From the back cover:

When Malcolm Groat sold his 900 acre homestead to real estate promoters in 1903, the original West End of Edmonton was born.
The communities that developed on his homestead, Glenora, Groat Estates, Westmount and West Oliver were all linked into one suburb by the central shopping street - Edward Street - known today as the 124st Street & Area shopping district.
These communities, then separated from Edmonton by the Hudson's Bay Reserve, developed the unique identity of a small towne within a big city.

The cover photo shows 124 Street looking north towards the 102 Avenue intersection in 1939, just one of the many archival and personal photos to be found in this treasury of life in Edmonton's infancy.

Edmonton's West Side Story traces the history of the people, organizations, and institutions that shaped and created the character of one of Edmonton's oldest neighborhoods.