The “Place place” houses a connection with the past

Erik Backstrom is a City of Edmonton urban planner. He is a lover and student of the city’s history, so his interest was piqued when he found out about a special house on Lee Ridge Road in the Mill Woods area of south Edmonton. 

What makes this lovely house particularly special is its age and history. A citizen emailed heritage planners to let them know the house was up for sale in hopes they would be able to keep the house built back in 1902 from being torn down. The real estate listing read: “This home is packed with history, as it was the original home in the community of Lee Ridge and one of the first homesteads in Mill Woods.” 

The house has been significantly modified over the years, so Backstrom noted that it was “probably not a great candidate for designation” as a municipal historic resource. But while that won’t happen, he hoped whoever buys the house would appreciate its history, a lot more history than is typical for a house in a postwar suburb, and leave it standing.

Backstrom discovered that the house was built by a man by the name of William Place. Place was born in 1843 in New York state, USA. After marrying Lucretia Hill, an Ontario woman, the couple moved to Edmonton because Lucretia’s brother lived there. In 1902, they bought a farm south of town and promptly replaced the log house there at the time with the frame house that stands today. But Backstrom says there is another important backstory to the area.  

“This land where the house was built was originally part of the Papaschase Reserve as was a big chunk of south Edmonton. In 1888, through significant pressure from government land agents and settlers in the area, the reserve was surrendered. After the reserve was surrendered, it was divided into quarter sections and sold.” 

Fast forward to 1912. There was a big real estate boom before World War I and the Places sold their property to a developer who subdivided it into acreages for a development known as Strathcona Heights. The Places then moved to the Viking area. The boom fell apart in 1913, and the acreages reverted back into farmland. Part of the land got turned into a tree nursery. 

After World War II, when oil was discovered, developers again bought the land and subdivided it into acreages. Things stayed that way until the 1970s when Mill Woods happened. The City had convinced the province to secretly buy up farmland for the huge new urban development with enough space for 120,000 people. Strathcona Heights ended up being part of it. Thanks to the way the city laid Mill Woods out, older residences could be preserved. Backstrom says the Place residence was not the only farm house that survived but almost certainly is the oldest. 

“Even though it has been heavily modified, you can still see the historic lines to it,” he says. “It doesn’t look like a typical suburban house. And the fact that over generations, people have been taking care of this structure, it just makes me happy. Sometimes we have this disposable sensibility about things, and houses and other buildings are here for a good time and not a long time. Hopefully it will last for another hundred years.”

In Backstrom’s view, it’s good to have places that remind us of the past. 

“Like being able to see there is an older history and connecting back to the Papaschase Reserve,” he says. “I think it helps us understand the layered history that we’re living in every day as we go about our business.”

As for what becomes of the “Place place”?

“I definitely hope it does get saved,” Backstrom says. “It’s just a bit of intrigue and a little bit of extra character in that Lee Ridge neighbourhood that would be lost if it were to be demolished.”