Westmount home of prominent Edmonton couple latest property to receive city historic designation

The Hardisty Residence in Edmonton's Westmount neighbourhood is the city's 191st property designated a municipal historic resource.

The former home of an Edmonton couple who played significant roles in local and national affairs a century ago is being declared a municipal historic resource.

The City of Edmonton announced Tuesday it has given the designation to the Westmount home of Richard and Esther Hardisty, which was built in 1913.

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The Hardisty Residence is an early example of a Foursquare-designed house with wood clapboard siding, a low-pitched roof with projected eaves and a front-facing gable dormer, the city said in a media release.

Richard George Hardisty was born in 1871 to Richard Charles Hardisty, the chief factor at Fort Edmonton, and Elizabeth McDougall, daughter of local Methodist missionary George McDougall.

He was a scout and dispatch rider for government during the 1885 Northwest Rebellion. In the late 1890s, he was part of a North West Mounted Police expedition to the Yukon to find a route to the Klondike gold fields and helped organize Edmonton’s first hockey club. During the First World War, he served in France as a major in the 49th Battalion (Edmonton Regiment) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He died in Vancouver in 1943.

Esther Hardisty worked in New York in advertising and as an editor before marrying Hardisty, and served as a nurse during the First World War. She was a publicity executive with the National Selective Service of Canada during the Second World War. It found workers for factories during the war, encouraging women to find paid employment, which had a lasting effect on female labour participation across the country. Esther Hardisty died in 1947.

The owners of the Hardisty Residence, which is the 191st property designated by the city as a municipal historic resource since 1985, can receive $74,407 from Edmonton’s Heritage Resources Reserve fund to match the amount they will spend to renovate and refurbish the home.