Book Publishers Association of Alberta

Kathryn Chase Merrett celebrates 100 years of the Edmonton City Market in this groundbreaking local history.

A Sunday-morning staple since its opening in December 1900, the Edmonton City Market has played an important role in the evolution of the city. Waving together the stores of market vendors and customers with careful research, this book tells the story of the market and the city, of their co-evolution, and of changing urban culture.

Richly textured with archival photographs, drawings, maps, anecdotes and interviews, A History of the Edmonton City Market reveals how the market survived and thrived in the heart of a city that grew from a frontier outpost to a high-rise metropolis. Kathryn Chase Merrett sheds light on the turbulent relationships between the city’s cultural and agricultural values, and the sometimes contradictory civic aspirations of the city’s officials.

Essential reading both for those who love the market and for those who have yet to shop there, A History of the Edmonton City Market is a comprehensive examination of a long-lived, much-loved institution, seamlessly integrating the lively details of market life with wider contexts of urban, economic, and cultural studies.