Immaculate Conception Church

The bell tower was repainted in 1950

Sources: Photo: City of Edmonton Archives


Little Church on the Prairie

Photo: Public Domain.

At the time of its construction, the Immaculate Conception Parish Church in Edmonton was rather unique in the landscape. Today, in what is now known as the MacKauley neighbourhood, there is a plan to batptize one of the streets Church Street  because  you can find more than a dozen different places of worship on it today.

Text version of the audio

The massive influx of immigrants to Edmonton in the early 20th century required the rapid creation of new parishes. The Immaculate Conception parish church in front of you is the second French-speaking church to be erected in Edmonton. 

The church was built in 1906, one year after the creation of the province of Alberta. The Gothic Revival style of this church is visible in the buttresses at the corners and sides of the building. The tall spire and statue above the doorway draw the eye upward. 

Other classic French Gothic features are also evident - the rose window in the tower, the arched Gothic windows, the small pinnacles around the tower and the steeply pitched roof. The church is actually a brick structure, but it was covered with stucco during one of the many renovations. 

By 1911, the new immigrants were so numerous that a new church had to be built across the street for the other, mostly Irish, Catholics. This new church was named Immaculate Heart.

The Immaculate Conception parish closed in 2001, and parishioners were invited to join St. Thomas Aquinas parish across the river. Today, the building has become the Vietnamese Mary Queen of Martyrs Church.

Extract of
Francophone Heritage in Edmonton

Francophone Heritage in Edmonton image circuit

Presented by : Conseil de développement économique de l'Alberta (CDÉA)
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