Alberta Government House - Edmonton - Things To Do Reviews

A tour will take however long you want it to take. If you want to spend an hour or two looking at Government House's lovely art collection you are free to go at your own pace, and if you want as much history and as many anecdotes as can be fit into fifteen or thirty minutes, you will get it.

There are three floors and the house is wheelchair accessible with a ramp to the back entrance and an elevator indoors. In addition to an 80-person meeting room, there are six other smaller meeting rooms for present-day functionality. Original furniture has been mixed with modern and semi-modern pieces interestingly.

Built by 1913 to house Lieutenant Governors (LGs - the Queen's representative in each province), the building has been home to six LGs, Northwest Airline pilots, and Canadian war veterans. It was even the temporary residence of Pope Jean Paul II in 1984! Countless government meetings and dinners have been held in the house with a lengthy list of visiting dignitaries. Despite the house's relatively young age (relative to buildings in other parts of the world, not in Edmonton), Government House is an historic and important part of both Edmonton's and Alberta's histories.