Written in Sand - A Sandstone Walking Tour of Calgary - Clio

Entries on This Tour

1. Rundle Ruins

Rundle Ruins were the site of Calgary’s second general hospital, the first being a small house where the head nurse was also the cook.The City of Calgary donated $10,000 to the construction of the hospital. It underwent several renovations and additions and was Calgary’s most significant hospital until the third General Hospital was built across the Bow River.

2. Old City Hall

- Stands where Calgary’s original town hall was, a wood-frame building erected in 1885. - In 1907, the City council approved $150,000 for its construction. The lowest contractor bid was $190,000, but the final construction cost would be $300,000. By 1909, escalating construction costs cause the city to propose a bylaw for additional funds, but ratepayers voted it down. A public scandal ensued, during which the contractor walked off the job, and architect William M. Dodd was fired. For nearly a year, City Hall stood unfinished and virtually abandoned. Additional funds were approved in 1910 when construction resumed. - The tower clock was purchased for $3,657 from the Seth Thomas Clock Co. of Thomaston, Connecticut, and the watch and its 1500 lb. bell was installed in 1911 by D.E. Black, a local jeweller and alderman. - It is the only surviving City Hall of its period in Western Canada.

3. Clarence and Norman Blocks

- Build by Sir James Lougheed and named for his two eldest sons, Clarence and Norman. The blocks caught fire four times between 1900 and 1933. The Lougheed family repaired the buildings each time. Lougheed’s partners on the buildings were Lord Beaverbrook, a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and influential in British media and politics and future Alberta Premier John E. Brownlee.

4. Alberta Hotel

The Bar at the Alberta Hotel was said to be the longest between Winnipeg and Vancouver in the early part of the 20th century. The bar was frequented by regulars such as Senator Patrick Burns and future Prime Minister RB Bennett, who owned a private table at the bar. In 1911 the building had several gargoyles installed outside of it was were unusual for being modeled on individuals you would find on a newspaper staff, as opposed to fantastical animals.Along with the bar, the hotel also contained the largest barbershop in Calgary, which included 12 chairs. It served as a meeting point for local business people who would often begin meetings in the barbershop and finish them over drinks at the bar.

5. Central United Church

At completion, it was the largest structure in Calgary, with a capacity of 1,975 people. The plot of land for the church was chosen with the help of MLA and future Prime Minister RB Bennett. Bennett successfully resisted several calls for the building to be relocated, keeping the church close to the business core of the city. This created a haven where spiritual values could be enforced amidst what he saw as the materialism of the business class around him.

6. Grain Exchange Building

At six stories, the Grain Exchange Building was the tallest structure in Calgary upon its completion. The current tallest building in Calgary is Brookfield Place Tower, at 56 stories. Construction cost: $164,000. Initially called the Hull Block, but the name was changed when the Calgary Grain Exchange moved there in 1910.The Grain Exchange Building’s height caused concerns about the effect the wind could have on a building of its height. The height of the building stems from property values increasing by 1000 percent in the area around Stephen Avenue between 1908 and 1912. This caused developers to construct taller buildings in order to maximize profits. The building was made with a combination of sandstone and reinforced concrete which has contributed to its longevity by having the concrete mediate any potential decay of the sandstone. It contained the city’s first passenger elevator, a cage elevator with a metal expanding door.

7. Haultain School

Calgary’s first sandstone school outfitted with the luxuries of both running water and electricity. It is currently the oldest surviving school building in Calgary. Named for North West Territories Premier Frederick Haultain. Haultain advocated for the creation of Alberta and Saskatchewan into a single province called “Buffalo.”

8. Memorial Park Library

First Major public library built in Alberta. It was one of over 150 libraries built in Canada with funds from American millionaire Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie believed in freely accessible learning for all people and focused his philanthropy upon building and funding libraries. Memorial Park Library cost 100,000 dollars to build 80,000 coming from Carnegie. The library was home to the Glenbow Archives and research center.

9. Central Collegiate School

Was the first School in Calgary designed specifically for secondary education. It has separate boys’ and girls’ entrances that are still visible today. Central Collegiate school was the first structure in Calgary designed specifically for secondary education. Students that went there were groomed for further instruction.

10. Calgary Normal School/ McDougall Centre

Designed by A.M. Jeffers, who would also create the Alberta Legislature Building. The cornerstone to the building was laid by Alberta’s first Premier, Alexander Rutherford in June 1907. The Calgary Normal School was Alberta’s largest educational institution upon its opening, instructing students from across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

11. Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden.

The garden contains sandstone bricks that were initially part of Burns Manor (1903-1956), the Beltline mansion owned by Senator Patrick Burns. Burns is notable for being one of the “Big Four” ranchers who founded the Calgary Stampede in 1912. The house was the site of a reception for Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his wife to celebrate Alberta becoming a province in 1905. Burns celebrated his 75th birthday party with a seven-layer cake weighing 3,000 pounds, which was cut into 23,000 pieces and given to Calgary. Upon his death, the taxes on Burns’ estate were large enough to eliminate the provincial deficit and balance the provinces’ budget

12. Nat Christie Park

Sculptures in this park were carved by members of the Stone Sculptures Guild of North America in 1998. All sculptures are carved out of local Paskapoo sandstone. The name Paskapoo comes from the Cree word for “Blind Man,” with the name being used for this type of sandstone due to its abundance near the Blindman River, which runs through Central Alberta.

13. King Edward School

The first principal of the school was William Aberhart, who later became a noted radio evangelist and the Premier of Alberta. Aberhart directed theatrical productions at the school to teach children skills such as public speaking and oratory. Dropouts were frequent in the early days of the school to the point that a teacher from this period remarked that it seemed the walls of the school were greased.The concept of junior highs was piloted at the school before being adapted province-wide in 1935.

14. Edworthy Park

The quarry was supported by loading and siding tracks utilized by the CPR. The sandstone would be loaded into buckets and then into a siding car, and then the break would be let off releasing the trolley. The Edworthy homestead is one of the oldest homesteads still existing in the Calgary Area.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Written in Sand - A Sandstone Walking Tour of Calgary

Created by Lougheed House National & Provincial Historic Site on July 13th 2020, 5:44:16 pm.

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Description

The Calgary fire of 1886 broke out on Sunday, November 7th, 1886, in the area that now makes up 9th Ave SE and Centre St before being put out at 9 am the following day by the Calgary Volunteer Fire Department. While nobody was killed or injured, fourteen buildings were destroyed, and the fire resulted in $103,200 ($2.4 million adjusted for inflation) in damage and caused widespread devastation through the newly incorporated town. While the fire’s cause is unknown, it resulted in increased vigilance and concern within the community regarding arson. Calgary Mayor George Clift King was quoted as saying, “If you find any man setting fire to any building, I hand him over to you, and you may deal with him as you like.” To prevent further damage to any of the buildings in Calgary, city officials drafted a law that all future buildings in the downtown core must be built with either brick or stone. Because a type of sandstone, known as Paskapoo Sandstone, was readily available in the area and was, therefore, the cheapest to quarry, it became a frequently used building material. This law sparked Calgary’s “Sandstone Era,” which resulted in 15 different sandstone quarries operating within the city and sandstone quarrying, becoming one of Calgary’s key industries in this period. The first sandstone quarries were opened by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1885, in what is now Edworthy Park. It is also possible that a sandstone quarry operated by local businessman Wesley F. Orr was in use before the CPR began quarrying sandstone. Following the passing of the Sandstone Law in 1886, quarries opened throughout the city, and by 1890 it was estimated that half of the tradesmen in Calgary worked within the stone cutting industry. The sandstone era came to an end in Calgary in 1915, when the last of the sandstone quarries closed. Contributing factors to the decline of sandstone included the end of the city’s pre-First World War economic boom, high labour costs, and competition from other building materials, including locally made bricks and terracotta and high-quality Indiana sandstone

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