Wîhkwêntôwin, Edmonton: The Valley Vista

I spent a decade or so in my twenties living in Wîhkwêntôwin, a neighbourhood just west of Edmonton’s downtown. Much of that time was spent in the Annamoe Mansion, a brick walk-up that’s over a hundred years old. It had all the quirks and the charm of a building of its vintage—hardwood floors, a clawfoot bathtub, small windows, unpredictable heating—and the rent was hard to beat. But the best thing the building had going for it was the location, just steps from the west end of the Victoria Promenade, a boulevard that overlooks the city’s river valley.

In the summer months, my window opened on a wash of greenery that stretched east and west with the snaking river, and south to the University of Alberta across the valley. Access to the city’s sprawling parkland was a perk, but during the years I lived in the Annamoe I was more interested in spending Saturday nights at the bars and restaurants on Jasper Avenue, one block north, and Sunday mornings at the cafés sprinkled throughout the neighbourhood. Many a weekend started at my apartment, before my friends and I spilled down the building’s fire escape and into the night.

In the years since I moved—to nearby Westmount—Wîhkwêntôwin has remained one of Edmonton’s most densely populated neighbourhoods, with a new network of bike lanes, more high-density housing and retail space fuelling the bustle of the area. I like to say that Wîhkwêntôwin has aged with me, adding more restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries and breweries, but the truth is the area services everyone from young children to seniors, and the blending of schools, bookstores and grocery stores with trendy coffee shops and bars is what makes it so special.

It’s also what keeps me coming back. Just yesterday I walked to Iconoclast Coffee Roasters, a café on the first floor of the West End Telephone Exchange, which was redeveloped into a retail hub in 2018. In addition to Iconoclast, it houses Kind Ice Cream, Brio Bakery, the vintage boutique Alexander & Rose, the Book Boudoir and Odd Company Brewing—and it’s always busy.

I planned to walk down 124th Street and then cut into the neighbourhood so I could meander through Paul Kane Park, a beloved green space anchored by a pond at its centre. As I turned down a side street, I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. She and her partner had a unit in the condo tower where I’d lived before my time in the Annamoe. They’d been there for seven years and had been house hunting, looking for something they could afford in a neighbourhood that offered them everything Wîhkwêntôwin did. But by the time I ran into them, they were thinking about buying their place and staying put. It was hard to imagine not being so close to everything, she told me. I knew exactly what she meant.