University Edmonton Homes For Sale

Living near the University Edmonton

University Edmonton homes for sale range from prime real estate and executive houses overlooking the river valley in Belgravia, Grandview Heights, and Windsor Park to more affordable real estate listings with an active nightlife near Whyte ave in Garneau and Strathcona. The University area offers owners different lifestyle choices and house prices when it comes to buying in southwest Edmonton. There is everything from affordable walk-up apartments to multi-million dollar real estate listings with amazing views. The University of Alberta, also known as U of A is a public research university founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta

Where is Edmonton University

The University is located in south-central, southwest Edmonton, Alberta in real estate zone 15. It is bounded north and west by the Saskatchewan River, Gateway Boulavard and 51 Avenue. The University of Alberta, also known as U of A is a public research university founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford. It is considered a comprehensive academic and research university.

History of the University

Through the efforts of Alberta’s first premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the University of Alberta was established as an act of the first legislative assembly of Alberta in 1906 and began operations in September 1908 out of Queen Alexandra School just off Whyte Avenue. The university had allocated space for denominational colleges on campus and this Methodist theological college and residence, first named Alberta College South, was the crucial first building on the site in 1911. Within ten years the university was composed of six primary buildings but no new construction was undertaken until after the Second World War.

The first non-denominational university building on campus was to be dedicated to arts and science. Allan Merrick Jeffers, chief architect for the Alberta Department of Public Works, designed three virtually identical U-shaped residences in the English Jacobethan revival style. Excavation began courtesy of 100 men with shovels, horses and wagons, and masons hand-cutting stone, and Athabasca Hall, the first of these residences, was finished in 1911. It housed the entire university for the first year: classrooms, a dining room, and a kitchen were on the first floor; staff and student residences composed the second floor; a library was located on the top floor, and laboratories were in the basement. A year later Athabasca’s twin, Assiniboia Hall, was completed.

The Strathcona Hospital had been built on university land in 1912, in 1922 it became the University Hospital. In 1920, the university purchased 380 acres of land now known as South Campus for use by the Faculty of Agriculture. The Second World War changed the face of University of Alberta campus. The three residences and Corbett Hall housed Royal Canadian Air Force recruits, the Navy took over the Catholic St. Joseph’s College. Then, when soldiers returned home in 1945, the student population doubled in size from the previous year. Facing huge increases in enrolment, the university underwent a massive expansion over the next 25 years including the Rutherford Library, Aberhart Memorial Hospital, Student Union.