Rutherford House | |
---|---|
Alternative names | Achnacarry |
General information | |
Status | Completed |
Type | Museum |
Architectural style | Georgian & Jacobethan Revival |
Address | 11153 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
Coordinates | 53°31′39″N113°31′13″W / 53.52750°N 113.52028°W |
Current tenants | Rutherford House Society |
Named for | Alexander Cameron Rutherford |
Construction started | October 1909 |
Completed | February 1911 |
Cost | $25,000 (1911) |
Technical details | |
Material | Brick, Sandstone |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | A.G. Wilson & D. Easton Herrald |
Main contractor | James Smith & J.T. Radford |
Website | |
rutherfordhouse | |
Type | Provincial Historic Site |
Designated | 28 June 1979 |
Rutherford House is a historic building and museum in the Strathcona area of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The structure was the home of the first Premier of Alberta, Alexander Cameron Rutherford, from 1911 to 1941, and has subsequently been designated as an Alberta provincial historic site. [1]
Rutherford House was built by Alexander Cameron Rutherford in 1911 on a large lot in the former City of Strathcona near the University of Alberta campus for $25,000. [2] The residence, initially called Achnacarry by the Rutherford family, after their ancestral castle in Scotland, is now known as Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site. In 1966 the house was designated for demolition as the University of Alberta made plans for expansion. [3] It quickly became a public concern to save the structure. [3] The University Women's Club played a key role in saving this historic resource and in 1970 the Alberta government announced its decision that the house would be preserved. [4] The Rutherford House is operated by Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Sites and Museums Branch and is assisted by the Friends of Rutherford House, a non-profit, charitable society, formed in 1985 to assist the province with the preservation and presentation of this historic site.
The two-storey structure features Elizabethan and Jacobean motifs, with red brick exterior with sandstone trim, tall chimneys, columned porches and two-storey bay windows. [5] The interior of Rutherford House was designed to serve as both a residence and for reception, with 11-foot (3.4 m) ceilings, and a grand central hall staircase detailed in oak, with oak panelling and a stained glass skylight. [5] The dining room is the largest room in the house at 350 square feet (33 m2) featuring a 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) bay window with fir wainscotting and decorative fir ceiling beams. [5]
On 29 May 1909, Alexander Cameron Rutherford became the owner of a superset of the lot now occupied by Rutherford House. The description of him on the certificate title of ownership reads "a gentleman of Strathcona". [6] By late 1909 plans for the house were drawn up by the firm of A.G. Wilson and D.E. Herrald, [6] [7] British-trained architects and civil engineers, and excavation completed by Strathcona contractors James Smith and J.T. Radford. [6] During the following spring of 1910 Thomas Richards, another Strathcona contractor and master bricklayer, prepared the foundation, which was poured by the end of May 1910. [2] The double brick walls were built during the summer of 1910, with some of the work being done by Thomas Richards himself. Work proceeded on the elegant hardwood interior over the winter, with the house being fit for occupancy by February 1911. [2] Rutherford House when completed in 1911 had a number of modern features including hot running water, electric lighting, flush toilets, and telephones. [2]
The Rutherford family of four, including Alexander Cameron Rutherford, Mattie Birkett Rutherford, Cecil Alexander Rutherford and Hazel Elizabeth Rutherford moved in by the end of March 1911. [8] The Rutherfords occupied the house until September 1940, when Mattie Birkett Rutherford died on September 13, 1940. [9] In June 1941, Rutherford House was sold, by Alexander, to the University of Alberta – Delta Upsilon fraternity, for $9500, [10] corresponding to the cost of construction. [11] [9]
The Delta Upsilon fraternity vacated the house in 1969, after expropriation by the University of Alberta in 1968. [12] The Board of Governors of the University of Alberta agreed to lease the house to the Alberta government for forty years in late 1970 following an agreement with Minister of Public Works Albert W. Ludwig, [4] [7] following a successful campaign for preservation as an historic site by the University of Alberta Women's Club, including the assistance of the Women's Canadian Club, the Northern Alberta Pioneers and Old Timers Association, the Historical Society of Alberta, the Edmonton Historical Board, Provincial Museum and the City of Edmonton. [4]
Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site opened to the public in mid 1973, after three years of restoration. Many of the historic artifacts currently in the house are originals, donated by Hazel Elizabeth Rutherford and Helen Reid Rutherford (Cecil Alexander Rutherford's wife).
The society was created on April 22, 1985, as a registered charitable society. Its mandate is to assist in the preservation and promotion of Rutherford House as an important historical site; by fundraising and providing opportunities for the public to learn about Alberta's cultural, social and political history. Up until recently[ when? ] it ran a tea room called the Arbour Restaurant as well as a small gift shop (currently operated by the museum), and through contractual agreement with the province coordinates all after-hour, private function bookings. [13]
Alexander Cameron Rutherford was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the first premier of Alberta from 1905 to 1910. Born in Ormond, Canada West, he studied and practiced law in Ottawa before he moved with his family to the North-West Territories in 1895. There, he began his political career, winning in his third attempt a seat in the North-West Legislative Assembly. In keeping with the territorial custom, Rutherford ran as an independent but generally supported the territorial administration of Premier Frederick W. A. G. Haultain. At the federal level, however, Rutherford was a Liberal.
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, the university's first president. It was enabled through the Post-secondary Learning Act. The university is considered a "comprehensive academic and research university" (CARU), which means that it offers a range of academic and professional programs that generally lead to undergraduate and graduate level credentials. It is ranked among the top public universities in Canada by major college and university rankings.
The 1905 Alberta general election was the first general election held in the Province of Alberta, Canada, shortly after the province entered Canadian Confederation on September 1, 1905. The election was held on November 9, 1905, to elect twenty-five members to the 1st Alberta Legislative Assembly.
The 1909 Alberta general election was the second general election held in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It took place on March 22, 1909, to elect 41 members to the 2nd Alberta Legislature. The incumbent Liberal Party led by Premier Alexander C. Rutherford achieved a re-election victory, securing a majority government by winning 36 out of the 41 seats in the legislature with just under 60 per cent of the popular vote. The Conservative Party led by Albert Robertson once again formed the official opposition, with only two members, and Robertson himself was defeated in his own seat in High River. The remaining three seats were divided among smaller parties and independent candidates.
William Henry Cushing was a Canadian politician. Born in Ontario, he migrated west as a young adult where he started a successful lumber company and later became Alberta's first Minister of Public Works and the 11th mayor of Calgary. As Minister of Public Works in the government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford, he oversaw the creation of Alberta Government Telephones.
Old Strathcona is a historic district in south-central Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Once the commercial core of the separate city of Strathcona, the area is now home to many of Edmonton's arts and entertainment facilities, as well as a local shopping hub for residents and students at the nearby University of Alberta. The district centres on Whyte Avenue and has shops, restaurants, bars and buskers.
Edmonton-Rutherford is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.
Bonnie Doon is a neighbourhood in south-central Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The well-known Mill Creek Ravine Park forms its west boundary. The Bonnie Doon shopping mall is on its east boundary.
Edmonton-South is a provincial electoral district in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The first iteration was used for the 1913 and 1917 provincial elections. The district was re-created again for the 30th Alberta general election.
Achnacarry is a hamlet, private estate, and a castle in the Lochaber region of the Highlands, Scotland. It occupies a strategic position on an isthmus between Loch Lochy to the east, and Loch Arkaig to the west.
Albert Ludwig was a Canadian politician and World War II combat veteran, lawyer, judge and author from Alberta.
William Thomas Finlay was a merchant, politician and cabinet minister in Alberta and Northwest Territories, Canada. Finlay served as the second mayor of Medicine Hat, represented the electoral district of Medicine Hat in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, and served in the Cabinet of Alexander Cameron Rutherford as Alberta's first Minister of Agriculture and Provincial Secretary from 1905 to 1909.
Strathcona was a city in Alberta, Canada on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River. Originally founded in 1891, it amalgamated with the City of Edmonton in 1912.
Provincial historic sites of Alberta are museums and historic sites run by the Government of Alberta.
Mount Rutherford is a mountain in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is part of the Northern Front Ranges of the Canadian Rockies. Its peak stands 3 km (2 mi) east of Harvey Lake and north of the Snaring River, a tributary of the Athabasca River.
Heritage buildings in Edmonton, as elsewhere in Canada, may be designated by any of the three levels of government: the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, or the City of Edmonton.
The Rutherford Ministry was the combined Cabinet, chaired by Premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford, and Ministers that governed Alberta from the day following the province's Confederation into Canada on September 2, 1905, to part way through the 2nd Alberta Legislature on May 26, 1910.