Visit Fort Macleod’s Provincial Historic Area and experience where the west began!
Fort Macleod was founded in 1874 with the arrival of the North West Mounted Police. A community of settlers and businesses that serviced the cattle industry formed outside of the fort. By 1892 when the Calgary and Edmonton Railway reached the community, the town was large enough to become incorporated.
Development of the town center continued until 1906 when a fire on Main Street destroyed most of the wood frame structures. Town Council then passed a bylaw requiring future buildings to be constructed of brick or stone, which was sourced locally. Optimism for growth continued, and by 1911 the Fort Macleod Board of Trade was promoting the town as the hub of southern Alberta.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Fort Macleod participated in the Heritage Canada Main Street Program (now a program of the National Trust for Canada) and later the Alberta Main Street Program, initiatives that helped reverse the long term effects of depopulation and service decline experienced by many smaller communities throughout the province. Restoration of the historic Edwardian Classical Revival buildings was funded by a series of federal and provincial grants along with significant investment by the building and business owners. In 1984, Main Street Fort Macleod became the first Designated Historic Area in Alberta and one of only two protected areas in the province.
The Fort Macleod Provincial Historic Area encompasses approximately 6 blocks of Fort Macleod’s commercial core and is listed on the Alberta Register of Historic Places. Of the downtown buildings that contribute to the area, five were built prior to the 1906 fire, all having been faced with brick or locally quarried sandstone. The Territorial Court House, now the town hall (1902 – 04) was designated by the province in 1979 and became a National Historic site in 1980). Four other historic buildings, including the iconic Empress Theatre (built 1912, provincially designated in 1982) round out the mix of government, commercial, financial, hospitality and entertainment uses needed to service the townsfolk and the broader rural community.
The town promotes walking tours of the area that explain the past uses of the historic buildings. Visit the On This Spot site for a “then & now” view of numerous historic locations along main street. Many films and television shows have been shot using Fort Macleod’s main street as the backdrop, including the HBO series ‘The Last of Us’.
