lost devices

above: curious device found in the demolition of the 1907 Pendennis Hotel.

by David Murray, architect, Edmonton Alberta

I would like to tell a story about eating sweet BC cherries on a July day in the early 1900s in the restaurant/buffet of the Pendennis Hotel on Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta. It is a quintessential Canadian story that illuminates our long-standing commercial relationship with the United States. The tool that we found during the interior demolition of the hotel has taken me on a journey that involves a prominent inventor in Antrim, New Hampshire, the 6th Earl of Aberdeen, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the fruit growing industry in British Columbia and an ambitious Edmonton entrepreneur. So much story for such a small, strange object. . . .

Read more of this long and fascinating tale of buried buildings, San Francisco/Edmonton historic links, and what this strange object is, in On Site review 39: tools