Rundle Ruins

In 1894 the newly minted City of Calgary realized that Calgary was growing faster than their hospital could accommodate. The first General Hospital had been an old run-down house on 7th ave, that was falling apart. The hospital building was a community effort, with prominent citizens such as A.E. Cross and Mrs. Pinkham (the wife of the prominent Bishop Pinkham) fundraising for the hospital. The first donation was not from any prominent businessmen but rather from Jimmy Smith, a Chinese businessman who was well known and loved in the community. Smith donated $1,000 to build the new hospital upon his death in 1890. They were built in sandstone in a simplified Romanesque style typical of the 1900's. The ruins you see here today are from the second Calgary General Hospital built-in 1894. The new facility boasted 35 beds, an operating room, a nursing school, along with electricity and a telephone. To meet the city’s growing demands, the hospital was enlarged several times, a maternity wing in 1899, and a two-story ward in 1903, and another maternity ward in 1905. However, by 1908 it was clear that the hospital could not keep up with the growing city, and a new facility was built across the Bow River. The old sandstone general was used as an “isolation” hospital for the chronically ill until 1954 when an isolation ward was built at the new general. The building was then turned into a senior’s retirement home. In 1971 the old general was on the wrecking block, and one of Calgary’s biggest heritage debates began. The province deemed the building unimportant despite its heritage, and protests from local citizens and demolition followed. In 1974 public park was opened by then Premier Peter Lougheed grandson of Sir James Lougheed, who had laid one of the cornerstones of the hospital 80 years earlier. Today the ruins have been turned into a park popular with graduating students to get their pictures taken.

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