Located between 111 and 118 Avenues, and 121 Street and Groat Road, Inglewood is a diverse neighbourhood with modest homes, schools, churches, commercial enterprises, and, since the 1960s, higher density apartments.
Explore how Inglewood fits on the map: the gold fill is the boundary in effect for the selected time period, dashed outlines show every earlier superseded shape from prior eras, red pins are linked structures built in that era, and purple pins are sites. Use the time period buttons below the map to explore the neighbourhood over time. Boundary history is documented in Stories.
In 1882 when only a trail existed between St. Albert and Edmonton, John Norris and Robert Logan purchased title to the land encompassing what is now the Inglewood community. Norris had emigrated from Scotland at age sixteen to work for the Hudson's Bay Company as a dog runner and boatman. After fifteen years of working for the company, he became a wagon freighter, sawmill operator, and partner in the merchandizing store Norris & Carey. In 1904, the southern portion of this land was annexed by the City of Edmonton. Development started in 1905 and, due to obvious high demand, 700 lots sold immediately. It was an ideal location for workers on the Canadian National and Northern Alberta Railways as their lines ran through the area. More modest than neighbours to the south in Glenora and Westmount, most original homes in Inglewood were smaller, single storey bungalows.
The community comprised of local businesses like Huff's Dairy from the outset. Schools soon followed: the three-storey brick Edmonton Jesuit College opened in 1913 on land along 114 Street donated by Norris, and the Westmount Public School opened in 1914 as a two-storey wooden structure close to where the 1913 brick building stands now. St. Andrew's Catholic Church was originally a wooden-framed building purchased in North Edmonton and wheeled to Inglewood in 1927; their school, originally named Hemprigg's School, was a four-roomed wooden building built in 1925 until a new building was erected in 1947. Development was spurred on by the Radial Railway in 1913 which brought the 'Blue and White' streetcar line down 124 Street as far as 112 Avenue at first, then on to 118 Avenue. One day a week the Edmonton Public library brought its Bookmobile (streetcar) to the neighbourhood.
The second, northern part of Inglewood was annexed by the city in 1920 but much remained undeveloped until the Second World War. In 1942, the Jesuit College closed down and became staff quarters for the U.S. Army Corps for two years before it was converted to a veterans' home. In 1945 the Indian Health Service moved in and renamed it the Charles Camsell Hospital in 1946. Specifically serving patients with tuberculosis, the Camsell was the largest medical centre for Indigenous People in North America and was the designated hospital for the Inuit arriving from the far north. A new hospital building was erected in 1967.
Includes official boundary history and other narratives linked to this neighbourhood.
An economic upsurge after the war prompted local residential growth and also the construction of the Westmount Shopping Centre just across Groat Road from Inglewood in 1955. This was the city's first shopping mall and, along with other new commercial projects, helped foster apartment development along the major traffic routes. Significant opposition from Inglewood residents arose with each re-zoning application for high-density dwellings and, although much of the core of the community is single-family residential homes, Inglewood now consists of sixty-five percent apartment dwellings. A Business Redevelopment Zone project in the 1990s upgraded streetscapes along 124 Street and 118 Avenue and allocated space for a bikeway along 127 Street.