Week of April 4, 2024

40 years ago (April 4, 1984)

“Lakeview Pavilion: Could it be restored to its former popularity?”

Forty years ago, there was hope that the abandoned Lakeview Pavilion at Cooking Lake could be restored to its former glory. The enormous wooden pavilion had been built in 1928 as a dance hall for the resort-goers at South Cooking Lake and enjoyed decades of success until the 1970s. Its last event was in 1976 when a rock concert by the B.C. band Chilliwack got out of hand and fans who couldn’t get into the event heavily vandalized the pavilion. It closed soon after. In 1984, the owners of the pavilion and the surrounding land were hoping to sell to someone who could restore or rebuild the pavilion and turn Lakeview into a tourist destination once again. Did it ever happen? Visit the Strathcona County Museum’s “Lakeview” exhibit to find out!

30 years ago (April 7, 1994)

“Grey Nuns Threatened by Lack of Opposition”

Thirty years ago, the Grey Nuns Hospital was on the chopping block, only six years after opening. The provincial government was considering a proposal to close all acute care facilities at the hospital and turn it into a geriatric facility. Residents of Sherwood Park were urged to oppose the plan. The hospital had been built to serve Mill Woods and Strathcona County specifically and losing it would mean that its 63,000 annual patients would flood the already overcrowded Royal Alexandra and University of Alberta Hospitals. The opening of the Grey Nuns had made an enormous difference in accessible healthcare in Strathcona County, and luckily it is still serving us today!