Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton: Prisons, Coal, and a $50,000 Washroom - Edmontorial

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Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton is easy to associate with the Green and Gold of the Edmonton Eskimos. However, it has an interesting history that not all Edmontonians are aware of... everything from Coal to a Penitentiary, to a $50,000 private toilet for the Queen! This Edmontorial is sure to impress!
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[@masteryoshi7121]

I know your channel is called Best Edmonton Mall, but I like hearing about other notable mentions of Edmonton. Good work!

[@BestEdmontonMall]

Master Yoshi Thanks! We'll always go back to more West Edmonton Mall videos, but we feel that there's lots of neat stuff outside of the mall to talk about as well!!

[@lisahardy9707]

Time to do a video on city centre mall or Northlands coliseum

[@BrentWelch]

Edmonton's first incinerator was located where Commonwealth Stadium is now. It was the Rat Creek Incinerator.

[@fixit4182]

Great video. I never new that about the toilet, sometimes I shake my head. The queens shiter is 50k and she never used it. Maybe she used the one at the turbo gas station on the way home. Lol

[@arnbo88]

If you like Edmonton history then perhaps a visit to King Edward school in old Strathcona where I attended almost 50 years ago. Before WW1 it was actually a cadet academy and still retains the rifle parapets and bell tower with a trap door. The tunnel to the school across the street has been closed off...probably after 1959. I was allowed into the basement in June of this year and the the original coke heated furnace is still down there. The nearby armoury supplied this school. Photos of King Edward before it became a public school are difficult to find.

[@nadinegriffin5252]

Seems fitting that the only one to use the $50,000 commode was our current PM. 🤣😆. I really enjoyed that piece of trivia that I didn't previously know.

[@Simon-qk5ck]

Hello guys I’m from Edmonton and I wondered if you knew about the giant warehouse under west ed. Would really approach you making a video about it. THANKS!

[@leeme8947]

Great channel. So many good videos. Really enjoy these.

[@ckom0007]

Well done Best!

[@CLooLoo]

Wow! I’m always learning interesting new things about my hometown from you. Thanks! 😃

[@devinmcguinness4713]

Hey man, been following you since you started posting these on /r/edmonton, this was your best one. Great vid. Awesome content and just well put together! Thumbs up from me!

[@BestEdmontonMall]

Happy to hear it, thanks!!

[@kovidlarper8428]

Best Edmonton Mall Can you do a video on the ghost lrt station under wem built in original construction. I want to know if it's true or not.

[@MJ98.]

It’s true. It in Churchill and stadium

[@brendabest9086]

Interesting - well done

[@patrickoconnor661]

Awesome video

[@lancebyhette3472]

I’m a fan of your KZbin channel

[@lb6135]

I'm surprised that you didn't mention the night Edmonton truly came of age- August 7, 1983 at Commonwealth Stadium, when The Tubes, Peter Gabriel, and David Bowie played to a crowd of 60,000+ including myself. However, I guess we weren't quite ready for the big time after all- it was a Sunday night and the venue neglected to work with the ETS to make sure the buses and LRT were kept running for the mass of people getting out of the concert lol.

[@brycelindseth5965]

So everyone was stranded? I remember U2 in 2011, and instead of the band just covering public transit like acdc and bon Jovi had done everyone still had to pay for lrt tickets. Took 2 hrs from the end of the show till we got on a train. It took way longer for people to pay then trains to haul them away

[@TylerHalldorson]

Can you do a video detailing the Aldritt tower please?

[@erictremblay4940]

In the summer of 1978, I was a young cadet attending the Canadian Forces Basic Parachute course (CFB Edmonton / Griesback Barracks). We were "hired" (w/o pay...) to participate in the Commonwealth Games opening and closing ceremonies. We were used as the placard (ie country's name) bearers. I recall carrying the ST-VINCENT placard. Behind me was the lead athlete of that tiny Caribbean country, and then followed by the reminder of the St-Vincent's athletes delegation. They used cadets as we looked good marching all disciplined / well aligned I guess.

[@basillah7650]

Used like a prisoner without pay.

[@nullterm]

This 8 minute video just bested 13 years of public school civic history

[@Derwin63]

Finally, local entertainment that's worth a pot o gold....a $50K pot o gold...ha ha Great Channel!

[@lacanuck1]

I use to work for ITV, Global now. When we did some games there, I went into the bathroom, the carpet was still there and plush, I think it was red. The toilet was a real mess. I think it was still used by some, but didn't work so well. It wasn't in the best of condition, this was about 1987ish.

[@matthewkissau981]

The federal penitentiary was not located where Commonwealth stadium is. In fact, it was east of the stadium grounds and across the tracks. There are apartment buildings there now.

[@jackiejohnston202]

2:21 What the heck are they doing with those shovels? Lol

[@aldengushnowski6179]

Does anyone remember the civic debates over whether it should be domed, and more recently, when it went from natural grass to artificial?

[@Leggir]

You could have mentioned that the city turned down the retractable roof which was rediculously inexpensive relative to the cost today.

[@squee222]

Those roofs require maintenance and replacement so I'm not sure it would be in operation today even if we did get it cheap back then.

[@broseph5]

2:00 the kid without the hat was me!

[@7an7rum]

I moved here from Hamilton in 78. Was the prison not further to the south? I remember the storage place. Very creepy, even before it was abandoned then burnt down.

[@basillah7650]

The prison was used for the storage place.

[@freskoclipz2733]

What happened to the sky screamer at wem water park

[@LakeNipissing]

Which one of them?

[@freskoclipz2733]

Lake Nipissing the red ones

[@LakeNipissing]

They were changed to drop-floor / capsule slides with one open (yellow), and one enclosed (blue) several years ago (2011 - 2012). I do have a POV video from 2009 of the original open style slides. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n17NYZZnhLytq5I

[@kiankyars]

Notification squad!

[@joebilhete1162]

back then they should have had a roof on that stadium especially when we have the coldest weather, city hall has never used common sense even today they still try to cheap out instead of getting it right,they should still cover the stadium instead of wasting money on bike lanes causing more problems downtown where a few use it

[@basillah7650]

They could have gotten a roof if they were not wasting money on a toilet the queen of welfare would never use.

[@paulnguyen8910]

Elks, they are.

[@jeanetteraichel8299]

I've lived in Edmonton my whole life, 49 years, and have yet to step foot in Commonwealth Stadium.

[@tinotse2007]

Well? Unfortunately it's not called Edmonton Eskimos. Management dropped the Eskimos name of the Football team. Now called E. E. Currently nothing been done to replace the Name Eskimos

[@jeanetteraichel8299]

@@tinotse2007 they will ALWAYS be the Eskies...

[@tinotse2007]

@@jeanetteraichel8299 To Fans yes. They will be called Eskimos of Course. Why the name changed? We.ll never know?

[@bonnerscott5374]

Dude, I got a flash of Roseanne barr in my head. Wtfudge you know because its Roseanne.

[@mrhenderson9477]

ha

[@torontofcfantorontofcfan]

Am a die hard edmonton eskimos fanb i am

[@JohnJohn-vl6ev]

no you're not

[@torontofcfantorontofcfan]

@@JohnJohn-vl6ev i am

[@tinotse2007]

Must Suck having the Eskimos change Name to E E

[@robbysuter7577]

LETS GO ELKHOUNDS

[@ethanluu3011]

Shaving heads, no names but numbers, and labour hmmmm sounds familiar

[@sarahpeets9437]

My Grandfather owned O.K construction and laid the cement for commonwealth stadium.

[@vagabondrobotics]

What happened to Edmonton? It seems so dull compared to 20 years ago

[@uploaded113redone]

Been bailing out all the other provinces for the past 4 decades so we don't have any money left for fancy stuff

[@DavedBenefield]

I like the history but the images used are intriguing. 2:13-2:20 the photos of Edmontons prisoners and there are three black men? I've lived in Edmonton and finding black people was tough, and way back then I can only imagine. Also the chain gang, why are there so many black people working on this chain gang?

[@dadnelson4008]

Those are just stock pics

[@gp7910]

Ive spent over half a century in Edmonton and there has always been a fair amount of black people. Nowadays it's a large population. There was a settlement of black Americans east of Edmonton whose many descendants moved here even before immigration from Africa and the Carribean. I'm puzzled that you lived in Edmonton could not find black people???

[@m1k3l1f3]

But WHY is the team called the Eskimos? Never understood that. Also it's too bad the area around the stadium is...well...sketchy.

[@BestEdmontonMall]

Ryan Wequ According to the wiki: Edmontonian writers called Calgary "the cow camp", "horse country", or "the little village beside the Bow". Likewise Calgary's responded with insults about Edmonton's northern latitude and frigid weather, calling the city's residents "Esquimeaux" (an archaic spelling of "Eskimos", referring to the indigenous people of the Canadian Arctic, properly called Inuit). Despite the fact Edmonton is several thousand kilometres south of the Arctic, the name "had the advantages of alliteration, neatness, uniqueness, and a certain amount of truth," and thus, according to historian of Edmonton Tony Cashman, "it stuck." The name remained an unofficial nickname, however, until the arrival in Edmonton of American baseball coach and sports promoter William Deacon White in 1907. White founded the Edmonton Eskimos baseball team in 1909, the football Eskimos in 1910, and Edmonton Eskimos hockey team in 1911. Of the three, only the football teams' name has survived.

[@jackiejohnston202]

Regina is the same. Even when they built the new one they chose to put it close to the old, right in the hood.

[@BrodyYYC]

@@BestEdmontonMall In that case it's not even politically incorrect :)

[@gp7910]

😆😆😆

[@ron19ie]

Ha ha... once again!

[@noone-ft9lw]

idk how I got here

[@daryllloyd4441]

Pretty cool vid 😎 but Calgary is better

[@REDKRAKEN18]

NOPE YOU BETTER CHEER FOR THE STAMPS

[@REDKRAKEN18]

STAMPEDERS OVER EDMONTON FOOTBALL TEAM