On 80th Street in Edmonton sits a large brick building on city land next to the light rail tracks. It is clearly disused now, but it still stands tall and stately.

I first noticed it because I approached it from the north and my eye was first drawn to the graffiti above the loading bay doors that says “Tom’s Place.” I wondered who Tom was and how the graffiti got there.

After I got home, I looked on Google Maps to see if the building was identified, but it was not. So, I looked for images of the building and was fortunate to find it on the website Forgotten Edmonton: A blog dedicated to chronicling Edmonton’s heritage.

The site is the work of Dane Ryksen who describes himself as an architecture nerd and an amateur historian. His love of the area and of buildings shows itself in his research and writing. I am so glad to have found this blog and will be returning to it often.

His page on the Edmonton Light and Power Substation #100 provides a wealth of information about the origins of this building which was developed in 1913 to provide power to the new and popular tram system, the Edmonton Radial Railway.

So, thank you Dane Ryksen for providing so much information on your blog, and for writing in such an engaging style! Thank you, also, to Tom; whoever you are. You caught my eye.

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