Formation of
Devon … A Model Town
The town of
Devon was created in large part by the discovery of oil in Leduc. The people of
Leduc were generally fond of having the oil workers in their town, but other
citizens were not. Unfortunately, Leduc was a small-scale town and was not as
progressive-thinking in that era as it is today.
Immediately
after the discovery of oil at Leduc, offices were first established by the Imperial Oil Company in
that town.
But when the new oil fields rapidly expanded the company decided to build a new
"model town" for its employees and their families. This new town, built by Imperial Oil, was
just north of Leduc No. 1. Since the oil was discovered in a reef that was formed
350 million years ago in the Devonian Period, the town was called Devon. The
chosen site of Devon was a barley field overlooking the North Saskatchewan
River; it was considered a good town site. Devon was called Canada's model townthe first community in the country to be planned by a regional planning
commission.
The Alberta Town
Planning Commission was asked to help plan "Canada's First Model
Town." From the beginning, all the buildings in Devon had electricity,
natural gas, water, and indoor toilets. The houses were pre-fabricated in
Calgary, and then put together on basement foundations. A house approximately
cost between $3,600 and $6,000.
The company
launched a bus service to Edmonton and a government ferry was put into operation
across the Saskatchewan River just above Devon. Within three months in
1949, Devon had progressed from a hamlet to a town. Devon had many modern
facilities, such as streets, sidewalks, a park, hotels and stores, a curling and
hockey rink, a post office, a bank, a golf course and swimming pool, a public
library and a theatre. The greatest asset to Devon, however, was Imperial Oil's
gas absorption plant, which provided employment for a large number of people.
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