Few Edmonton buildings can match the history, the impact or the long record of service of the Prince of Wales Armoury. Built in 1914-15 on a 17-acre site as the Edmonton Drill Hall to meet the needs of the infantry, the building became much more. For more than 85 years it has played a role in the administration of military affairs in northern Alberta, troop training and social centre for countless military and civilian activities.

Declared surplus by the Department of National Defence in 1977 and transferred to Public Works for disposal the following year, the old structure might well have met fate with the wrecking ball had the city not played swap and shop. In a deal between the three levels of government, the feds got the land for Canada Place, the provincial got the Federal Public Building and the city got the armoury site.

And Edmonton history has been better for it. Since 1991 the venerable structure has been home to the City of Edmonton Archives an ingenious building within a building design, the work of local architect Fraser Brinsmead.

The Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre, as the structure is now known, pays grand tribute to the past by retaining the key elements and adding some modern ones that will take the building comfortably into the next century. Wandering around its grand exterior or its commodious interior provides all manner of grand discovery. Above the front entrance, Edmonton Drill Hall is inscribed, flanked by stone cannonballs and the date A.D. 1913.

Yet, thats not the date the building was complete. In fact, ground wasnt even broken in 1913. A permit for construction valued at $286,000 was issued May 1914 and the contract with the Department of Public Works dated July 11, 1914. Contractors were listed as Lyall & Sons Construction Company Limited, Montreal and architects were listed as D.E. Ewart and E.C. Hopkins.

The building will have a frontage of 174 feet and a depth of 240 feet, reported a story in the May 11, 1914 edition of the Edmonton Bulletin. It will be of brick, with concrete foundation and steel structural work. It will be steam heated and lighted by electricity.

Hopkins, who was listed as Supervising Architect, ranks as one of early Edmontons most fascinating designers. In a 1913 profile, the Edmonton Journal called him a Natural Born Builder and, considering his lineage and record of achievement, the paper wasnt far wrong.

The paper feted Hopkins as Edmontons leading architect, and the designer of some of the finest buildings in the Dominion of Canada. Some of those fine structures included Regina City Hall, the Vancouver Opera House and Calgary Normal School.

He was Albertas first Provincial Architect, appointed in 1905, and went on to design some of our citys most prominent landmarks, including the Great West Saddlery Company Building (1911), the Marshall-Wells Building (1910), the Horne and Pitfield Building (1911) and the Balmoral Block (1913).

Hopkins design of the Edmonton Drill Hall boasted flourishes of typical military fortress style. Dramatic elements include corner towers and turrets with corbelled parapets and crenellated battlements. The hall is covered by a longitudinal saddle-back roof, supported by massive (and impressive!) arched steel trusses. In all, the floor area tops 65,000 square feet.

Construction was completed in 1915 and during World War I, the 51st Battalion and the 233rd French-Canadian Battalion were quartered here. Over its long and rich history, the armouries has also been the home of the 101st Edmonton Fusiliers and the Edmonton Regiment (which later became the Loyal Edmonton Regiment), the 49th Regiment, as well as the International Order of Old Bastards and the Garrison Officers Club. In early 1921, reflecting its change of use, the name was changed to the Prince of Wales Armoury.

In its original configuration, the armoury had shooting galleries, armouries and jail cells in the basement. Offices, lounges and storage rooms adjoined the drill hall on the main floor.

Now, the City of Edmonton Archives building fills much of the old drill hall yet the original impact of the massive scale remains, much as it was when the Edmonton Bulletin reported on its opening in September 1915. When one steps out into the big drill hall from the main entrance and passageway the first impression grows into amazement. A space finely floored with asphalt and one hundred by two hundred feet in area greets the eye, daylight flooding the arena from great windows high in the gable ends while fifteen arc lights are suspending (sic) from the lofty steel roof supports to transform the nights into brilliancy.

In recognition of its architectural significance and long association with the military and the City of Edmonton, the armoury was designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 1979. The structure also resides on the Register of Historic Resources in Edmonton.