Secord House

Richard Secord was born in Ontario in 1860 and came to Edmonton in 1881, where he helped complete the survey of the original townsite. He worked as a teacher, and then as a clerk for John A. McDougall. Later he and McDougall went into business together as McDougall & Seord. Their business interests included merchandising, the fur trade, real estate and Métis Scrip speculation. Secord also sat as a Conservative representative in the North West Territorial Assembly from 1902 until the creation of the Province of Alberta in 1905. He married Annie Ada York in 1891, and together they had four children: Richard Y., Imogene, Lena, and Isobel.

Construction began on the three-storey family home in 1907, which Secord named Chateau Rochelle after La Rochelle, France, from which his ancestors emigrated during the persecution of the French Huguenots. Designed by architect H. D. Johnston and built by the May-Sharpe Construction Company, this home was constructed of pressed brick with marble pillars and featured a hipped roof with dormers and a widow's walk, and a front veranda and side porch, the roofs of which served as balconies for the second storey. The veranda pillars were laminated with cyprus wood from Louisiana. The home's interior was richly finished with maple and oak floors, woodwork of bleached mahogany and oak, intricate ceiling mouldings, and gold leaf accents.

Richard Secord died in 1935; his wife Annie remained in the home until her death in 1951. The house was sold to the City of Edmonton, who renovated the interior for use as the first home of the "Edmonton Museum of Arts." It was demolished in 1968 and Secord House Apartments was constructed on the site.