Obadiah Place

Obadiah Place is a historic site in Amber Valley, Alberta. It was the homestead of Willis Reese Bowen and later the home of his son Obadiah Bowen, a pastor for the town.

Willis Reese Bowen brought his family and four other black Oklahoman families to the Amber Valley in 1911.[1][2] They had applied for homesteads under Clifford Sifton's immigration campaign to bring Oklahomans to the Canadian Prairies, during the Great Migration. Sifton had not anticipated that black people would come to Canada and later sent immigration officers to the US South to actively dissuade black farmers. He and the Department of Immigration went on to implement racist policies that were not overturned until 1962. Violet King Henry, whose family was among the first settlers with the Bowens, went on to help develop more progressive policies.

Obadiah Place is a wooden 1.5 storey square house, located on a 1.21 hectare parcel of land on the Obadiah Bowen farm. It has four farm outbuildings and a phone booth. The house's vernacular wood construction is now rare in Canada.[2] The site also includes a picnic area, park space and a baseball diamond that honours the Amber Valley Baseball Team.[3]

Willis Bowen homesteaded on the site in 1913, with his original log cabin serving as a community centre, post office, and site of the first telephone for the community. In 1938, Obadiah Bowen built the house.[2] Willis lived on the property until 1996. When he moved, the Friends of Obadiah Place Society and the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation established the historic site.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mikell, Montague. "Fixing Obadiah Place". Alberta Settlement. Legacy Magazine, Summer 2000. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "Obadiah Place". HistoricPlaces.ca. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Current Developments". Alberta Source. HCF Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 5 Feb 2017.
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