Shaw House

"Rich, or plush is the only way to describe the house," effuses the Edmonton Journal in 1974. The journalist, Sharon Adams, toured the house 60 years after it was built finding it still an opulent home. At 1,860 square feet on the main floor, and with construction costs at $35,000, the house was among Edmonton's largest and most elaborate. The mansion was built over 1913 and 1914 by Harry V. Shaw, an Edmonton entrepreneur, businessman, prominent community member, and veteran of the Spanish American War. He was born in Minnesota in 1876, came to Edmonton when he was 25 and married Jessie Ann, another emigrant from his home state. They had three children together. Shaw made his fortune selling Major Reno and La Palma cigars from a factory in the Masonic Hall. At the height of his success, Shaw built this house concurrently with the H.V. Shaw building on 105 Street from which he ran his cigar factory. At that time his business exploits employed 90 people, more than any other single employer in Edmonton.

The Shaw House was a rectangular Neoclassical or Adam style home made of brick and sandstone. The prominent palladian-style gabled dormer over the portico entrance and the full-width wrap-around balcony supported by tapered Tuscan columns over the full-width wrap-around colonnaded porch set this three story house far apart from most others in the city. The keystone in the arched dormer, lintels, and quoins around the regularly spaced sash windows added further touches of elegance. The interior could only be described as extravagant. The main floor had a kitchen, large breakfast room, dining room, library, parlour, drawing room, hall and vestibule. Fine oak panelling lined the walls, a central staircase spiralled up to the next two levels, and stained glass windows allowed light to shine on the ornately designed plaster ceilings and hand-painted wallpaper. Hand-painted emblems of eight major world powers adorned the ceiling of the library, with the Alberta emblem taking the place of honour over the fireplace. The library's plaster ceiling also had a very scholarly geometric design; likewise the dining room featured a curvilinear plaster moulding creating an Ogee pattern, accented by an intricate and large chandelier. The hand-painted designs in these rooms and throughout the house were the work of a Russian artist imported from New York and retained by Magoon & MacDonald, architects of the house. The second floor had nine rooms: five bedrooms, a sleeping porch, boudoir, bath, and large hallway; the third floor contained only four rooms, a maid's room, bathroom, hallway, boys' room, and a large billiard room with fireplace. This was where Shaw's daughter, Melba E. Carlson, said they "had more intimate, close-friend parties"; this was in comparison to the "marvellous times" she had in university when they "used to get a big bunch together and hire the best band in town. We'd have parties and dances downstairs, opening up the drawing room and parlour and dancing in the large hallway."

The dawn of the First World War brought a global recession that signalled the end of high times for Harry V. Shaw. This at a time when the love of cigars was being outpaced by cigarettes. He was forced to shut down his businesses, let go of his building, and move his family out of the house in the early 1920s because he couldn't afford to pay the taxes on the properties. Shaw himself went on to work in the automobile and insurance business, retiring in 1956. The Royal Trust operated a boarding house in the Shaw House from 1922 to 1938 as they looked out for new buyers. A 1935 ad for the home called it's sale a "Real Snap - Extreme sacrifice", but it wasn't until 1938 that anyone finally put their money down. Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Poole, founder of Poole Construction, bought the house for a mere $3,500 - the cost of the back taxes owed on the residence. Eight years later Mr. and Mrs. John Rule, of Rule Wynn & Rule, purchased the house. They lived in it until 1966, selling it to Mr. and Mrs. Abe Coyne. Coyne was dealer in pianos and organs and used the main floor for business; the second and third floor became separate suites. After more than twenty years in the house, Coyne became frustrated with its upkeep. He also became one of the biggest advocates for erecting a highrise on the land the home was on and his two adjacent lots. The Shaw House was demolished in 1978 to make way for new developments.