The Historic Heart of Vegreville

The Beginnings of Vegreville

Compared to some places in the country, Vegreville is still quite young, but it has a rich, full and unique history.

On April 21st, 1894, a group of Francophones arrived from Kansas in the United States to the site later known as “Old Vegreville”. Some of their wives and families and a few more settlers soon followed, so that August of the same year, the Northwest Mounted police (NWMP) census recorded 88 people living in the area, including some English settlers.

Immigration came in three distinct waves: before World War I, during the 1920s, and after World War II. The first wave accounted for most settlers to the Vegreville area. There were many reasons for people leaving their homelands and traveling such great distances, including oppression, poverty, drought, poor land, serfdom and a lack of freedoms. It didn’t take long for 33 different ethnic groups to settle in the Vegreville area, setting up homes and businesses and learning each others languages and customs in order to communicate and conduct business more easily. Multi-lingualism was common. Records speak of a German farmer who spoke seven different languages fluently as well as of church sermons being delivered in both French and English.

“Vegreville” was name din honor of Father Valentin Vegreville, a Roman Catholic Oblate missionary who served with dedication and distinction for 50 years, although he never served in the Vegreville area. It was the Oblate Fathers of St. Albert, west of Vegreville, who often helped the new settlement. Father Vegreville was, however, credited with encouraging settlement in Western Canada, so a few months after their arrival, two of the founders of Vegreville, Joseph Benoit Tetreau and Joseph Poulin, submitted his name to the Government of Regina when they requested a post office in October of 1894.

One of the most remarkable bits of Vegreville’s history was the moving of the entire town. In 1905, the Canadian Northern Railway (CNR) was being brought through the area. Vegreville was several miles from the surveyed cut, which just wouldn’t do. The people knew they needed to have the railway closer because poor weather often made the road to Edmonton impassable. Since the CNR wasn’t about to change course for the people, the town was moved closer to the railway. Buildings were carefully transported, some on wheels, some on skids, four and a half miles to the present town site. At the time there were 20 business buildings in town, including a livery barn, two restaurants, a blacksmith shop, three machine shops, a post office, two banks, four stores, a hotel, a jail and police barracks, a doctor’s office and a barber shop. It isn’t definitely known if all of them were moved but the undertaking is still quite amazing. Now all that stands of “Old Vegreville” is a stone cairn.

In 1906, Vegreville was incorporated first as a village and than as a town in the same year, after reaching a population of 344. The first Mayor was William Clements. The following year the Board of Trade was established with 31 members. A year later the Roland M. Boswell Hospital was built and three years later St. Joseph’s General Hospital was opened by the Sisters of Charity. When the Roland M. Boswell Hospital was closed, the building was demolished and all movable equipment was shipped to their Frontier hospital at Rocky Mountain House.

The Town has continued to grow and prosper as a unique multicultural community, which now has a population of more than 5,700 people who live in harmony and co-operation. A “must” attraction for any visitor to Vegreville should include a stroll along the Town’s historic Main Street.

In 1991, the establishment of the Vegreville Main Street project began a remarkable partnership effort among over 30 businesses, the Town, the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation, Heritage Canada and Canada Employment and Immigration, aimed at economic development through the preservation of this community’s fine heritage resources.

Vegreville boasts one of the best examples of Main Street architecture in the province. Many of the buildings are over 50 years old and as part of the Town’s effort to maintain its built heritage, participants in the project became involved in the sensitive rehabilitation of their sites. Such work includes a restoration of a building whereby once lost or covered prominent features may have become restored or rebuilt along the building facade. Prominent buildings like the Dobbins Block,

built in 1913, the 1950s Capitol Theatre, complete with a neon marquis, are only small samples of the work undertaken by the community. Sadly, one bit of heritage was lost as the famed Alberta Hotel succumbed to fire in 2008.

The Town’s commitment to heritage not only includes building fronts, but the sidewalks, historic-style lamp posts and brightly-coloured motif banners. This completed streetscape enhancement not only provides four seasons’ worth of changing Main Street beauty, but also includes historic plaques dating from 1905 when the Town moved from it’s old location to its present site.

The winter scenery is a site to behold when the Town puts up the Christmas lights and all of Main Street shines with lights on every tree. Main Street is indeed the “Heart and Soul” of community. Enjoy this town’s living heritage as you visit Vegreville.