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McLeod Building (Edmonton, Alberta)

Canada / Alberta / Edmonton / Edmonton, Alberta / 100 Street NW, 10134
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From the Edmonton Real Estate Weekly:
(www.rewedmonton.ca/content_view2?CONTENT_ID=1559)

Kenneth A. McLeod was an entrepreneur, a builder, a city councillor, a father of nine and a man of vision. The Cree Indians called him “Man-Who-Pulls-Like-A-Horse.” The spectacular building that bears his name still stands proudly in the heart of downtown.

McLeod was born in Port Elgin, Ontario on September 7th, 1858, the eldest son of Scots Katharine and Archibald McLeod. In the spring of 1870, the family moved to Kansas and homesteaded on land near Solomon City. Three years later, they moved to Lynchburg, Virginia and then, in 1876, returned to Ontario where young Kenny helped his father operate a sawmill.

Opportunity called to him from the vast unsettled west and, in March 1879, he went to Winnipeg and Rat Portage (now Kenora, Ontario) and worked as a carpenter and bridge builder for the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1881, rumours abounded that the CPR would push westward through Edmonton, and Kenny decided it would be a good place to relocate.

McLeod and three other men set off from Winnipeg on foot on August 5th, 1881, with three oxen, three Red River carts, a buckboard and pony. The men camped wherever night found them and, 1400 kilometres and 93 days later, they arrived in Edmonton, population 400. It was November 3rd, 1881.

Kenny arrived broke. He had spent his last 35 cents paying the ferryman at Fort Saskatchewan. Using money received from the sale of a hundred pounds of brown sugar to newspaperman Frank Oliver, he put 17 dollars down on two Hudson’s Bay Company lots near the present day General Hospital. He got $105 for the oxen and used most of that to buy lumber.

A boom the next spring pushed real estate prices up and Kenny sold his two lots and cabin for seven hundred dollars. He went into business for himself, erecting buildings, constructing boats and opening the first sash, door and planing mill in the city.

One day, he had some frames and sashes to haul but didn’t have an ox, so he loaded them on the cart and pulled it himself. After that, the Crees called him “Man-Who-Pulls-Like-a-Horse.” By early in the 20th century, he was also known as “the man with the white hair.”

In 1894, Kenny married Anne Logan Lauder. They were to have nine children – six boys and three girls. Kenny was twice chief of Edmonton’s volunteer fire brigade, was elected to town council four times and was a member of Edmonton’s first city council in 1905. He was also a school trustee, a member of the Board of Trade Council and in years to come, a Life Member of the Northern Alberta Pioneers and Old Timers Association.

His best known achievement is undoubtedly the McLeod Building, which he built as a replica of Spokane’s Paulsen Building. On a trip through the U.S. Pacific Northwest, he was so taken by the structure that he commissioned its architect, John K. Dow, to design a replica for Edmonton and then hired the same contractors, too.

It’s no wonder that, after more than 90 years, the building stands much as Kenny built it – a rare Canadian prairie example of the Chicago School of Architecture, clad with ivory terra cotta tiles and topped with a grand cornice. Called “the last word in office building construction” by the Edmonton Bulletin newspaper, Kenny McLeod’s building cost more than 600,000 dollars to complete – a staggering sum of money for the day.

But Kenny insisted on strength and quality and he supervised all phases of the building’s construction. The footings were 11 feet (3.5 metres) square – strong enough to support the weight of 50 stories! He demanded steel 50 per cent greater than the plans specified. The building’s skeleton contains a total of 12 hundred tons of steel.

The story goes that, during construction, Kenny piled all the cast-iron radiators for the entire building in one ground floor room and measured for sag. Only then was he satisfied that his building was strong enough.

The nine-storey structure boasted dozens of innovative design features, setting it apart, then and now. It was the first building in Edmonton to be wired with conduit. The elevators were state-of-the-art electric, powered by generators in the basement. Lines were installed for gas lighting and the built-in vacuum system.

When it opened in January 1915, the McLeod Building was more than 100 feet (30 metres) high, making it the tallest in the city. It was a distinction held for nearly 40 years.

The province purchased the McLeod Building in 1980 for four million dollars. On January 3rd, 1995, the north and east facades were declared a Provincial Historic Resource. Architect Gene Dub purchased the building and, beginning in 1999, converted the former office spaces into condominiums.

Anne Logan Lauder died in 1927 and Kenny retired to Vancouver in 1930. Three years later, he married Mary Belle McKinnon of Vancouver. Kenny McLeod died in July 1940, just two months short of his 82nd birthday, bringing to a close a glorious life of achievement by one of Edmonton’s most successful pioneers.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   53°32'31"N   113°29'27"W
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This article was last modified 15 years ago