Landmark Building
ALBERTA GOVERNMENT TELEPHONES BUILDING
9323-107 Avenue, Grande Prairie
Designed By: Peter Rule
Built in 1929
'); "Alberta Government Telephones Building")
On Saturday, January 29, 1921, the Alberta Government officially opened its long distance telephone service to the Peace River country. To mark the event, Grande Prairie's mayor Patterson and A.W. Pentland, President of the Board of Trade, exchanged greetings with the President of the Peace River Board of Trade. This day was the culmination of years of heated political debate between factions favouring private or government ownership of utilities. As early as the spring of 1915 Premier A.L. Sifton had been offering reassurances to Grande Prairie that the government would extend telephone service to their community. The new system operated from four toll centres located at Grande Prairie, Sexsmith, Spirit River and Peace River, with a total of thirty-three pay stations. Near Grande Prairie these were located at Charles Foster's and T. Cleland's. Rates from these locations were 10 cents to Beaverlodge or 25 cents to Grande Prairie.
The telephone exchange was designed by Peter Rule, an English architect who, after
operating a contracting firm in Edmonton from 1909 (and serving overseas during the First World War), went to work for Alberta Government Telephones in 1920. During the 1920s he replaced the wooden shacks which housed early telephone exchanges with a series of distinctive clinker brick buildings inspired by traditional English domestic architecture. About thirty of these exchanges were built throughout the province during this period.
The domestic style of this exchange was meant to blend into residential neighbourhoods. It is a low, solid looking structure with varied roof levels and asymmetrically placed leaded windows. The arched main entrance and clinker brick construction further suggest a romantic English tradition. The Grande Prairie A.G.T. building, completed in 1929, was representative of Rule's residential style telephone exchange designs.
The Landmark Buildings and Places Database draws on the series of walking and/or driving tour booklets produced by Alberta Culture (now Alberta Culture and Community Spirit). The Heritage Community Foundation gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ministry through permission to reprint these materials online. Extracted from Historical Walking and Driving Tour: Grande Prairie. Alberta Culture and Multiculturalism and the City of Grande Prairie, n.d., with permission from Alberta Culture and Community Spirit. Visit the Alberta Culture and Community Spirit for more information.