corner of 102 Avenue and 100 Street with a National Bank logo on it. But the Churchill Wire Centre is an important part of Edmonton’s history and a key reason the square it’s next to looks the way it does.
Churchill Wire Centre in July 2002. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, EA-819-173)
Churchill Wire Centre in 2006. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, EA-792-105)
Telephone Building at 100 Street and 101A Avenue in 1950. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, EA-10-2193)
The first thing to know about it is that it was built for the former municipal telephone company, Edmonton Telephones. Completed in 1947, the two and a half story building housed the large switching equipment needed to provide telephone service to a growing city.
As Edmonton continued to grow, a four-storey addition was added to the west side. The Edmonton Telephones Building served in its role until 1984 when it was vacated and the equipment was removed. The building was later redeveloped into condos and retail space.
Now, what makes this place so special? It is a municipal historic resource for good reason. The building was designed by Max Dewar, the city architect at the time who went on to design the 1957 City Hall. A document prepared by the Heritage Officer of Edmonton in 1995 says the building has all the major characteristics of the Moderne Style, with its black granite base and a regular rhythm of windows and pilasters. The materials are also characteristic of the Moderne Style: polished black granite, white terrazzo, stainless steel detailing and glass blocks. Very few Moderne Style buildings survive in Edmonton, and the Churchill Wire Centre is considered one of the best examples of it.
This building is a “significant historic and architectural component of Churchill Square” and “the theme of municipal involvement in the development of municipal utilities is intimately associated with this building,” it says in the 1995 document from the Heritage Officer of Edmonton. It calls the building, historically, “a source of civic pride.”
David Johnston, the City of Edmonton’s Principal Heritage Planner, says the Churchill Wire Centre also set the stage for Churchill Square, both in its high architectural design standard and its proximity to the city’s main public square, which is now surrounded by the Citadel Theatre, the Winspear Centre, the Art Gallery of Alberta, City Hall, the Stanley A. Milner Library and City Centre Mall.
“You’ve got all these public services plus cultural institutions all circled around your main public square in the downtown. And it sort of goes back to this building,” Johnston says.
The next time you are in Churchill Square, spare a moment and take a more careful look at the building on the corner of 102 Avenue and 100 Street. Think about how lovely it is, what it represents historically and how it influenced development in the area. As David Johnston puts it, “Not only is it a nice looking building, but it also has this social history to the city.”
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