Avonmore is a typical mature Edmonton residential neighbourhood named for a very atypical character.
An advertisement of Golden Homes built in Avonmore. The model shown here has a front bedroom that extends out from the rest of the house. One can still find these houses in Avonmore today. Date unknown. (Image courtesy of Avonmore Community League and Erin Caspary)
An aerial view of Avonmore, 1957. (Image courtesy of City of Edmonton Archives, 10-25622)
Algernon William Yelverton, Viscount Avonmore, was a colourful Irish priest with a taste for adventure and some other things. Lured by the 1887 gold rush, he stopped in Edmonton on his way to the Klondike. And he wasn’t traveling lightly. Lord Avonmore’s caravan was filled with liquor to sell to the Sourdoughs—long-time Alaska residents. Unfortunately, the viscount found out the Klondike was under prohibition at the time. So he decided to get rid of his whole cargo of champagne, wine and brandy. It took him and his friends six weeks of heavy drinking, but they managed it.
Lord Avonmore’s reputation seems to have little resemblance to that of the southside Edmonton neighbourhood that is his namesake.
Edmonton historian Ken Tingley describes it this way:
“It’s a typical neighbourhood built after the war, like many in the city. The stock of houses has been maintained, the demographic has changed. For many years, it was an empty nest neighbourhood where there was an older demographic and we older guys don’t like change all that much sometimes. I know when they took out an auxiliary hospital a few years ago, there was a huge uproar when a developer wanted to put up a highrise where the auxiliary hospital had been… So they don’t really welcome some of the new ideas.”
One might say one of those “new ideas” is the Valley Line LRT that has a stop in Avonmore. Anita Lunden has served as the neighbourhood’s community league president. She says residents’ attitudes about the LRT have evolved.
“I think at first there was a lot of resistance, but [there were] also people recognizing that it had to go somewhere and… people supporting it,” Lunden says. “The people who lived near the construction on 83 Street, it’s been a long process of noise and disruption and traffic disruption… they’ll be very glad to see it finished. The landscaping has really made the street look very nice.”
“We’ve always had a bus running from Mill Woods to downtown…the number 8,” she continues, “and by the time it got here at peak times, it was very full. I know people who say they have been riding the bus to work for 10-12 years and never got to sit down because it was very crowded. So from that point of view, it’s just a more efficient, quieter, larger system. Maybe more people will use it now, people who were used to driving downtown.”
