Community
As one of the oldest inner-city neighbourhoods, Garneau is located in the heart of Old Strathcona immediately to the east of the University Hospital and the University of Alberta campus. Its central location gives residence good access to downtown Edmonton, Whyte Avenue, the Queen Elizabeth Pool, and other areas of the city.
Garneau was considered to be fully developed when it became part of the City of Edmonton in 1912. Since that time, the continuing expansion of the adjacent University of Alberta and the development of the Whyte (82nd) Avenue commercial area have helped change the neighbourhood’s residential makeup. Single-unit housing has been renovated or replaced by townhouses and apartments. University student housing and fraternity houses are located in northwest Garneau.
The neighbourhood contains a significant number of commercial businesses located along 109th Street, Whyte Avenue, and 112th Street. Most goods and services are available in the neighbourhood or in nearby Old Strathcona. Residents of Garneau also have good access to most areas of Edmonton, including Downtown via the High Level and Walterdale Bridges, and the North Saskatchewan River Valley.
Garneau was considered to be fully developed when it became part of the City of Edmonton in 1912. Since that time, the continuing expansion of the adjacent University of Alberta and the development of the Whyte (82nd) Avenue commercial area have helped change the neighbourhood’s residential makeup. Single-unit housing has been renovated or replaced by townhouses and apartments. University student housing and fraternity houses are located in northwest Garneau.
The neighbourhood contains a significant number of commercial businesses located along 109th Street, Whyte Avenue, and 112th Street. Most goods and services are available in the neighbourhood or in nearby Old Strathcona. Residents of Garneau also have good access to most areas of Edmonton, including Downtown via the High Level and Walterdale Bridges, and the North Saskatchewan River Valley.
Garneau is named for Laurence Garneau, an early settler in the area, who served under Louis Riel.
It now sees low-rise and high-rise apartments, with students and faculty sharing blocks with families and retirees in 1920s Arts and Crafts houses and 1950s bungalows. It’s a balance maintained by dedicated community members lobbying to ensure that heritage remains in the landscape. In 1973, the group formed the Garneau Community League Planning Committee, while lobbying for a development plan, which came about in 1983. The plan details the type of housing that can be built and their locations so that they best fit the community aesthetic.
But one thing remains the same over the past century: Garneau is still a highly sought-after neighbourhood, with a charm succinctly immortalized in Todd Babiak’s award-winning novel, The Garneau Block.
Garneau-BlockThe Garneau Block follows the knowable citizens of the adored and hated city of Edmonton, capturing what we connect to in local stories and what is universal about modern life. Here, in what can only be described as a storytelling tour-de-force, we meet the warm, endearing, and delightfully flawed residents of a fictional cul-de-sac in the city’s Garneau neighbourhood just after the scandalous death of a neighbour and the sudden news that their land is about to be repossessed by the university.
“…cleanly written, inventive, fast-moving, stuffed with zingers about everything from Satanists to cellphone ringtones, extremely affectionate toward its nutty cast of players, and laugh-out-loud funny. . . . Babiak’s highest achievement, though, lies in introducing us to the motley charms of the people and the city, whether they be bohemians who shop at Value Village or grandees who dine on bison with blueberry sauce at the Hardware Grill. If there really are a million stories in Champion City, let this one be the first.”
— Quill & Quire
Garneau-BlockThe Garneau Block follows the knowable citizens of the adored and hated city of Edmonton, capturing what we connect to in local stories and what is universal about modern life. Here, in what can only be described as a storytelling tour-de-force, we meet the warm, endearing, and delightfully flawed residents of a fictional cul-de-sac in the city’s Garneau neighbourhood just after the scandalous death of a neighbour and the sudden news that their land is about to be repossessed by the university.
“…cleanly written, inventive, fast-moving, stuffed with zingers about everything from Satanists to cellphone ringtones, extremely affectionate toward its nutty cast of players, and laugh-out-loud funny. . . . Babiak’s highest achievement, though, lies in introducing us to the motley charms of the people and the city, whether they be bohemians who shop at Value Village or grandees who dine on bison with blueberry sauce at the Hardware Grill. If there really are a million stories in Champion City, let this one be the first.”
— Quill & Quire
Because Ashbourne is one block east of the University Hospital and the Health Sciences Centre LRT station, two blocks south of the University of Alberta, and two blocks west of Whyte Avenue, an abundance of bus routes converge at the Ashbourne.