A moment in history: June 12, 1971

On this day in 1971, Sir Winston Churchill Square was half-dug up to fix its irrigation system.

Even before the square was there, the area had been the centre of Edmonton's civic life. The Rice Street Market, where the Stanley A. Milner branch of the Edmonton Public Library now stands, drew crowds every weekend to buy produce, fish, and other goods.

Eventually, more civic buildings would spring up around the square: City Hall, the police headquarters, Chancery Hall, and others. The square got its current name shortly after Winston Churchill's death in 1965, as part of a flood of Alberta landmarks named after the British prime minister.

Around the same time, discussions started on a new look for the civic square in time for Canada's centennial celebrations in 1967. One of the proposed plans was a multi-storey hybrid of a public park and shopping centre. It would have had a heavily treed plaza at the ground level, surrounding a large illuminated bubble. Underneath the dome would be a spiral ramp leading down to a two-floor, $5-million shopping complex, looking out to either a skating rink or perhaps a stage.

That vision didn't come to fruition. What ended up happening was a much more modest "lawn and garden" idea — lots of green space, with grass, trees, and flowers stretching out in front of City Hall, giving much more of a park feel than a traditional square.

Churchill Square underwent a few more changes and updates over the years. But it was another centennial anniversary that led to its biggest renovation, this one in time for Edmonton's 100th birthday as a city, to be celebrated in 2004.

The original design for the renovation got pretty mixed reviews in 2002. The grassy areas, which were often trampled and damaged by the festivals and events held on the square, were replaced with paved sections, which residents were mostly fine with. But the large walls and pillars meant to create the feeling of an "urban room" in the centre of the city drew some fervent criticism. Sen. Paula Simons, then an Edmonton Journal columnist, argued that the plan made the square feel cold and closed off from the street around it, even going so far as to call its aesthetics "disturbingly fascistic."

Eventually, the critics won out. The original plan was reworked: the walls came down, the square was opened up, and grass and trees were added. And a waterfall was added to the west side of the square, because Edmonton loves an artificial waterfall.

The redesigned Churchill Square remains the centrepiece of Edmonton's civic district. And as the site of many of the city's summer festivals, concerts, and other events, it is once again approaching its busiest time of year. It hosts free weekly salsa dancing lessons through June, and The Works Art and Design Festival will bring visual arts and music to the square from June 20 to July 1.

This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist Rev Recluse of Vintage Edmonton.