A History of the Edmonton City Market, 1900 - 2000
Urban Values and Urban Culture

Kathryn Chase Merrett

About the Book

This fascinating work celebrates the colourful and varied 100-year history of the Edmonton City Market. Author Kathryn Chase Merrett tells the story of this vibrant part of Edmonton culture, explaining how the market managed to survive and thrive in the heart of a city which grew from a frontier outpost to a high -rise metropolis.

The 1900 opening of Edmonton's market was greeted with enthusiasm from both residents and the agricultural community and marked by confidence from civic planners, whose choice of a central, downtown site had been influenced by established examples in other Canadian cities.

Within the decade, however, the popularity of the market with vendors and customers began to conflict with a growing desire to elevate the tone of Edmonton's civic centre. In her study of this long-lived and much-loved institution, Merrett discusses the relationship between agricultural values and urban development, and the role, both historical and contemporary, farmers' markets play in sustaining the cottage-agricultural and artisan sectors of a local economy.

Richly illustrated with original drawings, archival photographs and maps, this book also seamlessly integrates into the text many first-hand stories and anecdotes compiled by the author over a seven-year period of interviews with vendors and customers. A History of the Edmonton City Market is a welcome addition to Canadian urban, economic and cultural studies.

About the Author

Kathryn Chase Merrett obtained her Master's Degree in history from the University of Alberta in 1992. Since 1987 she has edited the architectural, dance, film and theatre articles for the Canadian Encyclopedia. Researching and writing this history allowed her to indulge her interest in how urban places acquire and bestow meaning through the way their buildings and spaces are used over time. She has been a resident of Edmonton, Alberta, since 1967.

Table of Contents

1. The Market and the City, I
2. A Castle in the Air, 1892-1916
3. Blue Sky Trading in Edmonton: The Boom in the Bust, 1916-1939
4. The Market and the Civic Centre, 1940-1964
5. The 'New' City Market, 1965-2000
6. The Market and the City, II

Orders

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