On this day in 1969, Edmonton's storied candy store, the Palace of Sweets, was advertising its Easter treats.
When Douglas Jones first arrived in Edmonton, he didn't plan to become a candyman. He left his native Nova Scotia for Edmonton in 1920 to study at the University of Alberta. After graduating, he began working for a lumber company, where he supervised nearly a dozen lumberyards all over western Canada. After he retired, Jones went on to a few commercial ventures, including a newsstand.
Jones opened Western Canada News at 104 Street and 104 Avenue. In addition to newspapers and magazines, the stand would also sell candy. The sweet stuff proved so popular that it earned the business a second name: Palace of Sweets. After about two years, Jones moved his business a few blocks south into the Chisholm Block at 103 Street and Jasper Avenue NW, formerly the first home of the Edmonton Public Library.
The Palace of Sweets didn't just sell candy. It also made it. The 1969 flyer advertises homemade chocolates and other candies, cooked up in the massive kitchen in the basement of the store. And the operation made tons of the stuff — 250 to 300 pounds every day. It quickly became the place for locally made confections, and a weekly destination for families doing their weekend shopping downtown.
The Palace of Sweets remained a mainstay of Jasper Avenue for decades. In 1966, a fire started in the basement of the Chisholm Building and spread to other floors. The Palace of Sweets was destroyed. But it wasn't gone forever. Jones constructed a new building a year later and reopened the candy shop.
Fire couldn't stop the sweets, but economics could. By the 1970s, candy production had become more mechanized, and homemade confections had trouble competing against cheaper, mass-produced brands. The Palace of Sweets, by then at 10122 Jasper Avenue NW, sold its last piece of candy in 1974. Jones died in 1978 at the age of 80.
But the candy store left a lasting impression on those who spent their Saturdays browsing its shelves. Trips to the Palace of Sweets inspired chocolatier Carol Logan to open her own candy store on Whyte Avenue in 1990; when it burned down in 2003, the shop relocated to High Street, doling out candy for 22 years before it closed down on Dec. 31, 2024.
This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist Rev Recluse of Vintage Edmonton.