At Home at the MacLeod House

The Highlands Historical Society would like to thank Yvette Cioran and her family for hosting our very successful At Home event on Saturday, October 5. Members were warmly welcomed to their lovely home and enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about its history and to see the beautiful four-story interior renovation that the family has recently completed. We hope you will enjoy the following article and the historic photos that Yvette has shared with the Highlands Historical Society.

The MacLeod House  –  6116 – 111 (Jasper) Avenue

                       (from research done by current owners Yvette and Jason Cioran)

The MacLeod house was built as a spec home by Holgate and Magrath between 1912 and 1914 on land purchased from John A. McDougall. According to City of Edmonton Archives the development permit was pulled on November 22, 1912, in a batch along with a number of others, by Magrath & Holgate.  The house was designated as Block 11, Lot 14, on Jasper Avenue.  It was listed as a dwelling with the name of architect and contractor as owner.  The estimated cost of the house was $4300.   

As a finished home, it was rented to Dr. Thomas Rippon in 1914, to Richard Gamon in 1915, and to Ernest B. Brown, traveller with the Marshall-Wells Alberta Company in 1917.  Malcolm and Loretta MacLeod, along with their children, Violet, Bruce, Marjorie, Norman and Jean, began renting the residence from Magrath Hartt Limited in 1917.   Records show that Malcolm was working for the Johnson Shoe Company at that time.  Then in 1924 he was listed as manager of Kaufman Rubber Co. Ltd., giving him the financial stability necessary to purchase the home from Mabel Holgate in 1928.

Malcolm MacLeod passed away in 1937 and Loretta owned the home until 1939, at which time it was taken over by the Canadian Mortgage Company.  Loretta moved herself and her children into a smaller home on 65^th Street and 111 Avenue.  In 1953 Loretta and her daughter Violet moved into the historic Margaret Marshall residence at 11119 – 62^nd Street, a home that backs on to the alley adjacent to the MacLeod house.  Violet lived in the Marshall residence until she had a bad fall in 1993, at which time she moved to Clover Bar Lodge.

The Ciorans discovered that there was an audio recording of an interview with Violet done by Eileen Passmore of the Highlands Historical Society in 1996.  An article based on the interview was written by Anita Jenkins for the Fall 2001 Highlands Historical Foundation newsletter. 

After the MacLeods moved from the home, there were a number of short-term residents, then the Barr family lived in the house from 1950 to 1966 and did a major renovation.  They built an addition, removed the double-tiered deck and the stucco, enclosed the veranda, moved the front door to the east, and added front window flower boxes. 

In 2009, when Yvette and Jason moved their family of six into the MacLeod home, they knew a major renovation was going to be needed.  In the early years they removed the aluminum windows and replaced them with double hung windows, tore off stucco and put up wide-plank Hardie board, removed the front driveway, landscaped and added a new veranda.  Recently they completed a four-story interior renovation finding a perfect balance between modern and old-world charm.

Yvette and Jason are very proud of their lovely, and well-loved, Highlands home.  They were delighted to share the house and its history with the Highlands Historical Society.