Hillhurst Sunnyside

Historical Context
Paper
Commissioned by the HSCA

The Hillhurst Sunnyside Context Paper was

commissioned and paid for by the Hillhurst Sunnyside
Community Association.

The Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association (HSCA)

serves the communities of Hillhurst, Upper Hillhurst,
Westmount and Sunnyside in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

The community boundaries of Hillhurst include 8th

Avenue N and 16th Avenue N to the north, 10th Street
W to the east, the Bow River to the south and both 14th
Street W and 18th Street W to the west. The Sunnyside
boundaries consist of Centre Street on the east and by
10th Street NW on the west. On the north, Sunnyside
is bounded by McHugh Bluff Park and on the south by
the Bow River.

The HSCA’s mission is “to preserve and enhance a

healthy and vibrant quality of life for the residents of
Hillhurst-Sunnyside”.

Cover Photo Credit: Melanie Cooper

Photography
Calgary Heritage Initiative

Copies can be found on HSCA.ca and

Heritagecalgary.ca
Table of
Contents
About ii
Historic Themes iii
1. The Landscape of Hillhurst-Sunnyside 1

2. The First Nations, Trails and Crossings 6

3. Early Homesteaders and Pioneer Settlement (1883-1907) 11

4. Early Commerce and Industry 28

5. Urban Development 40

6. Establishing Community Institutions 64

7. Building Social and Community Life 77

8. Special Streetscapes and Cultural Landscapes 94

Appendices: 105
Historic Resource Inventory 106
Places of Interest 108
Interpretive Sites 110

Community Statement of Significance 111

Bibliography 130
About
The Hillhurst-Sunnyside Context Paper was prepared in 2021-2022 by Marilyn Williams and Gillian
Sissons. In addition to the Context Paper, this document also includes a current listing of all
historic resources in the community on the City of Calgary’s Inventory of Evaluated Historic
Resources (the ‘Inventory’), a Places of Interest List (POIL) and a Community Statement of
Significance (SoS). The preparation of this context paper draws on a wide range of historic
sources, secondary sources, and references that are listed in the bibliography. In addition, both
the context paper and POIL were informed by community consultation, site visits and previous
studies. The writers are particularly grateful for the many community historians who have created
articles, walking tours and community histories.

Context Paper
A context paper is an ideal starting point for future community heritage projects. It lays the
groundwork for future heritage activities by identifying the significant cultural and historical
themes, cultural practices, institutions, events, and people associated with the area. This paper
explores and characterizes how the community has been shaped by its geography, natural and
pre-contact history, town planning influences, land use and transportation patterns, and trends
in building styles and design. It also provides a thematic framework that covers important
historic associations, themes, activities, as well as economic, social and political movements,
and significant eras of development 1. The context paper will serve as a reference and framework
for evaluating the community’s heritage resources and identifying its places of interest and
heritage values. Finally, it can inform activities in other disciplines such as the preparation of area
redevelopment plans, cultural plans, and community projects.

Places of Interest List

A Places of Interest List (POIL) is a list of extant sites in the community that may possess heritage
value. That is, they may represent significant individuals, landmarks, themes (including significant
eras), activities, cultural practices, events, institutions, or architectural styles and design, or
possess other types of heritage values for the city and/or the community. A wide variety of places
will be considered to represent Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s heritage including commercial, residential
and institutional buildings, structures and cultural landscapes like green spaces or streetscapes
of architectural interest. As the context paper was being researched, places of interest were
identified and prioritized for potential future in-depth research and evaluation for inclusion on the
City’s Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources (the ‘Inventory’). Three lists are included at the
end of the context paper: a Places of Interest List, a list of places for potential interpretation, and
a current listing of resources found on the Inventory.

Community Statement of Significance

The Community Statement of Significance (SoS) included at the end of this document summarizes
the heritage value, character-defining elements and integrity of the community that have been
identified in the context paper. This condensed format can be more expedient when used to
inform other reports and plans such as area redevelopment plans and cultural plans.
In developing the major themes for this community, the local,
1

provincial, and national thematic frameworks are also considered.

iv
Historic Themes
Each section in the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Context Paper represents a significant theme in the
community’s development. For each theme the history and background will be explored. At the
end of each theme, the following items will be provided where applicable:

• One or more ‘Heritage Value Statement’ associated with the theme.

• One or more ‘Character Defining Element’ places and/or characteristics of the built form
which display/embody the heritage values associated with the theme.
• Potential and/or existing historic resources associated with the theme.
• Potential sites for future interpretation. Some sites of historic interest represent important
historic themes and associations, but do not possess sufficient material evidence or integrity
to be considered as historic places. These sites have been identified as potential sites for
future interpretation using techniques such as interpretive panels, signage, plaques, artwork or
murals.

Bow Marsh Bridge during flood of 1902 [Credits: City of Calgary Archives 2013-029-002]

v
The Landscape of
Hillhurst-Sunnyside

2021 aerial photograph with boundaries overlaid in orange [Credit: Federation of Calgary Communities website]

a) Description the Morleyville Trail, and later an historic

Hillhurst-Sunnyside comprises two northwest inner- commercial street and early streetcar route, with
city communities, Hillhurst and Sunnyside, and is Hillhurst to the west and Sunnyside to the east.
located across the river from the Downtown Centre.
The Bow River forms its southern boundary. The b) Community Contours
northern boundary is 8th Avenue NW between 18th The geography of Hillhurst-Sunnyside is defined
and 14th Streets NW, jogs north to 16th Avenue NW by the North Hill, the flats below and the Bow
between 14th and 10th Streets, then south again to River. In Sunnyside, between the top of the hill
8th Avenue before wrapping around the Sunnyside and the flats, an extensive escarpment known
and McHugh Bluffs and Crescent Road. The eastern as McHugh Bluff hugs the northern boundary
boundary is Centre Street North, while the western between 10th and Centre streets2. In the
boundary is 18th Street between the Bow River and northeast part of Hillhurst, a hillside rises above
8th Avenue, and 14th Street north of 9th Avenue. Riley Park to the top of the hill. The river flats
2
The western end of the McHugh Bluff is part of the Rosedale com-
The two communities are separated by 10th munity. The Calgary Imagery map database also refers to ‘Sunnyside
Street NW, a major traffic corridor, formerly Bluff’ at the far west end.

1
McHugh Bluffs ca1908 [Credits: Glenbow Archives pb-12-39, Archibald Key fonds]
that extend from the base of the North Hill to the area. Long-time residents interviewed in the 1970s
Bow River are part of a low terrace that likely dates believed parts of the bluff were used as a First Nations’
to the post-glacial fluvial activity between 9,000 and bison jump, and that the many skulls unearthed during
10,000 years ago3. The top of the escarpment affords the excavation of their homes were part of a killsite.
magnificent views of the city skyline, the Rocky
Mountains, the Bow River Valley and the river flats. From the 1930s and 1940s instances of instability
affected the slope near 5th and 6th streets. Following
The river erosion activity that cut into the hillside and heavy spring rains in May 1948, a mudslide of over 15,000
exposed the escarpments also exposed the underlying cubic metres narrowly missed homes in the 600 block
sandstone. The sandstone and the shelter offered of 9th Avenue, forcing residents at the base of the hill to
by the bluffs would have attracted pioneer and early evacuate. The house for one evacuated resident, Hilda
entrepreneur Felix McHugh4 to homestead on the Piper, was relocated to 2nd Avenue (extant). Numerous
flats from 1883 and also to operate a quarry at the slope stabilisation projects from the late 1940s to the
base of the escarpment near 4th Street. In July 1990 early 1960s endeavoured to prevent future slides5.
the cliffs became a natural area public park named
McHugh Bluff to recognise his connections to the The extensive river flats are now fully developed despite
3
Bison Historical Services Ltd (1999).
4
Discussed further in Sections 3 and 4. 5
Zakrison (2012); Tanko (1978).

2
the fact that much of Sunnyside is in a floodplain. c) Natural Habitat
Until the mid-20th century, sloughs were located on A large part of the community’s natural terrain has
the flats in both Hillhurst and Sunnyside, at one time been retained as natural area green space which
extensive, but diminishing over time as they were encircles the neighbourhood along the bluffs and
reclaimed for land. The west slough was identified as a riverbanks, plus a very small green space on the west-
‘lake’ in the 1904 subdivision plan for Hillhurst. It was most flats. The bluff is mainly glacial till. The habitat
located immediately south of Gladstone Road (formerly along the bluffs is comprised of a mix of grasslands
Gladstone Avenue) west of the Morleyville Road with an and forest. The grasslands are of both native and
equal size body of water east of the road in Sunnyside. introduced grasses along with indigenous flowering
By 19116, only the kidney-shaped Hillhurst slough was plants that are associated with grasslands. The forests
shown on the fire insurance maps, although residents are extensive balsam poplar forest with willow and
recalled wet periods when water ran across the road ash trees, and white spruce interspersed with small
between the sloughs. The slough east of 10th Street stands of upland tall shrub and aspen. Colorado blue
was the first to be reclaimed: aerial photographs show spruce has been introduced at the base of the bluffs.
structures present by the late 1940s, and the 1961 Fire
Insurance maps shows a service station and Safeway Natural green space along the north bank of the Bow
Store. Archaeological investigations carried out north includes a riparian tall shrub habitat at river edge
of the Safeway Store in 1999 revealed deposits, bordered by balsam poplar forest in Hillhurst. The
likely trucked in from another landfill, which would riverbank in Sunnyside west of 7th Street, except the
be consistent with activity to reclaim the slough 7. parts which have undergone flood remediation, has
a riparian gravel/sand shoulder, and balsam poplar
forest lies east of 7th. A small area of grasslands

1924 aerial photograph showing slough (gold arrow) immediately west of 10th Street (formerly Morleyville Road, green arrow) and south of
Gladstone Road (formerly Gladstone Avenue, orange arrow) [Calgary Imagery website]
6
Per 1911 Fire Insurance map.
7
Bison Historical Services Ltd (1999).

3
lies on the flats north of Memorial Drive just east Although the floodwaters in July 1902 were not as high,
of 14th Street. Although relatively inaccessible they were torrential at the Bow Marsh Bridge which was
due to road design, it is a reminder of the gentle, damaged and closed to traffic. Beyond the interrupted
open character of the flats prior to development. crossing, a major concern was the potential for the
bridge detritus to cause further damage to others
These natural areas, as well as the sheltered bridges downstream and arrangements were made for
terrain and location on the Bow River attract and it to be anchored by heavy cables. With the Langevin
sustain a diversity of birds and small mammals. Bridge also closed, boats were used to assist stranded
citizens. A serious impact was the ‘milk famine’ with
d) The north bank of the Bow rural dairymen unable to get their products into the city.

In addition to its natural areas, the north bank of the Bow Other notable but less severe floods occurred in 1915,
River has left a legacy of historic floods. In general the 1929 and 1932 which significantly affected Sunnyside.
entire north bank south of Memorial Drive is floodway, Although the construction of the Bearspaw Dam in
and most of Sunnyside east of 9th Street, including 1954 helped to control winter flooding, floods have
that section of Memorial Drive, is in the floodplain. occurred since then in 2005 and 2013, the latter
The most devastating flood on record sustained by the being the second most damaging flood on record.
community was in June 1897. A span from a damaged
bridge upstream dislodged two pony-truss spans
from the Bow Marsh Bridge 8, one of which continued
downstream to damage the original Langevin Bridge 9.

View of McHugh Bluff natural area park [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]
8
At today’s Louise Bridge crossing.
9
The 1910 replacement for this bridge has been renamed
Reconciliation Bridge.
4
View of McHugh Bluff natural area park [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

Theme Summary: The Landscape of Hillhurst-Sunnyside

Thematic value
• Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses landmark value for its setting along the Bow River valley, its striking
topology of bluffs rising above river flats and its extensive natural areas on the escarpment and river banks
that contrast with its urban context.

Character defining elements

• views from the top of McHugh Bluffs and the plateau at the top of the North Hill (north of Riley Park) to
the city skyline, the Rocky Mountains, the Bow River Valley and the flats at the base of the North Hill
• the vegetation of the natural area green spaces: native and introduced grasslands, extensive balsam poplar
forest with willow, ash, white spruce and Colorado blue spruce, and small stands of upland tall shrubs
and aspen along the bluffs; riparian tall shrubs bordered by balsam poplar forest along the river bank in
Hillhurst and in Sunnyside east of 7th Street
• setting north of the Bow River, with river flats rising to the plateau of the North Hill

Existing and/or potential historic resources associated with this theme

• Existing: Hillhurst (Louise) Bridge (1921)

Potential historic sites for interpretation

• Hilda Piper Residence (extant, 638 2nd Avenue NW) moved from 568 9 Ave NW after the 1948 mud slide
• 1913 A. Florence Residence (extant, 756 5A Street NW) moved from 618 9th Avenue NW after the 1948
mud slide

5
The First Nations,
Trails and Crossings

The Hillside below SAIT where children played was once scattered with bison bones prior to the First World War [Copyright: Hillhurst-
Sunnyside Community Assn]

a) The First Nations the plants and game that the First Nations peoples
would use for medicines and food. The sheltered river
The first peoples to traverse this area were the valley was also an ideal location for winter camps.
Blackfoot peoples, comprising the Siksika (Blackfoot),
the Kainai (Blood) and the Piikani (Peigan); the Stoney Prior to 1880 Sunnyside was the site of indigenous
Nakoda comprising the Bearspaw, Wesley and Chiniki; encampments, and residents have uncovered artefacts
and the Tsuu T’ina (Sarcee) peoples. The lands have that date to pre-contact times. A long-time
were part of their traditional territory for hunting resident, Harold Pemberton, recalled the hill below
and gathering supplies and food. They followed the SAIT where local children played being covered with
migration of the bison. The bison were central to their sun-bleached bison skulls and bones, and believed
way of life and essential for their survival. The Bow the area to be an indigenous killsite 10. He also
River, like other Canadian plains rivers, was too shallow remembered these remains being gathered by the
to be reliably used as transport, but was important ‘government’ after the outbreak of the First World War.
for navigation, its life-giving waters, and sustaining 10
Tanko (1978).

6
b) Pre-contact trails Another trail used in pre-contact times ran diagonally
across the communities towards the northeast, skirting

Today’s 10th Street corridor was part of a trail first the north edge of the sloughs, to the Sunnyside

used by indigenous peoples as a route to the Rocky bluffs14. When the communities were subdivided in the

Mountains through the Bow Valley11. It later became the early 20th Century, the trail took the name Gladstone

Morleyville Trail, the route from Calgary to Morleyville, Avenue (later Gladstone Road) in Hillhurst, and became

where a Methodist mission was established in 1873 by 4th Avenue east of Morleyville Road in Sunnyside.

missionaries George McDougall 12 and his son John.

When Hillhurst was subdivided in 1904, the section In 190715 the Morleyville Road Baptist Church

of the trail in Hillhurst was renamed Morleyville Road. (later Hillhurst Baptist Church) was erected at the
intersection of the two historic trails for Baptist

The road ran between the two sloughs. By By at residents and homesteaders in the surrounding area.

least 1911 the name had changed to 10th Street,

although the original name remained in common c) Early Crossings
use, and by 1915 13 the earth road was paved.
There was an historic fording place where the Morleyville
Trail crossed the Bow River, described as the ‘old

1924 aerial photograph showing the trails incorporated into the Hillhurst and Sunnyside subdivisions: the Morleyville Trail as Morleyville
Road, later 10th Street (green arrows) and the diagonal trail to the bluffs as Gladstone Avenue (later Gladstone Road, orange arrow) and 4th
Avenue (blue arrow). The gold arrow indicates the Morleyville Road Baptist Church. [Credits: Calgary Imagery website]
11
Peach (1986)
12
Alberta Register of Historic Places, Morleyville Methodist Mission
14
Tanko (1978).
13
Smith (1977).
15
McTaggert (1957).

7
government ford’ in frontier times when Calgary was delayed by the First World War, and did not resume in
emerging as a town. It was the second choice of three earnest until early 1920; by summer works were well
sites proposed in 1885 for Calgary’s first bridge across underway for today’s concrete-arched Hillhurst Bridge
the Bow River, the lead contender being where the (the name reverting to Louise in 1970 20) constructed
ferry crossed at that time, and the last choice being a just east of the 1906 structure which continued in
crossing opposite Fort Calgary16. The first bridge was operation until its relocation to the Ghost River in 1927.
erected at the preferred location, the original Langevin
Bridge (replaced by the current 1910 Reconciliation
Bridge), early in 1888, and in June of that year the
wooden ‘Bow Marsh’ Bridge - the second bridge
across the Bow River in Calgary - was constructed
at the Morleyville Trail fording place. It was named in
recognition of real estate agent George C. Marsh, who
actively petitioned for its construction17. At the time
it was important for travel and rural life northwest of
the Town of Calgary, incorporated four years earlier.

Following damage sustained during the June 1897

flood, the rebuilding of the Bow Marsh Bridge was not
completed until August, and there were still issues with
the approaches the following April. Further repairs
were required after the 1902 flood, and by spring
1904 there was discussion of the need for a new steel
replacement bridge. By early 1906 works were well
underway for a new steel trestle bridge, built during
the tenure of the Minister of Public Works for Alberta,
William H. Cushing, and named the Louise Bridge
to commemorate his daughter Louise (1878-1906)
following her premature death 18. After 1907, when the
city expanded with a significant annexation, it would
be one of three crossings critical for development
of the newly annexed suburbs north of the Bow 19.
Following the introduction of streetcar service in 1909,
it became apparent that the narrow bridge could not
properly support streetcar, vehicle and pedestrian
traffic. Proposals were put forward by City staff in
1912 for concrete replacement bridges for it, the
Mission bridge and Centre Street bridge. Planning was
16
The Calgary Herald, November, 1885. 20
Per the Discover Historic Calgary website, the formal name was
17
It was funded by Peter Prince of Eau Claire Lumber per Peach (1986). Hillhurst (Louise) Bridge; informally the name ‘Louise’ was in common
18
Sanders (2005). use for the Hillhurst Bridge after the original 1906 Louise Bridge was
19
The third bridge, the original Centre Street Bridge, was completed in 1907. relocated.

8
Top - Wooden Bow Marsh Bridge right of newly built Louise Bridge, 1906;
Bottom - Louise Bridge beside newly built Hillhurst bridge, ca1921 [Credits: Glenbow Archives na-1042-2, na-2365-25]

Theme Summary: The First Nations, trails and crossings

Thematic value -
The Hillhurst-Sunnyside community possesses activity value for its associations with transportation:
• for the 10th Street NW transportation route, once a pre-contact trail for First Nations peoples which in
1873 became the Morleyville Trail historic cart trail, the first streetcar service north of the Bow in 1909,
and the northwest light rail transit line in 1987;
• the historic crossing location of an early fording place, and later the location of the 1888 Bow Marsh
Bridge, the second bridge to cross the Bow River, marked by the 1921 Louise Bridge.

9
Character defining elements
• The 1921 Hillhurst (Louise) Bridge marking the historic 1888 Bow Marsh Bridge crossing and historic
fording place and landscaped east and west bridge approaches.
• Street layouts that follow the pre-contact trails that traversed the neighbourhood, Gladstone Avenue and
10th Street (Morleyville Trail)
Existing or potential historic resources associated with this theme
• Existing: Hillhurst (Louise) Bridge (1921), Hillhurst Baptist Church (1907) originally named for Morleyville
Road

10
Early Homesteaders
and Pioneer Settlement
(1883-1907)

View at the base of the McHugh Bluffs. [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

a) Felix and Florence McHugh of the early homesteaders of those lands, including
BM Godsal, Philip Van Cortlandt and Felix McHugh.

When viewed in terms of the Dominion Land Survey,

today’s Hillhurst-Sunnyside covers much of the Well-known pioneer rancher and contractor Felix

southeast quarter of section 20, the parts of section 21 Alexander McHugh (1851-1912) came west in 1883

and the southwest quarter of Section 22 that lie north shortly after his marriage to Florence O’Doherty (1861-

of the Bow, and the parts of the northwest quarter of 1933). Both were of Irish descent and born in Ontario,

Section 16 and northeast quarter of Section 17 that lie he in Ottawa and she in Gloucester. He arrived with his

north of the Bow. The Township map below shows some Clydesdales, vehicles and farm equipment at the end
11
of the rail line in Maple Creek, and continued on to the later that year and its addition, Plan 1948P, in 1907.
Bow River. That summer21 he established his 21-acre New Edinburgh was part of this subdivision plan.
homestead in the southeast part of Section 21 on the
north bank of the Bow across from Prince’s Island, his The natural area bluff between 10th Street NW and
dwelling just west of today’s 3rd Street. Together with Centre Street was named ‘McHugh Bluff’ in summer 1990
his brother Thomas, he cultivated about 8 hectares in recognition of the pioneer’s connections to the area.
east of 10th Street in today’s Sunnyside 22. Since his
land claim was located on an odd-numbered Section
and all of Section 21 was allocated to the Canadian
Pacific Railway’s (CPR) subsidiary, the Canadian
North West Land Company, and formally granted to
them in 1889, McHugh’s claim was disputed by the
CPR and Felix was obliged to relinquish most of his
claim. However, as settlement he later was awarded an
acre of land at 9A Street and Memorial Drive (named
Boulevard at that time) where he built the family
house (non-extant)23. He began logging on leased
land upstream of Calgary on the Elbow River, and
was awarded a substantial contract with the NWMP.
In 1885 he went into partnership with brothers John
Joseph (JJ), who first came west in 1878, and Thomas
as the JJ Ranch24, which they established near the
Blackfoot (Siksika) Reserve. Florence was still living
there in 1929 when her youngest daughter, actress
Florence McHugh Piercy, visited from London, England.

Section 21 (north of the Bow) was acquired from the

CPR by The Calgary and Medicine Hat Land Company
in 1890 and by James Heath of London, England in
1904. Later in 1904, Ezra Riley obtained the west
half for his Hillhurst subdivisions. In 1905, Heath
sold the south half to two gentlemen from Wichita,
Kansas, who in turn sold it to a gentleman in North
Dakota in summer 1906. That same summer, Arthur
Bennett and William Ross acquired the southeast
quarter and registered Plan 2448O ‘Sunnyside’ 25

21
Per McHugh’s claim in homestead application file 43503.
22
Peach (1982); Zakrison (2012).
23
The Calgary Daily Herald, December 6, 1929; Zakrison (2012).
24
This subdivision also includes a very small portion of the northwest
quarter of Section 16.
25
This subdivision also includes a very small portion of the northwest
quarter of Section 16.
12
Section of 1884 Township No. 24 map compiled from 1883 survey [Credits: Alberta Land Titles]

b) The Riley family, a legacy in Calgary. Within a year they were homesteading

the landscape just north of the town’s limits at that time, on the
northwest quarter of Section 20 (today’s Briar Hill).

The Riley pioneer ranch family settled in today’s Hillhurst, By 1903, their farm had barns, stables, granaries and

gradually increasing their land holdings until they owned a corral, and after receiving patent in 1904, they built

a significant portion26 of inner-city Calgary north of their permanent dwelling, Hounsfield Lodge (non-

the Bow River. City-builders, the Rileys left a legacy in extant). Thomas raised livestock and crops including

the landscape with the subdivisions they established, wheat, oats and potatoes. He also had a strong

the land they donated for park space and education, interest in politics, was active in the Liberal party and

and the institutions they created and supported. ran for political office for the North-West Territories.

Thomas & Georgiana Riley His sons worked on the family farm and also acquired
homesteads nearby as they reached the eligible age

Thomas Riley (1842-1909) immigrated to Canada from to apply. They entered into partnership with their

Derbyshire, England in 1862, first settling in eastern father as the Riley & Sons agricultural enterprise.

Canada where he and Georgiana Hounsfield (1843- Georgiana acquired the east half of Section 20 in

1907) married and raised their family of ten before 1902 28, and in 1902-3, Georgiana and her son Albert

putting down roots in Calgary in 1887 27. They arrived purchased Section 31 from the CPR for ranching, their

with their youngest children, the older siblings joining two portions flanking the Morley Trail 29. The Riley &

them over time until the whole family was together in Sons lands were known collectively as the Ranche. In
26
Their lands acquired for agriculture were estimated at over 4,050 28
Today comprising Hounsfield Heights and southwest Hillhurst.
hectares (10,008 acres) per research by M McReady. 29
Today comprising parts of Brentwood, Charleswood and the north
27
Glenbow Archives, Thomas E. Riley fonds. campus of the University of Calgary.

13
Thomas Riley homestead house and farm building. Thomas and Georgiana Riley in pony cart, daughters Louise and Emily and son Thomas
on horseback, between 1895 and1899 [Credits: Glenbow Archives M-8375-11-2]
1906, the Rileys sold 1280 acres of their lands near Frank’s family who would next live in the Hounsfield
Nose Creek as well as 400 cattle to P. Burns & Co, Lodge until some time after his death in 1939. The
retaining their horses but moving from grade cattle to lodge and almost five acres were sold to the Bethany
raising pure breeds. The same year plans were drawn up Care Society which opened in that house in 1946.
for a second permanent house by an architect referred
to in Thomas’ diary as Wilson 30. Following Georgiana’s Ezra and Harriet Riley
death in 1907, her portion of Section 31 and her land
in Section 20 went to her family; Thomas reserved a 10 Of Thomas and Georgina’s large family, their son,
acre parcel for the new house. Upon Thomas’ passing philanthropist and pioneer rancher Ezra Hounsfield
in 1909 Riley & Sons dissolved; their three daughters Riley (1866-1937), made the strongest influence on
- Louise, Emily and Maria - inherited the original the landscape of Hillhurst. He was born in Toronto and
homestead and Hounsfield Lodge. In 1910 Edmunde moved to Calgary in 1887. In 1897 he married Harriet
and Thomas Jr registered the northeast quarter of Waterhouse whose family were pioneer settlers in the
Section 20 as the Hounsfield Heights subdivision Plan Little Red Deer district west of Innisfail. Harriet acquired
5625AC. By 1912, the daughters had married; it was son the east half of Section 19 north of the Bow River31
30
This was likely prolific pioneer English-born architect James Llewellyn west of the Thomas Riley homestead in 1902. Ezra
Wilson who designed the 1897 Bow Valley Ranche House and at that
time was practising with George M Lang. 31
This land is now the east part of Parkdale and St Andrew’s Heights.

14
Ezra and Harriet Riley family home, 1910s [Credits: Glenbow Archives M-8375-1-22]
purchased the west half of Section 21 from James significant: in 1910 he donated the lands for Riley Park;
Heath of London, England in 1904, registering most in 1912 he provided an endowment for St Barnabas
of the southwest quarter as his ‘Hillhurst’ subdivision Anglican Church, a brick church also designed by
Plan 5609J the same year. He named it Hillhurst for the Dowler (tower extant); he sold the part of his estate
well-known stock farm of Senator Matthew Cochrane32 located directly north of the park to the Province for
located in Compton near Montreal, Quebec 33. The their technical institute in 1919, this land includes the
Senator also ran the Cochrane Ranche in Alberta. It 1956 Burns Memorial Rock Garden along 10th Street34.
was the first in an era of giant leasehold ranches - an
era which lasted from 1881 to 1896 - as well as the The southeast corner of Harriet’s land was sold to one of
largest: 334,500 acres at its peak including 106,500 Sunnyside’s developers, William Ross, who subdivided
acres between the Belly and Waterton rivers, and it in 1909 as ‘Happyland’. The rest of her southeast
189,000 acres along the Bow River west of Fort Calgary. quarter section was sold to Scott & Hartronft who
registered it as ‘Parkdale’ in 1910. Harriet also loaned
In 1906, Ezra registered the rest of the southwest the north quarter for St Andrew’s Golf Club in 1912.
quarter as 5179O. The same year, he also erected
his family home designed by architect Leo Dowler Their daughter, author and longtime children’s librarian
at 1302 Buckingham (now 8th Avenue, non-extant) Margaret Louise (1900-1957), is best known for her
on the northmost edge of that subdivision. A role in introducing children’s sections to Calgary’s
Liberal like his father, he served as the Alberta MLA public libraries. She was educated in library science,
for Gleichen, which at that time included North majoring in children’s libraries, and completed her
Calgary, from 1906 to 1910. Ezra’s philanthropy was post-graduate work in that field. In 1930 she joined the
32
Namesake of the town of Cochrane. Discover Historic Calgary, Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock
34

33
Sanders (2005); Humber (1995). Garden.

15
Calgary Public Library system, serving as its children’s
librarian for 19 years and becoming the assistant
chief librarian in 1949. In addition to establishing a
room in the libraries for youth, her initiatives included
developing the library’s collection of children’s books
and initiating a Children’s Story Hour on radio. Louise
also served as chairman of the Alberta Library Board,
and was a published author of adult and children’s
books. She lived with her father in the Ezra Riley
family home until 1936, the year before Ezra’s passing,
at which time it was sold to the Anglican Diocese.

Harold & Maude Riley

Harold Riley (1877-1946) first earned recognition at

Portrait of Margaret Louise Riley (1900-1957) [Credits: Glenbow
age twenty-seven as the youngest deputy minister
Archives PA-39-19]
in Canada when he was appointed the first deputy
Provincial Secretary and Registrar of Companies. After Harold’s wife, Maude Riley (nee Keene, 1880-1962),
entering municipal politics as alderman in 1911, he went was just as well-known as Harold, and was recognized
on to serve provincially as the Member of the Alberta for her achievements in women’s rights, child welfare
Legislature for Gleichen in 1912 before again running and justice reforms, and family courts. Born in Ontario,
for public office - this time for councillor - where in Maude came to Calgary in 1903, teaching at the Nose
total he served 1911, 1914 through 1915, and 1932 Creek School up until the time she married Harold in 1907.
through 1935. He established and ran Riley’s Limited, She helped found the Calgary Playground Association
an insurance, real estate, brokerage and financial firm, in 1917 and the Calgary Child Welfare Society in 1918
with his brother Edmunde (aka Ned, Ed, 1879-1942) in (which later became the Alberta Council on Child and
1910, with Harold acting as president and secretary, Family Welfare) and served as president of the Council
and Edmunde as treasurer and manager. Edmunde for four decades. Her honours include an award by
oversaw the real estate aspect of their business, which the Belgian government for work on behalf of the
included selling family properties in Hillhurst and West Belgian Relief Fund and the King George VI Coronation
Hillhurst. It is interesting to note that the home at 1340 Medal. Their son Harold W Riley Jr was a lawyer and
16A Street NW, where Edmunde lived with his wife Amy for a period of time worked with Riley’s Limited; in
and family from 1913 to 1915, is extant, one of the two 1957 he was appointed to the Alberta Supreme Court.
former Riley homes still standing. When the Calgary
Stock Exchange was reorganized in 1926 Harold Alfred & Ada Riley
became its secretary-treasurer until 1932. Harold,
like his nephews, served overseas during the First Alfred Riley (1872-1933) began working on his parents’
World War; he was a captain with the 137th Battalion. homestead in 1888, at the age of sixteen. From 1896
He played a lead role in organizing the Southern he was part of the Riley & Sons partnership, ran his
Alberta Pioneer and Old Timer Association in 1921. own homestead near Innisfail from 1893-99, and later

16
Portrait of Harold Riley (1877-1946) [Credits: Glenbow Archives Portrait of Maude Riley (nee Keene, 1880-1962) [Credits: Glenbow
PA-743-9] Archives PA-2807-3152A]

ranched the lands he and his mother purchased.

As well, Thomas’ daughters leased the homestead
Thomas & Frank Riley
farmlands they inherited to Alfred to operate. In 1912,
Brothers Thomas Charles (1868-1927) and Frank Russell
he had his own Queen Anne Revival-style ranch house,
(1870-1939) were both businessmen. Both had worked
Riley Lodge (extant, relocated near original location),
with H Shorey and Co for their early careers; they
designed by Leo Dowler and constructed on 1.2 acres
later worked together in the wholesale and retail coal
diagonally opposite his parents’ homestead. Harriet
business. Like Harold, Frank served on City Council,
had reserved that acreage from the quarter section
although with a shorter term from 1912 to 1913. Frank
she sold to Scott & Hartronft. In 1914, Alfred married
was also involved with the promotion of amateur sports,
Ada Maria Pullan (1880-1966) who had emigrated
and he and Ezra formed the Hillhurst Football Club. He,
from Yorkshire, England seven years earlier. Alfred
wife Mildred and family took up residence in the original
also ranched in Ardenode, 48 km northeast of the
Hounsfield Lodge where he lived until his passing.
city, and wintered in Calgary from around 1911
until his passing in 193335. Ada inherited the lodge
and acreage; nephew Frank Rosset Riley36 received
c) Other pioneers
Alfred’s portion of Section 31, with the remainder of
Alfred’s estate going to his five surviving brothers 37.
Byam Martin Godsal
Edmunde ran the farm in Ardenode for a time until
Byam Martin Godsal (1856-1935) - described by
Harold eventually took over those ranching operations.
the Herald 38 as ‘one of Calgary’s earliest settlers
[who arrived] before the railway was built’ - had a
homestead along the Bow River in the southeast
corner of today’s Hillhurst (NW16, northwest quarter
35
Apart from a period of 4 years when the ranch changed ownership.
36
Frank Russell Riley’s son.
of Section 16) as well as a large ranch in Pine Creek.
37
Alfred was predeceased by his older brother Thomas in 1927 per
research of Marg McReady.
38
The Calgary Weekly Herald, November 7, 1888.

17
He began homesteading the NW16 in the summer of subdivision of Hillhurst in 1907. More research is
188339, and registered his cattle brand in 1884. His required to determine what happened to Godsal’s
brother Frederick (FW) was well-known as a pioneer claim. By late 1888 he had auctioned his entire herd
rancher in the Pincher Creek area and as an amateur of dairy cattle for a planned relocation to Australia;
historian for southern Alberta’s ‘old-timer’ history. however, he ended up settling in America by 1890.
The brothers were raised in Shropshire, England,
and FW had been educated at Oxford and Eton. Philip Sidney Van Cortlandt

In April 1885, Byam was one of a gathering of about From early 1883 ex-NWMP officer Philip Sidney Van
fifty pioneer settlers concerned about their claims Cortlandt homesteaded the part of the southwest
including Sam Livingston and John Glenn who met at quarter of Section 22 that lay north of the boulevard
Glenn’s Fish Creek farm. Livingston, who after nine fronting the Bow River. His farm was located in the
years did not receive recognition of his claim, stated most eastern part of today’s Sunnyside between 4th
that between “government reserves, leases, school Street NW and Centre Street North. In March 1883, he
lands, and Hudson Bay lands, a man was unable to erected his dwelling and began cultivating his crops
find a spot to settle” and if he did settle was “certain and building a road, but did not reside there because
to be chased … either by the police, land agents, or materials were not available at that time in Calgary to
government officials” and “driven out” as had been complete the house. He worked the land throughout the
the case for numerous aquaintenances. The group summer, and had fencing and breaking done in 1884
formed the Alberta Settlers’ Rights Association and and in summer 1885 was able to live there. A dispute
formulated a petition of resolutions for improvements arose over the fulfilment of his homestead conditions,
to forward to the Prime Minister. The main requests which he appealed in 1887; a solution was found for
were that Alberta land suitable for cultivation under him to be granted part of the land (about 40 acres)
lease, as well as all of the Townships in the Calgary and to make a modest payment for the remainder
locale, be opened up to homesteading. Their actions of the quarter section which was finally granted in
contributed to land settlement reform, and in the 1889. The quarter section was acquired by Canada
shorter term the government quickly opened up several Permanent Loan and Savings Company in 1896, then
townships near the city, and future ranch leases were by Homestead Inspector John Rawlings Thompson. By
subject to two years’ cancellation. Senator Cochrane 1906, rancher Archibald J McArthur owned the west
was persuaded to relinquish leases in areas of the half of Section 22, including this quarter section, to
the Bow Valley where settlement seemed likely 40. develop as multiple Crescent Heights subdivisions.

The northwest quarter of Section 16 was granted in Samuel William Trott

1886 to Thomas Wesley Jackson, an Ontario-born
barrister, politician and railway investor who settled Samuel William Trott (1847-1891), a pioneer pharmacist
in Fort Qu’Appelle, who in turn forwarded the patent from Collingwood, Ontario, came west in 1871 with
to Peter Prince of the Bow River Lumber Company. a survey team, establishing himself as a druggist in
The land would later be acquired by developers Winnipeg before settling in Calgary in 1883, where he
Bennett and Ross and became the ‘Broadview’ opened Trott Brothers drug store on Stephen Avenue the
39
Claim in homestead file 43503. following year. By 1886, he was building a new drugstore
40
Breen (1970).
18
and a new house. He applied to purchase the south
half of Section 20 but did not wish to have his dwelling
there, although he made the necessary improvements
to the land, including erecting extensive fencing,
planting 100 trees, and raising 100 head of cattle. Only
twenty acres were worked for crops, much of the land
having too much gravel for cultivation. His success in
real estate enabled him to sell his pharmacy business in
1888. In 1889, he married Elizabeth Jane Wardlow from
Quebec who became ‘a favourite in the community’.

Samuel received the grant to his land in 1890, and in

Advertisement, auction of Godsal’s cattle [Credits: The Calgary
February 1891 sold the southeast quarter to George
Weekly Herald, July 25, 1888, p 3]
and Henry Alexander. Sadly in August the Trotts’ only departed Canada; in 1902 the southeast quarter
son Bruce died of cholera at six months old, and in of Section 20 was acquired by Georgiana Riley
November Samuel passed away from a sudden illness . 41
which she developed in 1906 as ‘Upper Hillhurst’,
and the east half of Section 19 by Harriet Riley.
George and Henry Alexander
Lawrence Herchmer
Irish-born cousins George and Henry (Harry) Alexander
who purchased the southeast quarter from Trott ran the In May 1901, Lawrence William Herchmer (1840-1915)
2 Dot Ranch hear Nanton, and also begun accumulating purchased CPR land in the north half of Section 17
land near Calgary from 1888. The Alexander cousins north of the river, in the southwest part of today’s
had also purchased Section 19 north of the Bow from Hillhurst, where he built and resided in the ca1901-
the CPR in 1888, as well as the northeast quarter of 1903 ‘old colonial Herchmer House’ (extant, relocated
Section 20 from Eva MacKay Sutherland in 1890 . 42
to 1643 Broadview) for several years. He had been
It appears that the cousins ranched the land they serving in the South African War from 1899 but in
amassed in this area during the decade they owned 1900 had been involuntarily retired from his position
it43. The entrepreneurial cousins were also business as Commissioner for the NWMP, a role he had held
leaders who invested substantially in the future of since 1886 when he was selected by Sir John A
frontier Calgary. George was president of the Calgary Macdonald. He came from a staunch Loyalist family
Gas & Waterworks Co and built the sandstone based in Kingston, Ontario, and he and his wife’s
Alexander Block in 1891; he ran his ranch and utility families had extensive political connections. His
company interests from his office in the block. Oxford-educated father was a schoolmate and friend
Henry was also involved in a British Columbia mining of Sir John A Macdonald. As with all his siblings he
company. The cousins were directors of the Calgary was born in England, where he and his brothers were
Hydraulic Company, and George served as president. educated. His diverse experience in Canada and
The Alexanders sold their ranch in 1901 and abroad with the military, farming, business and Indian
41
Cameron (1993). agencies led to his selection as Commissioner44.
42
She had received the land grant in 1889.
43
Per Klassen (2002), 260, they were among the ranchers using the
Calgary Hydraulic Co irrigation works.
44
Herchmer was also a member of the ‘Pack of Western Wolves’.

19
Commissioner LW Herchmer; Superintendent Samuel B Steele; Assistant Commissioner JH McIllree, Day Chief; Black Plume; Red Crow 1890s
[Credits: Glenbow archives NA-784-1]

20
 most of Hillhurst-Sunnyside has been registered
as subdivisions. The Riley lands would eventually
become Hillhurst, West Hillhurst, Briar Hill, Hounsfield
Heights, St Andrew’s Heights, University Heights,
parts of Brentwood, Charleswood, parts of Parkdale
and the north campus of the University of Calgary.

Hillhurst

Ezra Riley’s 1904 Plan 5609J ‘Hillhurst’ was the first

of the subdivisions listed above to be registered.
His plan retained the segment of the Morleyville Trail
that traversed it, changing the name to Morleyville
Road, as well as the diagonal trail north of the slough
Portrait of Samuel William Trott (1847-1891) [Credits: Glenbow
Archives NA-1212-3] which became Gladstone Avenue. Street names in
Herchmer is credited with shaping the early NWMP his subdivision like Kensington, Gladstone and Essex
into an efficient organization and effective military showed the family’s English roots. In 1906, he registered
operation, improving training and living conditions, and the rest of Hillhurst as Plan 5179O which continued
introducing a pension plan and medical examinations. with English street names including Buckingham and
By no means a popular figure, his uneven temperment, Victoria; a large lot on Church Avenue was reserved for
political associations and strict enforcement of a Church of England (Anglican). The English references
disciplinary actions attracted enemies and campaigns continued with the Riley Park land that Ezra donated
against him, and led to his early retirement. But he to the City in 1910, where he requested William Reader
left a legacy of a NWMP with significantly higher to install cricket pitches in 1919. He later sold the Riley
morale and reputation, and the wide-brimmed felt acreage north of the park to the province for educational
hat and the musical rides that he adopted have use in 1918 (today’s Southern Alberta Instituate
become widely popular. He and his second wife, of Technology and Alberta University of the Arts).
Jane Ashworth, developed the land in 1907 as the
‘Westmont’ subdivision of Hillhurst, reserving an In 1902, Georgiana Riley acquired the east half of Section
acreage for them to live in their colonial home. 20, and developed the southeast quarter as Plan 6219L
‘Upper Hillhurst’ in 1906 . The streets took the names of
d) Early Subdivisions Riley family members as well as members of the British
Royal family, the latter continuing the English references.
The 1913 EA Victor Street Map of the City of
Calgary on page 23 illustrates significant changes Sunnyside
that took place over the three decades that passed
since the Township survey shown in Section 3a was East of the Morleyville Trail (10th Street), developers
performed. Although some Riley family lands remain, Arthur Bennett and William Ross engaged surveyor
either for agricultural use or loaned as a golf course, Herbert Harrison Moore to register the 1906 Plan
45
The east-most grid lots with east-west orientation in Plan 1948P were
referred to on maps as New Edinburgh. 2448O ‘Sunnyside’ and its larger addition, Plan
46
Peach (1983).
21
1948P, in 190745. Moore’s layout employs a striking Strathcona streets and Herchmer Avenue reference the
juxtaposition of grid lots with east-west orientation pioneer landowner and his connections to the land.
along the main corridors, and northeast-southwest
orientation in the centre to align with the river, set Broadview
against deep, narrow lots that run perpendicular
to the base of the bluff. Distinctive intersections South of the 1904 Hillhurst subdivision, in the
are created where the different grids connect. northwest quarter of Section 16, Bennett and Ross
registered another of their suburbs, Plan 4163P
Ross and Bennett were prolific Calgary real estate Broadview in 1907, the same year as their addition
agents, developers and builders. In addition to to Sunnyside. The layout, also by HH Moore,
Sunnyside, they were responsible for the subdivisions shows the same contrasting lot orientations as
of Broadview, Lincoln Park, Happyland and Capitol Hill. Sunnyside, but on a much smaller scale. William
William Ross (1858-1914) was born in Bruce County, Ross built the Ross and Louisa Blocks in Broadview.
Ontario and was of Scottish descent. He had worked
in a variety of fields before moving to Calgary with New Edinburgh and southeast
his wife Anna (Annie, née Ferguson) in 1905 including Crescent Heights
teaching, the cattle trade, farming, running a general
store and selling real estate in Manitoba46. In Calgary East of Sunnyside, the southwest quarter of Section
he focused on real estate and development, and also 22 homesteaded by Van Cortlandt was subdivided
served in municipal politics as an alderman from in multiple smaller plans. The west-most was New
1910 until his death. He formed a partnership with Edinburgh between Sunnyside Lane and 5a Street.
Arthur Bennett around 1906. Arthur Bennett was ‘New Edinburgh’ was the east part of the larger 1907
a City of Calgary auditor and his wife Marion was Sunnyside addition (Plan 1948P) with the east-west grid
also a real estate agent. The two were responsible orientation. Between New Edinburgh and Centre Street,
for the subdivisions of Sunnyside and Broadview. the east border of today’s Sunnyside, small areas of land
William later formed Wm Ross and Company with were originally registered as plans for Crescent Heights.
his son William Ferguson Ross and George T French.
Ross’s early experience running a general store likely
led him to build the 1911Sunnyside Grocery which
his son William Ferguson later owned until 1939.

Westmont

South of Upper Hillhurst lay the east part of Westmont,

Plan 5151O, a 1907 subdivision of the north half of
Section 17, survey by HH Moore and for Jane and Col
Lawrence Herchmer where their acreage was reserved
in the southeast portion fronting the Boulevard along
the river (in the southwest corner of today’s Hillhurst
west of 17th Street). Street names like McDonald and

22
EA Victor’s Street Map of the City of Calgary (cropped) [Credits: Calgary Public Library Calg-45]

23
The 1906 Plan 6219L ‘Upper Hillhurst’ (cropped) [Credits: Alberta Land The 1904 Plan 5609J ‘Hillhurst’ by Albert Charles Talbot (cropped). The
Titles] block just west of the ‘lake’ was surveyed into lots as Plan 8175AG in
1910. [Credits: Alberta Land Titles]

Sunnyside Plans: 1906 Plan 2448O (cropped) and its 1907 Plan 1948P [Credits: Alberta Land Titles]

24
Top: 1907 Plan 5151O ‘Westmont’ The Herchmer acreage was re-subdivided by Lila Hunter in 1949. [Credits: Alberta Land Titles]

Bottom: 1907 Plan 4163P ‘Broadview’ [Credits: Alberta Land Titles]

25
Theme Summary: Early homesteaders and pioneer settlement
(1883-1907)

Thematic value

Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses person value for:

• the Riley pioneer ranch family were city-builders, who left a legacy in the landscape with the subdivisions
they established, the land they donated for park space and education, and the institutions they created
and supported.
• the other early pioneers who homesteaded on the lands where the community is located: the Felix
McHugh family, Byam Godsal, Philip Sidney Van Cortlandt, Samuel William Trott, George and Henry
Alexander, and Lawrence and Jane Herchmer.

Character defining elements

Historic street and feature names:

• English street names which remain, Kensington and Gladstone.
• s idewalk stamps like Norfolk at the corner of 10A Street and Kensington Road
• Westmont and Broadview road names, and New Edinburgh Park name which reference their original
subdivision names.

Historic subdivision names:

• the original names of early subdivision plans, Hillhurst and Sunnyside, maintained for today’s communities

Historic subdivision plan layouts:

• s urveyor Herbert Moore’s street layout for Sunnyside with east-west lot orientation along the main
corridors, and northeast-southwest lot orientation in the centre to align with the river, set against deep,
narrow lots that run perpendicular to the base of the bluff; distinctive intersections where the different
grids connect.
• s urveyor Albert Charles Talbot’s street layout for Hillhurst with roads that reference pre-contact trails

Existing or potential historic resources associated with this theme

• Existing - Heritage Hall (1921), Riley Park (1911), Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden (1956)
• Additional sites outside the Hillhurst-Sunnyside community boundaries: Riley Lodge (1910), home of Alfred
Riley located in Parkdale, within the original Riley family homestead lands
• Potential - Alberta University of the Arts campus (1926)
• Potential sites outside the Hillhurst-Sunnyside community boundaries: The Louise Riley branch library
(1959) named to recognise the important role she played in the library system - located at 1904 14th
Avenue NW, outside the community but within Thomas Riley’s original homestead.

26
  

Thomas & Georgiana Riley mausoleum [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

Potential historic sites for interpretation

• T he former site of the Felix McHugh house and acreage at the over pass approach at the corner of
Memorial Drive and 9A Street.
• The ca1901-1903 ‘old colonial Herchmer House’ built by Col Lawrence Herchmer, moved in 1946 to 1643
Broadview. It should be investigated whether it retains enough integrity to evaluate as an historic resource
, however it sustained fire damage in 1948 and has also undergone significant exterior alterations.
• The former site of the Sunnyside Grocery (1911) demolished in 2018
• St Barnabas churchyard - When Georgiana passed in 1907 special dispensation was received from the Lord
Bishop to bury her in the St Barnabas churchyard. Accounts of Thomas’ funeral show the bond forged by
Calgary pioneers; his pall bearers were Peter Prince, Judge Stuart and Colonel Walker. Alfred died May 16,
1933 and is also buried in the family plot in Union Cemetery. His funeral was held at St Barnabas Church.
Some family members are interred in the family plot at the Union Cemetery. There is a plaque at St
Barnabas re Ezra’s son Thomas Riley who was killed in action at Passendale who was buried near the front
lines with eighty-two others killed on the same day. However, he has no known grave47.

47
Per information provided by an Ezra Riley family descendent.

27
Early Commerce &
Industry

Boulevard along the Bow River, Sunnyside (foreground) viewed from the east, ca1910s [Credits: Glenbow Archives na-479-41-1, Stanley Brooker fonds]

a) The Streetcar would choose sites along the streetcar route, knowing
their businesses would be accessible.

Annexations
Roadways
It is not surprising that many of the subdivisions
discussed above were registered in 1907. Most of Annexation also affected existing street names since

Hillhurst-Sunnyside - the area south of 8th Avenue - the street-naming convention needed to conform to

was annexed in 1907 and the remainder in 1910. After Calgary’s numeric quadrant system (NW, SW, etc.) put

the 1907 annexation, planning began for a municipal in place in 1904 to facilitate postal service. The trail to

streetcar system - the Calgary Municipal Railway - to Morleyville which had become Morleyville Road in the

serve the growing city, including the newly annexed 1904 subdivision plan was renamed 10th Street to align

subdivisions. Streetcar service, once operational, with the system. Other important traffic corridors had

would in turn determine where a neighbourhood’s historically been the section roads which demarcated

commercial development would take place since sections within the township. These include 16th

individuals seeking to establish their new enterprises Avenue (the Trans-Canada Highway) which briefly
traverses the northern edge of Hillhurst between
28
10th and 14th streets, and today’s Kensington Road. Street to a turn-around near 5th (Victoria) Street at
Originally named Kensington Avenue, after annexation Riley Park; naturally 10th Street saw the community’s
it became Centre Avenue and the north-south baseline first commercial development.
for the Calgary’s quadrant system until 1925. At that
time the reference line shifted to the Bow River and the By 1912 the neighbourhood’s service had significantly
Kensington Road name was restored. expanded. In Hillhurst, it expanded west with a loop
(the ‘red line’) that ran along 5th Avenue from 10th
Although it is not a section road, the busy drive to 14th Street, along 14th Street to Kensington Road
along the Bow River, today’s Memorial Drive, is also - enabling those two roads to develop commercially
an important traffic route with an interesting naming after 1912 - and returned to 10th Street. On 10th Street
history. Originally known as the Boulevard, a name that the line also extended further north to 16th Avenue
appeared at least as early as 1886 in a plan for villa lots where it accessed areas outside the community to the
in Section 22, it was later called it the Calgary Boulevard northeast.
in subdivision plans for Westmont and Broadview. As
more pre-war subdivisions were registered the road In Sunnyside, a new route was introduced to residential
became associated with the different subdivision streets along 2nd, 7th and 6th Avenues, traversing
names: Westmount Boulevard, Broadview Boulevard, most of the subdivision before reaching a turnaround.
Sunnyside Boulevard, etc. and that pattern continued In July 1912 Hillhurst was part of the inaugural run
outside the community with Parkdale Boulevard to the of an impressive new 50-passenger scenic car which
west and Riverside Boulevard to the east for example. ran along various scenic routes in the city, including
In 1922, Riverside Boulevard was renamed Memorial the panoramic Sunnyside Loop. The canvas-covered
Drive as part of a plan to create a living memorial of open car featured bronze gates, and varnished seats
trees to honour and remember those soldiers killed in in elevated tiers.
the First World War48. By 1943 Sunnyside Boulevard
was named simply Boulevard again, however, the The neighbourhood’s streetcar service expanded
continuous changes in street naming likely created further between 1913 and 1921. In Hillhurst service
confusion. In 1963, the entire road east of Crowchild on 8th Avenue, 14th Street and Kensington Road
Trail became Memorial Drive. was extended west to interface a loop that accessed
the west-most part of Hillhurst, ‘Grand Trunk’ and
Streetcar east Parkdale in 1913. Residents recall the smaller-
sized trams (another name for streetcars) employed
Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s streetcar system was one of the on this route which they nick-named the ‘Toonerville
earliest to develop - from 1909 - and offered the best Trolley’. Service in Sunnyside was extended by the
service outside the city centre. Part of the rollout of short distance east required to reach Centre Street
the Calgary Municipal Railway’s first network in 1909, (an extension that was discontinued in 1944 due to
it was the only service north of the Bow. The river recurring washouts that year)50. Also in 1921, streetcar
crossing selected was the Louise Bridge at 10th Street service in the community was significantly facilitated
in favour of Centre Street which had steeper grades 49. by the construction of the new concrete-arch Hillhurst
The streetcars ran across the Louise Bridge along 10th Bridge just east of the Louise Bridge.
48
Covered in more detail in Section 5b.
49
Foran (1978); Melnyk (1985). 50
Hatcher (1975).
29
As with the rest of the city, the conversion from trams
to buses (also called coaches) began taking place in
1946. The first step was a new corporate name that
did not include ‘railway’: the Calgary Transit System.
The same year, an interim phase began during which
streetcars were converted to trolley trams. For a period
both the converted trolley trams and trolley coaches
were operating in the system, until eventually only
trolley coaches remained in the system and the tracks
were dug up from roadways. The trolley system was
eventually replaced by diesel-powered buses. Electric The Ross Block viewed from the Louise Bridge, ca1940s [Credits:
railways would not return to the community until light Glenbow Archives nb-55-1219]
seems a modest size, the narrow twenty-five foot lots
rail transit was introduced in 1987.
housed a remarkable number and variety of small
businesses. Sixteen businesses were listed in the
b) Early Commercial Development
1912 Henderson’s, with an additional five businesses
on Boulevard (Memorial Drive) at 10th Street. By 1914
10th Street
the east side of 10th Street was almost fifty per cent
built out and the impressive Ross Block (non-extant)
Because the Hillhurst-Sunnyside streetcar system
on the west side, wrapped around the corner of 10th
provided the best service outside the city centre, and
and Boulevard. Development slowed through the inter-
because streetcar service and commercial development
war years, but picked up significantly in the early years
were closely linked, 10th Street soon developed
of the post-war era when the commercial street was
into one of Calgary’s most important commercial
fully built out. Today a contiguous stretch of 1911-19
streets. Although Kensington Road and 14th Street
buildings on the east side near the bridge is a strong
also developed as local commercial streets after
reminder of the years of the developing commercial
they became streetcar routes in 191251, 10th Street
street.
became the neighbourhood’s main shopping area and
remained the sole access to other streetcar routes in
One of the earliest and best known businesses on
the community until the Mewata Bridge crossing was
10th Street, Arthur Webb’s general store (later Webb’s
constructed at 14th Street in 195452.
Dry Goods), was located in the Ross Block for over
half a century. He carried dry goods and notions,
The introduction of service in 1909 spurred considerable
and was ahead of his time offering his customers a
commercial activity on 10th Street between 1909
loyalty discount. In the same block, two doors north,
and 1912. The shopping area developed south of 3rd
was the Rossland Confectionery which operated from
Avenue because of the sloughs, still present at that
1914 into the sixties. The longest term proprietor was
time, preventing development further north. With its
Chris Chrisohou Smith who emigrated from Greece in
location near the Louise Bridge, the shopping area
1913, and later his nephew George Chrisohou. They
was referred to as ‘The Bridge 53’. Although the area
made and sold hand-made sweets and ice cream, as
51
City of Calgary (1988).
52
City of Calgary (1988). did the Dari Rich Milk Bar across the street in the 1911
53
Sanders (2005).
Carscallen Block (116-118A).
30
1912 Irwin Block viewed from the south west [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

The oldest business north of the Bow was WC Black were located for seven decades and later owned by
Druggist (later Black’s Drugstore) which opened in Black; and south of that 106/104 which had the Union
the same block before moving two doors south. The and Royal Bank as early tenants as well as a series
pharmacy was notable for its post office, soda fountain of hardware stores including the Louise Hardware -
and ice cream counter. Upon Black’s passing in 1944 another reference to the bridge nearby.
pharmacist William (Bill) Mitchell, who had worked
at the drugstore from his internship in 1935, took Further north the two-storey commercial-residential
over until his retirement in 1982 when he closed the brick ca1912 Garnet Block (non-extant), originally the
business. Gordon Block, is interesting as an early example of
re-use in the community. It was moved west on 2nd
The 1912 Irwin Block, adjacent to the Carscallen Block Avenue from its original location on 8th Street to 302
on the south side, is a landmark in the shopping area 10th Street to accommodate school grounds for the
because of its highly visible location at the east end Sunnyside Bungalow School. Contractor George Kerr
of Kensington Road. Further south are three adjacent acquired the Gordon Block, and moved the building
1919 blocks: 108 which first housed Hillhurst Hardware in 1927, at which time he re-named it for his only son,
followed by a number of meat markets from the mid- Garnet. It was a challenging move which necessitated
1920s including butcher Thomas Rhodes’ Bridge the building being cut into two parts. He had also
Meat Market, referencing its location near the bridge; built the ca1911 Kerr Block on Memorial Drive where
106a to the south where Black’s and the post office he lived and also ran Hillhurst Furniture Exchange -

31
 included the Plaza Theatre, a 1928 garage re-adapted in
1934-35 to a movie house. The theatre has not lost its
popularity from when it first opened and children lined
up around the corner for matinees to when it became
Calgary’s first combined live theatre and movie house
in 1984 and is still going strong.

A number of institutional buildings were also erected on

the commercial street during the inter-war period. By
1950 it was a bustling commercial street with twenty-
five businesses. A long term resident and grocer in
the neighbourhood was Albert Wood. In business from
1912 he ran Wood Bros at 1442 with his brother Robert
until 1930, and then became the proprietor of the Red &
White Store, down the street at 1436 Kensington Road.
The original Wood Bros location became Empress
1919 advertisement for Kerr’s Hillhurst Furniture Exchange originally in Grocery with the next long term resident-owner David
the Kerr Block, later moved to the Garnet Block [credits: Calgary Daily
Baber, with both stores operating through the early
Herald 1919-12-06, p41]
1950s, at which time a new grocery, Jenkins Grocery
another early example of re-use in the community -
No 18 was also operating across the street at 1433.
which moved to the Garnet Block. The Garnet Block
appears to have been replaced by a similar scale red-
brick commercial block in the 1970s.
14th Street

Commercial development for the community’s other

Chain grocery stores were introduced along 10th Street
secondary commercial street, 14th Street, was much
during the inter-war years, beginning with Jenkins
more gradual. Hay’s Dairy Co Ltd was the sole business
Groceteria No. 5 in 1919 and later Piggly Wiggly No.
listed in the 1914 Henderson’s, and even in 1950 there
1 from the early 1930s, the latter becoming Safeway
were still only five listings with the Hay’s Dairy location
when acquired by that chain in 1935. Since then,
occupied by Palm Dairy. However things changed a few
Safeway has been continuously present on 10th Street
years later with the erection of the Mewata Bridge in
and at its current location at 410 from the 1960s54.
1954. By 1959 the number of commercial buildings had
increased to thirty-nine, with the businesses generally
Kensington Road
clustered near the intersections with Kensington Road
and with 5th Avenue.
The other local streetcar commercial streets,
Kensington Road and 14th Street, got their start with
A popular enterprise in business for five decades
the 1912 and 1913 expansions. Kensington Road had a
was Sam’s Cosy Corner, operated in by Sam and Sara
gradual beginning, with a handful of early businesses 55
Lubinsky the Tindall Block56, which opened in 1927 the
in a predominantly residential street. Through the
inter-war period the number of business doubled, and 55
Per Henderson’s five in 1912, declining to two in 1914 after the
outbreak of war and three in 1920.
54
Smith (1977); Henderson’s Directories. 56
Appears to be non-extant, replaced by a brick building in the early

32
1100 block of Kensington Road [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]
year after they emigrated from Russia. Located next 10 from the late 1920s to the early 1950s.
to the Telephone Exchange building, the Cosy Corner In 1912, the Golden West Bakery opened in the Gordon
became a place where youth in the community could Block’s original location, and the North Star Grocery
gather. The couple ran it for forty-four years after which in the Vendome Block (extant), a store which went on
their son took their place until 1977. to serve residents under various proprietors until the
late 1980s. In 1913 Alfred Dawson opened his family
Development on the 5th Avenue streetcar route was food store in the East Sunnyside Grocery (extant). By
limited to the 1200 block. In 1912 the John Crocker 1920, only the grocers remained, the Gordon Block
meat market opened in the Hunter Block (Riley Park having been moved around 1919 to accommodate
Grocery, extant). Four businesses were present by the bungalow school. There was little change in the
1920, including a bakery, grocery and confectionery; 1950s except the Save More Store and Wolf’s Grocery
however by 1950 only two enterprises remained, and and Confectionary were now operating in the East
by 1959 a sole business, Cal’s Grocery & Confectionery Sunnyside Grocery.
in the Hunter Block.
c) Early Industry
For the streetcar route through Sunnyside along 2nd
and 7th avenues, build-out was mainly residential, but Quarries
there were some businesses and apartments closer
to 10th Street as well as local grocers conveniently Felix McHugh operated a quarry, one of two quarries
located for residents further east along the route. in today’s Sunnyside, at the base of the escarpment
The first business was the Sunnyside Grocery built near today’s 4th Street. The second, the Sunnyside
by William Ross in 1911 (non-extant ). A one-storey
57
Freestone Quarry, was located east of McHugh’s quarry
two-bay brick-clad store was built at 522 7th Avenue and run by Scottish quarry operator John McCallum
(extant) between 1911 and 1914. From 1921 it served from at least 1889. McCallum would deliver any size
as a grocery store, and became Jenkins Groceteria No. of dimension stone as well as rubble or shoddy, and a
57
Demolished in 2018.

33
sandstone bassinette from his quarry won a medallion was built and operated by the Calgary Water Power
at the 1896 Chicago World’s Fair. McCallum had also Company established by Peter Prince.
acquired and operated Butlin’s quarry below the
Calgary Golf and Country Club after 1891 as well as Prince, originally baptised Pierre Edouard Prince 58,
the Elbow River Quarry in Ramsay from about 1894. was born in Trois Rivières, Québec and worked in the
lumber and hotel industries in Ontario 59 before moving
Calgary Water Power Company to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to work for the Eau Claire
One of Calgary’s first hydro plants was located in Lumber Company. In 1885, during Calgary’s frontier
today’s Hillhurst. It was a two-storey, wood-frame days, he travelled to Alberta on behalf of that firm
vernacular building erected along a weir across to develop logging operations in the town. A year
the Bow River just west of the Bow Marsh Bridge. It later the Eau Claire and Bow River Lumber Company

Clockwise from top: 1912 Vendome Block, 1913 East Sunnyside Grocery and 1912 Hunter Block, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community
Assn]
58
Per 1936 baptism record.
59
The Calgary Daily Herald, January 13, 1925.

34
established a mill in Calgary with Prince as operations land holdings in the area, were the directors of the
manager and Isaac Kerr as president. company and George served as president63.

Prince and Kerr also established the Calgary Water Their system comprised an irrigation ditch and head-
Power Company60 in 1889 and were awarded a contract works on the south bank of the Bow, a bridge carrying
for street lighting by the Town that year, erecting an a flume across the river, and an irrigation ditch along
electric lighting plant at the Eau Claire sawmill site. the north bank that employed gravity to transport
In 1893 they built their first hydro plant - also the first water eastward. Near Bowness Park they constructed
in Calgary - between the south bank of the Bow and a head gate and controllable dam that could raise the
Prince’s Island. The following year the company was water level of an existing river channel. Water crossed
awarded a ten-year exclusive agreement to provide the river near today’s Hextall Bridge via a separate
Calgary, now a newly incorporated city, with electricity. bridge carrying a wooden barrel flume to a ditch that
In the 1920s, the firm and other small service providers originated in today’s Montgomery and ended in today’s
were acquired by their competitor, the Calgary Power Hillhurst; the water flowed eastward down a gradual
Company61 established in 1910 which completed major gradient. It took until 1895 to complete the six-mile
projects like the province’s first major hydro plant at main ditch to Hillhurst, and the next year the company
Horseshoe Falls near Seebe, Alberta. They acquired had twelve customers. However, customers protested
the Calgary Water Power Company in 1928. that the cost of irrigation was not sustainable; the
Department of the Interior agreed and reduced the
The Calgary Hydraulic Company allowable fee, and also limited the company’s water
flow use.
The cancellation of the large grazing leases in 1884
opened up southern Alberta to smaller ranch and farm The corporation had more challenges with the 1897
operations. With the challenges presented by the area’s flood. The high waters of the flood damaged the bridge
semi-arid climate, there was a movement to establish carrying the flume between Bowness and Montgomery;
irrigation policies and systems, with Calgary’s William debris carried downstream destroyed two pony-truss
Pearce at the forefront. spans on the south end of the Bow Marsh Bridge,
and also shut down the Calgary Hydraulic Company’s
The first irrigation project in the North West Territories operations. The firm unsuccessfully endeavoured
was in today’s Calgary, implemented by pioneer John to raise funds for repairs, and their operation was
Glenn at Fish Creek around 1878. In 1893 a charter terminated when their application for water use was
was granted62 to the Calgary Hydraulic Company, cancelled in 1900.
incorporated that year to construct and operated an
irrigation ditch along the Bow River through lands Sunnyside Greenhouses (Sunnyside
which are on today’s communities of Hillhurst, West Nurseries)
Hillhurst, Parkdale and Montgomery. The Alexander
In 1918 Sunnyside Greenhouses Ltd (later Sunnyside
cousins, who by this time had amassed their significant
Nurseries) was founded by steam fitter Robert
60
Prince’s other Calgary businesses were Calgary Milling Company,
Calgary Iron Works and the Prince-Kerr Ranch Company. McCullagh. The nurseries operated at 918 Memorial
61
Eventually became TransAlta Utilities.
62
Until 1894, federal charters were required to construct irrigation Drive, encompassing two lots on Memorial Drive and
works. 63
Along with their silent partner, Sir Douglas Brooke, a Baronet in

35
Top: Part of ca1905 conjectural map by Donald Wilson for Alberta Centenary showing quarry (green Arrow) and hydro plant weir (red arrow)

[Credits: Calgary Public Library]

Bottom: Calgary Power Company dam, 1911 [Credits: Glenbow Archives na-1044-6]

36
three across the lane on 1st Avenue; McCullagh lived
on site at 917 1st Avenue. In 1930, Jens and Ingeborg
Jensen, Sunnyside residents who had emigrated from
Denmark in the 1920s, joined the company and were
sole owners by 1953. Their family home was one
block west of the greenhouses and their son Gordon
(1936-2014) grew up working in the family business.
Shortly after Gordon and Elizabeth (Betty, nee Farrell,
1940-2020) were married, the couple took over the
greenhouse operation. In addition to the nurseries they
also ran a retail floral business. Betty was known for
her talent as an entrepreneur. In 1965, they relocated
the nurseries to Bowness. Under the next generation,
Grant and Warren Jensen, the business continued to
run into its centenary season in 2018, after which it
was closed.

37
Theme Summary: The Early Commerce and Industry of Hillhurst-
Sunnyside

Thematic value

Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses activity value:

• for its associations since 1909 with its historic streetcar system, which was one of the earliest in Calgary
to develop and which offered the best service outside the city centre.
• its historic streetcar commercial streets, which are the social and commercial hub of the community:
• 10th Street, one of Calgary’s earliest and most important commercial streets, which has been
associated with commerce since 1909;
• Kensington Road, which developed from 1912
• its associations with its frontier industries: Felix McHugh and John McCallum’s quarries in Sunnyside; Peter
Prince’s Calgary Water Power Company just west of today’s Louise (Hillhurst) bridge; and the leg of the
Anderson Brother’s Calgary Hydraulic Company which ran through Hillhurst.

Character defining elements

• 10th Street commercial street with buildings built out to the property line along a common setback with
adjacent buildings; commercial uses and storefronts at street level; street trees;
• two-storey Edwardian Commercial Style buildings and one-storey Commercial Style buildings with
storefronts at street level, recessed entry ways, large display windows with transom lights, brick façades,
signbands and pressed metal cornices;
• contiguous stretch of 1911-19 buildings on the east side of 10th Street at the south end of the corridor;
and east side of the 1100 block of Kensington Road;
• commercial signage such as wooden or pressed metal signbands, and/or small projecting signs on
building façades at top of storefront; original painted “ghost” signs; and
• inter-war and post-war vernacular commercial buildings with interpretations or influences of styles of the
period.

Existing and/or potential historic resources associated with this theme

Existing: Hunter Block (Riley Park Grocery) (1912), AGT Building - Hillhurst Exchange (1922), Hayden Block
(1912), Plaza Theatre (1928), Smith Block (1911), Carscallen Block (1911), East Sunnyside Grocery (1913),
Irwin Block (1912), Vendome Block (1912), 104/106 10 Street NW (1919), 106A 10 Street NW (1919), 108 10
Street NW (1919)

Potential: n/a

Potential historic sites for interpretation

• The former site of the Sunnyside Grocery (1911) demolished in 2018 at 802 2 AV NW
• Interpretive site for lost commercial buildings on 10th Street and the southwest corner of Memorial Drive:
Garnet, Ross, Kerr, Lido blocks, etc.

38
39
Urban Development

One and one-half storey houses on 13th Street [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

a) Pre-war boom and First World Construction peaked in 1912 and by the end of the

War development (1904-1918) boom Hillhurst-Sunnyside was almost fully developed

east of 14th Street, with build-out well underway

Pre-war between 14th and 16th streets.

From 1904, the year the Hillhurst subdivision was Although some realtors attempted to market the area

registered, until just prior to the outbreak of war in as exclusive, the reality was that much of the land in

1914, Calgary and her communities experienced a the two communities was a slough, reclaimed slough

significant construction boom. Calgary had been or subject to regular flooding. As a result, residential

advancing as a city, and Alberta had been established lots were affordable, which in turn was reflected in

as a province in 1905. The boom was reflected early the main buyers, working-class residents, and in their

on in land costs: in 1905, lot prices were $25, but choice of housing types. The most popular housing

in 1906, the year before the major annexation, lot types by far during the boom were one-storey and one

prices soared to between $200 and $400. By 1911, and one-half storey cottages, with twice as many one-

both Sunnyside and Hillhurst were over fifty per cent storey homes being built. This is not surprising since

built out on average, although some streets in both cottages were affordable and especially appealed to

neighbourhoods developed more quickly than others, first-time working-class and lower middle-class buyers.

typically due to lot location - especially those with river

view - and price. The southwest part of Sunnyside, in Approximately one third of the one and one-half storey

particular, was almost fully developed by that time. houses (houses where the entire upper storey is

40
Charles Hay’s residence is an example of the one-storey variation of the Foursquare Style [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

contained within the roofline) were constructed with The overwhelming majority of Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s
undeveloped upper storeys. This further reduced the working-class and lower middle-class new home owners
initial cost of the home, while permitting owners to were trades persons employed in the construction
develop the attic space in the future to accommodate industry, reflecting the demands of the boom for a
their growing families. complete range of services: carpenters (by far the
most common occupation in the community), builders,
Two-storey homes were less common, especially in stone masons and cutters, brick-layers, steam-fitters,
Sunnyside where a relatively small number were built64; tinsmiths and blacksmiths, steel and iron workers,
their first owners had a wide variety of occupations. millwrights, plasterers, painters and electricians.
Most buildings were wooden-frame with bevelled wood There were also many labourers, many of whom
siding with notable exceptions in Sunnyside. By 1911 would have been employed in the construction sector.
a little over one per cent of houses in Alberta were Transportation was also a sector where many early
brick, and by 1921 just over two per cent were brick. residents worked, their roles identified as teamsters,
The use of stone as a building material was even more drivers, warehousemen, shippers, and liverymen. Most
uncommon; Hillhurst School, constructed with rough- residents did not identify an employer, and there were
cut yellow Paskapoo sandstone65, is a rare instance. no employers who employed more than five per cent
of the residents, but three employers appeared more
64
Housing typologies 1908-1918 listed in Green (1996); note that this
study does not cover buildings west of 11th Street. frequently than others and represented these two
65
From the Oliver Quarry.

41
sectors: the railway, most commonly the CPR, the have lanes, the residential streets can retain their tree-
streetcar and Riverside Lumber. lined, pedestrian-friendly character because garages
and outbuildings are constructed, and utilities are run
Middle-class positions included retail employees and at the rear of the properties so front driveways are not
small business proprietors (grocers, florists, bakers, necessary.
butchers, watch-makers, tailors and hardware stores),
buyers, salesmen, clerks (many working for building or The preferred pre-war styles in Hillhurst-Sunnyside were
lumber companies), engineers and real estate agents, the popular Edwardian domestic styles of the time. In
the latter three groups again from the construction general they were constructed on 25-foot lots with full-
industry. Many residents remained in the community’s width front verandahs, and their stylistic detailing was
first industry - agriculture - as farmers, ranchers and less ornate than their Victorian predecessors. While
dairy workers. prized for their modernity, efficiency and affordability,
Edwardian cottages were also valued for their cosiness,
It is ironic that the vast majority of residents who made charm and versatile designs. Their common floor plans
Hillhurst their home did not in any way reflect the could be given a distinctive appearance by creatively
advertisements of real estate agents who attempted applying simplified architectural detailing - often of
to market the community as exclusive. A late 1906 earlier styles such as Queen Anne, Tudor, Colonial and
advertisement for Westmont, subtitled ‘The Elite Classical Revivals.
Subdivision’, put forward a list of the area’s functional
and economic benefits which would appeal to all, but The Edwardian Gable-front Style - a gable-roofed home
also listed that building restrictions that would ensure with end gable facing the street - was popular for both
a ‘desirable class’ of residents. There were in fact very one and one-half and two-storey homes. Their narrow
few professionals from the upper and upper-middle façades could readily adapt to the 25-foot lots, and
classes. They included accountants, dentists, doctors decorative shingles and vergeboards could be applied
and a veterinarian. As well, in the building sector, there to the main gable peaks. The Edwardian Classical Style
were engineers and several architects. The architects was typically reserved for stately two-storey homes,
have been listed here for further research66: and employed classically-inspired detailing such as
Charles Hay 318 7 ST 1911 bungalow pediments, entablatures supported by columns and
(extant)
pilasters, and red-brick cladding with pale stone or
George Irvine 729 5 ST 1911 bungalow
(extant) cast stone elements.
Walter D 821 4 AV 1912 semi-
MacLean bungalow
(extant) Foursquare-style homes were either one or two-storeys
Roscoe Whitten, 1016 Memorial 1912 1 ½ storey and built on a square plan, with a high-pitched hipped
Whitten & Oman Dr (extant)
roof, often with a dormer centred on the front façade.
The pre-war residential streetscapes are characterised The Craftsman Style, an American adaptation of the
by Edwardian cottages fronting shallow, landscaped English Arts & Crafts style, was used for one-storey
front yards, most with mature plantings, as well as and one and one-half storey homes. They featured
treed sidewalk boulevards 67. As well, since most blocks medium-pitched rooflines with deeply overhanging
eaves, and the use of natural, textured materials like
66
Homes showing as extant per latest Google street view available,
2019 or later. bevelled-wood siding or shingles. The style was most
67
City of Calgary (1988); Sandalack and Andrei (2006).
42
Top: Pre-war residential streetscapes are characterised by Edwardian cottages on 25-foot lots with full-width front verandahs [Copyright: Hillhurst-
Sunnyside Community Assn]

Bottom: Thompson house at 416 11th Street, ca1912 [Credits: Glenbow Archives nc-57-16]

43
Sunnyside Grocery, 2010 [Credits: City of Calgary, Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources website]

notable for its skilfully crafted elements like exposed in an early garage at 422 where a bell was connected
rafter tails, decorative brackets and flared columns. to 416 so Maud could call him to supper. Theophilus
also owned the 1908 Hunter Block from 1911 to 1931.
Theophilus Thompson, a builder, mason and plasterer, All these buildings and the raspberry patch are still
constructed a notable grouping of Edwardian homes standing today.
at 412 to 422 11th Street. In 1906 his wife Charlotte
Maud Thompson acquired nine lots on the east side Near the peak of the boom in 1911, soaring real estate
of the 400 block of 11th Street where a carriage costs meant detached houses had become unattainable
house from an early homestead remained. Theophilus for many, and working-class apartments and terrace
built four homes on 11th Street: a 1910 Foursquare- housing became essential affordable alternatives. Until
style residence at 416 (where the carriage house was that point apartments in Calgary were for wealthy
standing) with shingle and bevelled-wood cladding; residents seeking convenient, maintenance-free living.
two red-brick 1911 residences, a Foursquare-style There were concerns that building standards might
home at 412 and an Edwardian Gable-front style home suffer for lower-cost apartments, and new building
at 418; and a ca1910 one-storey cottage at 422. The ordinance by-laws were put in effect to regulate
couple rented 422 as income and lived at 416, where setbacks, fire-safety, natural light and ventilation. The
Maud cultivated a raspberry patch. Maud’s father lived 12-unit 1911 Arts & Crafts Style Wellington Terrace
44
100 Block of 10th Street showing a contiguous stretch of early commercial buildings [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

wood-frame terrace house was erected at 1001 1912 Hayden blocks in Hillhurst, and the 1913 East
3rd Avenue 68. Eight other multi-family residential Sunnyside Grocery and 1912 Irwin and Vendome blocks
complexes were built during this period including the in Sunnyside are typical of commercial buildings built
1911 Craftsman Palfreyville Apartments built by prolific outside the city centre in pre-war times: smaller, brick
Sunnyside carpenter, home builder and resident William buildings often with two storeys and residential suites
Palfrey, who erected at least thirteen frame dwellings above street-level storefronts. They display Edwardian
from 1909 to 1911, including two 1910 duplexes at 112 Commercial-style features such as recessed entry
and 120 9 Street. ways, large display windows with transom lights, red-
brick façades, signbands and pressed metal cornices 69.
More popular during the pre-war period were the mixed Apart from 1912 when 5 commercial blocks were built,
used commercial residential buildings where modest generally a single block was erected each year.
apartments were provided in the upper stories. Often
proprietors of the businesses on the main floor lived Institutional
in apartments above, as was the case for George Kerr
whose family lived above his hardware store in the Most of Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s institutional buildings
Kerr Block. The early buildings like the 1911 Smith and were built during the pre-war and inter-war periods,
68
Discover Historic Calgary, Wellington Terrace (Lunenburg the majority of churches in pre-war times and a
Apartments).
69
Discover Historic Calgary for 7 commercial buildings on the corridor;
large number of the schools in the inter-war period.
Melnyk (1985).

45
1912 view of residential build-out in Sunnyside [Credits: Alberta provincial archives pa-4037-6]

Educational and health care institutional buildings are popular one-storey cottage.
discussed in more detail in Section 6, and places of
faith in Section 7. No commercial or apartment blocks were built during
the First World War.
First World War

The pace of construction slowed significantly following

the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. With labour
diverted to the war effort and the economic uncertainty
created by the war, there was little construction from
1914-18. Home construction in 1914 slowed to thirty
homes, which included the Cappy Smart Residence,
and less than ten houses were built in the three
subsequent years taken together. The pre-war social
trends continued for the owners of these new homes
and their occupations, apart from a few listings which
indicated employment as ‘active service’. This social
makeup was in turn reflected in the continuation of
pre-war preferences for home types - especially the

46
Theme Summary: Urban Development: pre-war boom and First World
War development (1904-1918)

Thematic value

• Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its streetscapes and remaining pre-war housing stock possess symbolic value as
a working-class and lower middle-class community that almost fully developed during Calgary’s pre-First
World War construction boom.

Character defining elements

• The pre-war residential streetscapes characterised by Edwardian cottages on twenty-five or fifty-foot lots
fronting uniform setbacks with soft landscaping, most with mature plantings, public sidewalk boulevards
with mature trees; rear lanes with garage access from the lane;
• Characteristics of the remaining pre-war and inter-war cottages: Edwardian (1901-1914) architectural styles
including Edwardian Commercial, Edwardian Gable-front, Edwardian Cottage, Craftsman and Foursquare;
one, one and-one-half and two-storey form; full-width front verandahs or front porches with front entries, tall
vertical single and multi-assembly windows with hung-sash profiles, front and side-gabled and hipped roof
profiles with medium to steep roof pitch; and cladding in natural materials like brick, plaster (stucco) from
natural components, wooden shingles and bevelled-wood siding.

Existing historic resources associated with this theme

• Commercial: Carscallen Block (1911), East Sunnyside Grocery (1913), Hayden Block (1912), Hunter Block
(Riley Park Grocery) (1912), Irwin Block (1912), Smith Block (1911), Vendome Block (1912),
• Residential: 118-120 9 Street NW (1910), A.B.C. Dando Residence (1913), Brower House (1907), Cappy Smart
Residence (1914), John A. Tweddle Residence (1913), Malcolm Clair Residence (1912), Orman Residence
(1912), Smalley Residence (1910), Smith (Cozzubbo) Residence (1911), Upton Residence (1908), Wellington
Terrace (1911), William J Gray Residence (1911)
• Institutional: Fire Hall No. 6 (1909), Hillhurst Baptist Church (1907), Hillhurst Cottage School (1910), Hillhurst
School (1911), Hillhurst United Church (1912), St Barnabas Church Tower (1912), St John Elementary School
(1916)
• Landscape: Riley Park (1911)

Potential historic resources associated with this theme

• Hay Residence (1911), bungalow residence of local architect Charles Hay at 318 7 Street NW
• Irvine Residence (1911): bungalow residence of local architect George Irvine at 729 5 Street NW
• MacLean Residence (1912): semi-bungalow residence of local architect Walter D MacLean at 821 4 Avenue
NW
47
• Whitten Residence (1912): 1-1/2 storey residence of architect Roscoe Whitten of Whitten & Oman at 1016
Memorial Drive NW
• Clements and Thornton Residences (ca1912) at 918 and 920 5 Street NW - Rare pair of brick houses in
Sunnyside
• Bennett’s Bathhouses (ca1915), 639-659 3rd Avenue NW - row of ten houses ‘named’ for Arthur Bennett in
Sunnyside

Potential sites for interpretation associated with this theme

• Palfreyville Apartments (1911, demolished 2014)

• Sunnyside Grocery (1911, demolished 2018)
• 144/146 10 Street NW (1912, demolished 2014)
• Theophilus Thompson (builder and craftsman) grouping of Edwardian homes at 412-422 11th Street NW

48
b) Inter-war and Second World Inter-war homes continued the Edwardian trend towards

War development (1919-1944) modernity, with an emphasis on natural light, ventilation

and Memorial Drive and sanitation. Sunrooms and enclosed porches

began to replace open verandahs, and verandahs on

Inter-war the existing Edwardian houses were often enclosed.

A sustained recession followed the First World War and Plaster stucco became a popular cladding material,

continued through the 1920s, followed by the Great and was sometimes applied over the wooden siding

Depression of the 1930s. There was little construction of existing homes. The majority of houses built during

during the period between the First and Second World this period were simple, one-storey inter-war cottages

Wars. For most of the 1920s, five or fewer homes were with a few larger one and one half-storey variations.

Donegal Mansions, 2020 [Credits: City of Calgary Heritage Planning]

built annually; however in 1928 and 1929 nineteen Existing detached houses were also converted to

homes were built. This was a busy construction period multi-family dwellings or adapted for other purposes.

in the late 1920s when Calgary experienced a brief Ca1929 a pair of adjacent two-storey 1912 brick

interval of prosperity related to its early oil industry. The houses were joined and converted to become the

Turner Valley oil field was proving to be a significant Classical Revival-style Lough Apartments. By 1934

producer, the 1924 Royalite No. 4 had come in, and most of the community was rezoned for two-family

the Turner Valley gas plant was significantly upgraded. residential development, Memorial Drive between 14th

A mere eight homes were built in the first half of the and 5a streets for multi-family, and Kensington Road

1930s, and a single home during the latter half. and Tenth Street for intermediate commercial.

49
Louise (Hillhurst) Bridge, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

Not surprising in this economic environment, most of the same storefront features such as recessed
apartments continued to be an important affordable entry ways, large display windows, signbands and piers
alternative to detached dwellings, and five apartment between storefront bays70. The pre-war construction
buildings were erected in the inter-war years. The rate of a single block for most years continued through
1923 Classical Revival Elaine Apartments are an the 1920s, but only three buildings were erected
example of this type of building. Interestingly, two of throughout the 1930s.
these apartment blocks were upscale ‘ultra-modern’
buildings constructed during the late 1920s Turner As mentioned, a significant number of Hillhurst-
Valley Oil boom by Irish engineer Andrew Murdoch: the Sunnyside’s institutional buildings were erected during
1928 Georgian Revival Glenwood Manor and the 1930 this period for educational and health care purposes,
eclectic, Italianate-style Donegal Mansions, Donegal and are discussed further in Section 6.
and Glenwood both being place names in Northern
Ireland. Both had spacious suites with modern Although a quiet period for building construction, the
amenities and high-end finishes. inter-war period has left behind significant markers in
the landscape of Hillhurst-Sunnyside. Where feasible,
Inter-war commercial buildings, unlike their pre-war development in the built environment continued to
Edwardian predecessors, were generally one-storey, follow the early 20th Century movement towards a City
wooden-frame Commercial-style blocks and did not Beautiful. In 1921 the classically-inspired Louise Bridge
provide residential apartments above. They did share Discover Historic Calgary for 7 commercial buildings on the corridor;
70

Melnyk (1985).

50
 1939 Kerr Residence, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association]

shows City Beautiful influences in its elegant pale

concrete balustrades, observation bays detailed with Second World War
panel motifs and elliptical arches, and was a distinct
contrast with earlier wooden and metal-truss bridges. During the Second World War (1939-44) less than ten
houses, a single 1939 apartment building (non-extant)
In 1922, Riverside Boulevard was renamed Memorial and no commercial blocks were built. The houses were
Drive, a living memorial of trees to honour the fallen similar in style to inter-war houses, with even more
in the First World War, and 900 trees were planted, simplicity in architectural detailing as shown by the
mostly poplars. Trees continued to be planted along Kerr Residence below.
the boulevard, envisioned as a parkway, some by
philanthropic organisations and many by the Parks
Department. 1948 aerials show that Sunnyside,
Westmount and Broadview boulevards were planted by
that time. By 1963, a cohesive road-naming strategy
was put forward to name all the remaining ‘boulevards’
from 24th ST NE to 25th ST NW with a single name.
Council narrowly favoured Memorial Drive over
alternatives such as Bow Valley or Bow River drive, and
the new name was implemented in 1964.

51
Sunnyside neighbourhood, ca1940-45 [Credits: Glenbow Museum, pa-3538-37]

Theme Summary: Urban Development: Inter-war Hillhurst-Sunnyside

and Second World War development (1919-1945)

Thematic value

• Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its inter-war buildings and landscapes possess symbolic value for the resilience and
determination of those who built during the depressed economy of the inter-war and Second World War
periods.

Existing historic resources associated with this theme

• Commercial: 104/106 10 ST NW (1919), 106A 10 ST NW (1919), 108 10 ST NW (1919), AGT Building -

Hillhurst Exchange (1922), Bow Valley Lawn Bowling Club (1932), King George Masonic Hall (1926), Plaza
Theatre (1928)
• Residential: Donegal Mansions (1930), Glenwood Manor (1928), Lough & Elaine Apartments (1923)
• Institutional: Heritage Hall (SAIT Campus) (1921), Queen Elizabeth Junior and Senior High School (1930),
Sunnyside Bungalow School (1919)
• Landscape: 6 AV NW Lilac Medians (1929), 11 ST NW Lilac Median (1919), Bowness Road NW Lilac Medians
(1932), Hillhurst (Louise) Bridge (1921), Memorial Drive (1922)

52
Potential historic resources associated with this theme

Because there was so little building during this period, inter-war buildings and their styles are relatively rare in
the community and should be considered for additions to the POIL.
• Pickles Residence at 310 - 10A ST NW (1928) - Inter-war cottage with enclosed porch and front entrance
perpendicular to the street
• Kerr Residence at 715 - 4A ST NW (1939) - Second World War cottage and home of commercial artist (and
son of Garnet and Kerr Block owner) Garnet Kerr
• Doherty Residence at 725 - 4 ST NW (1945) - larger one and one-half storey cottage
• 1631 Bowness Road (ca1944-45) - good example of the Modern Bungalow

Potential sites for interpretation associated with this theme

• 1037 2nd Avenue (1939, demolished 2013) - only apartment block build during this period

53
 facilitate north-south access, the new Mewata Bridge
was constructed over the Bow River at 14th Street in
1954. The triple-span, concrete-arch bridge combines
post-war box-girder beam technological innovation
with the sleek, horizontal aesthetic of mid-century
architecture. The modern automobile-focused bridge
employed five traffic lanes and cloverleaf interchanges.
The name for the bridge came from Mewata Park
(today’s Millennium Park) where over twenty-six
acres on the south bank were gifted from the federal
government in 1906; Rev John McDougall offered the
place name Mewata which is derived from the Plains
Cree word for happy or joyful. Mewata Stadium opened
in the park in 1906 and the Mewata Armoury was built
there in 1917, so naming the 14th Street bridge was a
logical continuation of this convention.
Mewata Bridge aerial view looking south-west, 1962. Note new section
of Memorial Drive created to implement the cloverleaf on the north bank
[Credits: Calgary Daily Herald 1962-10-20, p12] By the mid-1950s a number of automobile-oriented
businesses such as body shops and garages were
c) Post-war and Mid-Century present on Kensington Road and 10th Street, and
Hillhurst-Sunnyside (1946-1960) quickly began to appear on 14th Street. Through the
In the post-war period of prosperity which began 1960s, competition from emerging suburban shopping
with the 1947 Leduc oil discovery the few remaining malls - Calgary’s first, the 1959 North Hill Shopping
vacant lots in the community were developed. The Centre, being on their doorstep - led to challenges
Leduc discovery was the first of a number of important for the businesses on commercial streets. Short term
finds in Alberta that led to a mid-century economic responses such as ‘modernizing’ the buildings with
boom. This period of wealth, combined with the severe mid-century façade makeovers using stucco or sheet
housing demand created by returning Second World metal were not successful.
War veterans, also led to a significant construction
boom in the province. Automobiles had become An interesting post-war example of adaptive re-use
affordable and City Beautiful philosophies now gave in the community is the Jenkins Groceteria No 18 at
way to an emerging transportation-oriented vision for Kensington Road and 14th Street, a smooth stucco
Calgary that included expressways and expansion into ca1940s Streamlined Moderne building with a curved
outer suburbs, and - as the City’s population continued corner entry and raised horizontal bands or ‘speed
to grow - 1960s planning for economies-of-scale lines’ along the roofline. In 1958 the renovated building
efficiencies like mass transit, regional shopping malls became Calgary’s first Chicken On The Way (extant,
and tall buildings. relocated further south on its site by 1962), a use that
continues seven decades later.
10th Street was increasingly used as a commuter route,
and as the western suburbs developed, in order to From the end of the post-war era, most of the

54
 Top: Carscallen Block ca1911 [Copyright:
Glenbow Archives top nc-24-42];

Middle: block in 1977 after ‘makeover’;

[Copyright: Glenbow Archives top na-2864-
17436];

Bottom: Carscallen Block in 2021 showing

2001 restoration. [Hillhurst-Sunnyside
Community Association]

55
neighbourhood was fully built out. The slower Existing historic resources associated
developing areas west of 14th Street were fully built with this theme
out through the former Broadview area by 1948, and
in 1949 the Herchmer acreage in Westmont was re- • Institutional: Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
subdivided by Lila Hunter. In 1946, in preparation for (1957)
the new development, Herchmer’s estate home was • Landscape: Mewata Bridge (1954), Senator Patrick
moved about two blocks east to a new foundation at Burns Memorial Rock Gardens (1956)
1643 Broadview Road where it rests today. By 1953
even the west parts of the community were built out, Potential historic resources associated
and the former slough was reclaimed and built upon with this theme
once the 1933 Glenmore and 1954 Bearspaw Dams
controlled flooding71. Around the mid-1950s a large Potential - Although mid-century architecture is generally
portion of the extreme north end of Scotchman’s Hill rare in the community, unlike inter-war and Second World
was moved to Sunnyside as part of an anti-flood dyke War buildings, there is an abundant mid-century building
scheme. stock throughout the city. There are still some notable
examples to consider for the POIL:
By the end of the 1960s about twenty-three new
bungalows infilled the vacant lots interspersed through • Michael Residence (1955) at 640 3rd Avenue - good
example of 1950 Modern Bungalow
the community. Also by the end of the 1960s, with
• Davies Residence (ca1951) at 737 5th Street - example
new land use classifications introduced in the 1950s72,
of Minimal Traditional Style
twenty-one new walk-up style apartment buildings
- almost as many as houses - were erected, most
Potential sites for interpretation
replacing existing homes. Of the remaining extant,
associated with this theme
unaltered 1950s homes there are interesting examples
of the popular mid-century Modern Bungalow and
• St John’s Church (1953, demolished 2003)
Minimal Traditional styles.

Theme Summary: Urban

Development: Post-war and Mid-
century Hillhurst-Sunnyside (1946-
1969)

Thematic value

• Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its mid-century buildings

and structures possess symbolic value for their
associations with Calgary’s post-war economic oil
boom when renewed prosperity enabled the final
build-out of the community.
71
1951 aerial map; 1961 Fire Insurance maps.
72
City of Calgary (1988).
56
d) Hillhurst-Sunnyside The institutional impacts at this time were a result

Renaissance (1970-1983) of these changing demographic. The shift away

from families had consequences for the established

Under Pressure educational institutions. The declining enrolment in

schools meant an increasing risk of school closures.

Many of the changes during Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s mid- There was also pressure on losing family amenities

century evolution continued or intensified in the 1970s. like playgrounds. As well, there was an increase in

The role the community was expected to play in the the seniors’ age group. The shift towards an aging

transportation ambitions of the City, as well as its population meant there were insufficient activities and

proximity to the city centre and its prospects as a location services in the community to retain and support these

for downtown-type commercial uses, placed significant residents.

pressures on the small community. Its earlier residential,

commercial and institutional legacy that had developed On the commercial streets the pressures from mall

in the built environment through the post-war period was competition continued into the 1970s. Although only

rapidly being lost and was increasingly at risk. three commercial buildings were constructed during
this period, one was a ten-storey mixed-use building

The neighbourhood was also feeling the impact of the that radically changed the landscape of the historic

mid-century road improvements: commuter traffic had 10th Street commercial street.

increased on 10th and 14th streets, and Memorial Drive

had quickly become an east-west thoroughfare. In the The Fourfold Response
1960s Hillhurst-Sunnyside was already being proposed as
part of the route for one of four radiating light rail rapid The response to these pressures was four initiatives

transit lines73. The response to these pressures came in that made a significant difference to the outcomes

the form of a new community-led vision guided by the for the neighbourhood: the establishment of a

residents and business proprietors of Hillhurst-Sunnyside, new community association; the development of a

as well as a federal programme that invested in community community-inspired design brief; participation in a

buildings and infrastructure. federally run neighbourhood improvement programme,

and the formation of a local business revitalisation

There were other pressures on the residential built organisation.

environment. The post-war trend of replacing homes

with walk-up style apartments intensified with over In 1973, a new Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community
50 apartments constructed during the 1970s. Non- Association was formed with the purpose of bringing
resident landowners who had acquired houses for land together residents to have a say in the direction
speculation and future development potential no longer that development in their community would take.
invested in their properties; deferred maintenance The association also took a role in providing seniors
and neglect had a negative visual impact. The new activities. From 1976 to 1983 the community also
apartments were mainly aimed at accommodating participated in the federal government’s Neighbourhood
single residents, resulting in a shift in the community
Improvement Program (NIP), where they could pursue
demographic away from families.
funding for residential and community infrastructure.
The Hillhurst-Sunnyside Design Brief was adopted in
73
Simaluk (1968).

57
Davies Residence (ca1951), Minimal Traditional-style home in Sunnyside [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association]

Mewata Bridge, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

58
 zoning of the district, limiting heights of new buildings
on 10th Street and Kensington Road to 50 feet, and
favouring housing for families in the residential areas.
Zoning for public use was retained for the Hillhurst and
Sunnyside school grounds vs. re-zoning to residential
as was happening in other communities. The schools
themselves were given community school status
so facilities could be used outside school hours for
community purposes, increasing use and viability of
the buildings. This represented a return to a brief
period just prior to the First World War when Hillhurst
and Sunnyside became early proponents of the ‘social
centre’ movement to use schools for community
commercial and educational purposes. Under the
community infrastructure component of the NIP
Program, where twenty-five per cent of improvements
were covered by grants, work was done to create
playgrounds and a Community Centre.

Under the residential component of the NIP Program

Cover page of the May 1973 Hillhurst-Sunnyside Citizen Newsletter,
published by the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association loans and grants were made available to upgrade and
[Copyright: Glenbow Archives, Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community
Association fonds] make improvements to 600 homes. During this period,
some houses that had been divided into multiple suites
1977. New commercial policies were aimed at limiting
were reconverted to single-family homes. The 1979
downtown-type uses in the local business areas, and
Sunnyhill townhouses are a non-profit housing co-
new residential policies encouraged a move towards
operative that provides 66 townhouses for households
family-oriented development. Also in 1977, thirty-two
of all sizes.
businesses from the 10th Street Business Association
came together to develop a cohesive strategy for the
In 1983 the business association successfully
commercial district, and to promote the commercial
petitioned for pedestrian-oriented improvements in the
area as Louise Crossing, a reference to the early bridge
streetscape such as brick paving and light standards
that became the shopping area’s namesake.
that would enhance the character of the historic
street. The business operators co-ordinated with
Revitalisation
each other to upgrade and restore their storefronts.
Notable commercial block owner John Kerr, who had
These initiatives resulted in a number of successes,
already restored and rehabilitated a number of historic
although a few were short-lived. In 1978 council ruled
buildings on Inglewood’s commercial street, began to
that running the Light Rail Transit line down the centre
do the same with several buildings on 10th Street. His
of 9A Street would be too disruptive in the community
long-term approach to managing and maintaining the
- a decision that would be overturned just three years
buildings acquired a number of tenants who brought a
later. In 1979 council approved an extensive down-
59
trendy, ‘village’ vibe to the street. From 1985 the district supported by the heritage advisory board, advocated to
included Kensington Road and became the Kensington protect the adjacent historic Kerr and Ross blocks (or
at Louise Crossing Business Revitalisation Zone. Today the façades as a minimum) that had been a commercial
the district is the Kensington Business Improvement anchor in the community as well as a landmark with their
Area (BIA), also promoted as Kensington Village and location across the street from the Louise Bridge. The
one of fifteen BIA’s in Calgary. following year the Ross Block was destroyed in a fire,
and in 1989 a seven-storey project - twice the height
Also during this time the community was endowed recommended in policy - was approved to replace
with a number of innovative structures. Commercial the buildings. In 1981 Council reversed their earlier
complexes include the 1977-1978 Ross Place by decision and approved the northwest LRT extension
Pendergast & Purl, 1978-1980 Spindler Office Building to be routed along 9A Street, entirely above ground
by Ken Hutchinson, 1979-1981 Two One Three Nine despite Mayor Ralph Klein’s contention that the “LRT
4th Avenue by Tom Laird & Associated, 1980-1981 should not be on a residential street” and his urging
Kensington Place by Peter & Symonds, and 1981-1983 to support a partially underground route. Fortunately
Kensington House by Barry Pendergast. a community ‘amelioration committee’ was engaged,
so fewer homes were destroyed, a more compatible
Residential architecture from this period includes 1977- station was built at 4th Avenue, and a pedestrian
1979 Memorial Drive Condominium by George Brown, bridge was erected across the Bow River when the line
1979-1981 The Arbours by James McKellar, 1979- was constructed in 1987. But from that time, there was
1980 Gladstone Court by Sturgess Donnell, and the a layer of separation between Sunnyside and Hillhurst
mixed-use 1981-1982 Norfolk House by James Jones74. and the commercial streets.
Perhaps the most impressive building from this period
is institutional, the expansive 1969-1972 University of
the Arts building by Cohos Evamy.

There were losses as well. In 1987 the community,

74
Guimond and Sinclair (1984).

Sunnyhill townhouse co-operative [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

60
Part of the University of the Arts complex, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

Theme Summary: Urban Development: The Renaissance era of Hillhurst-

Sunnyside (1970-1983)

Thematic value

• Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its 1970s and early 1980s architecture is symbolic of the period of urban
revitalisation of the historic neighbourhood led by community residents and businesses.

Existing historic resources associated with this theme

• n/a

Potential historic resources associated with this theme

Notable examples of 1970s architecture and design:

• Alberta College of Art (now Alberta University of the Arts) (1973), located at the SAIT campus

61
 and designed by Cohos Evamy & Partners, featuring a stepped brick clad building on a sloping
site on the south side of the SAIT campus.
• The Arbours (1981), two developments containing 8 and 9 townhouse units, designed to achieve
a high density while maintaining a streetscape sensitive to its low-density neighbours, located
at 310 and 834 2nd AV NW
• Gladstone Court Townhouses, 11th street and Gladstone Road, the Sturgess Donell Associates
project features ten residential units, providing a high density suitable to the low density scale
of the neighbourhood and featuring sheltered, landscaped shared courtyards.
• Kensington House (1983), a brick clad, five-storey concrete mixed use building, featuring street
level retail space with office space above, located at 1167 Bowness Road NW
• Kensington Place (1981), a mixed use four storey building, offering street level retail with upper
level office space, clad in red brick with bronze glazing and frames, designed by Peter & Symonds
Partnership and located at 1240 Kensington Road NW
• Memorial Drive Condominium (1979), designed by George A. Brown Architect Ltd, a walk up
style brick apartment building with eight residential suites, designed to mirror earlier Memorial
Drive walk up style buildings, located at 934 Memorial Drive NW
• Norfolk House (1982), designed by James S. Jones Architect, 1114-1120 Kensington Road NW
and 206 10 A Street NW, this five storey mixed use building was designed for the Hillhurst
Sunnyside Non-Profit Housing Association, and features four storeys of apartments designed
for seniors and those with barrier free requirements, while the main floor was designed to house
local community organisations (discussed in Section 7).
• Ross Place (1978), a low rise office building designed by architectural firm Pendergast & Purll
with R. E. Hulbert Architects at 1400 Kensington Road NW
• Spindler Office Building (1980), three storey sandblasted concrete office building by architect
Ken Hutchinson with extensive bermed landscaping, 1601 Westmount Road NW
• Sunnyhill Housing Co-operative (1978), a 66-unit residential co-operative that resulted from
combined efforts of the co-operative group, the community association and municipal and
federal governments, located at 725 3 Street NW
• Two One Three Nine - 4th Avenue NW (1981), a three storey building at this same address, clad
in bright red and orange ribbed metal siding and designed by Tom Laird & Associates Architects
Ltd.
• Donald Residence (1912), example of a home subdivided into three suites and reconverted to
a single-family home in 1981 during the period of revitalisation, located at 1410 Memorial Drive.

62
63
Establishing Community
Institutions

The Great West Trading Co, top 190776; bottom 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

a) Public institutions and services After annexation in 1907, door to door letter service
began with individual carriers for both the Hillhurst and
Postal Service Sunnyside districts77. In 1913 Calgary Substation No
17 opened in Sunnyside in Black’s drugstore and re-
In the decade before the First World War, Calgary’s located with the pharmacy through its various address
growth due to the economic boom and the 1907 changes through the early 1980s. Clifford Black was
and 1910 annexations created pressure to build civic postmaster until his passing in 1943, at which point
infrastructure in the new suburbs - paved roads, he was followed by the next long-term postmaster,
sidewalks, street lighting and water and sewer systems. William (Bill) Mitchell, until he closed the business in
Infrastructure for utilities like gas, electricity and 198278. Today the post office continues in a drugstore,
telephone was also required, as were critical services Shoppers Drug Mart, no longer in Sunnyside but
such as fire-fighting, garbage collection and postal coming back to the original location in Hillhurst in the
service. 1400 block of Kensington Road 79. The post office has
another interesting connection to the community; its
Even prior to annexation a post office opened in
football club, formed in 1914, held their matches at the
Hillhurst in 1906: Calgary Substation No 3, located
Hillhurst Athletic Park and nearby at Mewata Park80.
at 429 11th Street at the Great West Trading Co with
AE Mutton, John McFarlane and Charles Mack as
postmasters at that location. Ezra Riley owned this
Fire Protection
building from 1909-14. The office moved in July 1914 to
Fire protection service was provided for both Hillhurst
Wood Bros Grocery with Robert Wood the postmaster
and Sunnyside by a single station, Firehall No 6, when
for a year, after which LF Paine took over from him until
the Hillhurst substation closed in 192175.
76
Credits: Morning Albertan feature advertisement “Suburbs North
of the Bow River,” November 16, 1907.
77
Surplis (1975), 382.
78
Library and Archives Canada, Item 21519 (Calgary Sub No 17).
79
Discover Historic Calgary, 106A 10 Street NW.
75
Library and Archives Canada, Item 16385 (Calgary Sub No 3). 80
Surplis (1975), 393.
64
in 1909 an Edwardian Classical building was built just Telephone Service
west of the Louise Bridge on Boulevard (Memorial
Drive81). It was one of three of identical satellite fire A 1907 article on Hillhurst’s progress as a new
halls built by the City in 1909 . When it opened in
82
suburb84 indicated that many residents were receiving
1910 this vital service was provided by John McKinnon, telephone service from Bell Telephone Company, the
the Captain, and Alfred Rogers and James Cook, the first firm to offer city-wide telephone service by 1900.
firemen. McKinnon later became Calgary’s Fire Chief However because of the growth during the pre-war
from 1943 to 1945. boom, the provincial government which had provided
rural telephone service since 1906, established the
After it was replaced in 1964 by a new Firehall No Alberta Government Telephones (AGT) in 1908 and
6 in West Hillhurst, it served as a city garage and took over from Bell, acquiring their infrastructure.
storage location. The hall is an excellent example of The next year they introduced automated switching
adaptive re-use in the community. It underwent its to the province since the existing manually operated
first renovation in 1981 during the neighbourhood’s telephone exchanges could not keep up with the rapid
revitalisation period, having - ironically - sustained growth in demand for telephone service.
fire damage in 1974, and in 2001 the Calgary Area
Outdoor Council and Parks Recreation completed a While the First World War led to a temporary halt to
joint rehabilitation project for a new use as a centre their build-out of telephone infrastructure in Calgary,
for outdoor recreation education and information. Its construction quickly resumed with the North Hill
prominent red-brick façade with classical detailing and central office switch in 1921 followed by the 1922
white trim that display its institutional importance, its Louise Telephone Exchange which routed all telephone
location at a busy intersection and its setting on the calls in Hillhurst-Sunnyside as well as Grand Trunk and
Bow River make it a city landmark. Parkdale. Local telephone numbers were prefaced
with an ‘L’ for Louise. The Edwardian Classical
James ‘Cappy’ Smart, a well-known community edifice that housed the exchange joins the ranks of
resident 83
and colourful public figure, was Calgary’s the many inter-war institutional buildings erected in
Fire chief from 1898 to 1933, and had a fire bell Hillhurst-Sunnyside and, with its location at the busy
installed in his Sunnyside house to alert him during intersection of Kensington Road and 14th Street, is
any emergencies. He began a fifty-year career with another community landmark.
the fire department in 1885 when it was a volunteer
organisation, and worked his way up through the ranks, Public Infrastructure
becoming a professional fire fighter and retiring from
his ‘day job’ around 1891 when his mortuary was sold. When Hillhurst was incorporated as part of Calgary
Smart also played a memorable role in the 1902 flood in 1907, properties there were exempted from taxes
when he was called in to rescue Calgarians who had for two years so the expectation was that few public
not evacuated their homes, but ended up swamping improvements would be undertaken before 1909. By
his boat when he attempted to manoeuvre it to the 1910 cement sidewalks were beginning to replace
bank and nearly drowned himself. wooden or non-existing sidewalks but in outlying
81
Discover Historic Calgary, Firehall No. 6.
82
It is also one of only five extant pre-war fire halls remaining in the areas, many were replaced much later. The ca1911
city.
83
Lived at 436 Memorial Drive from 1923 until his death in 1939.
84
The Morning Albertan, November 16, 1907.

65
Sunnyside panorama (cropped), ca1911 [Credits: City of Calgary Corporate Archives CalA 2000-003]

historic photograph above of Sunnyside just prior to b) Education

the peak of the boom shows infrastructure for power
and telephone connectivity. It also shows outhouses in The schools of Hillhurst-Sunnyside represent every
most of the back yards. Households mainly used coal type of standardized school adopted by the Calgary
for energy at this time. School Board, from the earliest cost-efficient two-
room, wooden-frame buildings with wooden siding,
In 1912 water and sewer service became available. to the legacy sandstone schools, to the later interwar
Prior to that time water was retrieved from springs. brick bungalow and Collegiate Gothic institutes. The
Fresh spring-water was also required for several majority of these schools still stand today.
weeks each spring when the water in the taps ran
muddy for most residents. The weekend line-ups for In 1908 Bishop Pinkham college (non-extant), a private
water at a popular spring on the hillside near Senator Anglican boys school, opened in the home of Canon
Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden were recalled as d’Easum, rector of St Barnabas’ parish. Its purpose
a social opportunity. When Andrew Murdoch built his was to prepare students who planned to pursue
‘modern’ well-appointed Donegal Mansions in 1930, he university studies in the Anglican ministry. In 1911
advertised the apartments’ private filtered well-water Ezra Riley commissioned Leo Dowler, the architect
system as an important amenity. who had designed his home and St Barnabas Anglican
Church, to design a purpose-built college on land
Over all, most infrastructure and services were rolled immediately west of Ezra’s house and estate. Like so
out by the 1920s. By that time indoor plumbing had many undertakings in the boom, the college enjoyed
become the norm and outhouses were no longer success until the outbreak of the First World War, and
required. Although households had used coal for in 1916 it was obliged to close.
energy well into the inter-war period, by the late 1920s The 1909 Sunnyside Cottage School (non-extant) was
the majority of residences were converted to gas. the first purpose-built school in Hillhurst-Sunnyside,
located at 9th Street and 2nd Avenue. The two-storey,

66
four-room, solid brick school was distinct from the function of school grounds, only a double residential
later standardised designs. After the pre-war boom, lot was required. Its small lot size and Foursquare Style
the Gordon Block was rented to provide additional allows the Hillhurst Cottage School to fully integrate
classroom space from 1914 until 1923. The public into the residential streetscape.
school remained in operation even after a new bungalow
school was built in Sunnyside in 1919. In December For a period three church halls were rented to provide
1956, following an expansion of the bungalow school, additional classroom space. Surprisingly the school
children attending the cottage school were moved to was used for its original purpose until 1965, after
the 1919 school. The cottage school was demolished which it has served the community as a meeting place
to accommodate a school board stores building. for the North Hill Optimists, the Canadian Youth Hostel
Association and the Alberta Wilderness Association.
The 1910 Hillhurst Cottage School, located on 12th
Street between 5th Avenue and Gladstone Road, is The Hillhurst School, an example of the next phase of
the earliest extant purpose-built school in Hillhurst- larger, more permanent schools, was erected only one
Sunnyside. By that time Calgary’s public school board year after the cottage school in 1911 on 7th Avenue
was using two designs for cottage schools, and this between 12th and 14th Streets, immediately west of
two-storey school was the first of its design to be built Riley Park. Its dignified, solid-sandstone construction
in the city. As well, it is one of only two remaining and timeless Classical Revival Style speak to a building
cottage schools of the approximately seventeen that that was designed to endure. The local school followed
were built in the city. a standard design by Leo Dowler and his partner at
that time, George Lang.
The design for the cottage schools as conceived by the
resourceful, future-thinking building committee led by Over the years the school was reorganised to teach
Colonel James Walker was for facilities that would have different grades: in 1935 it became a Junior High; in
an interim use for education until growth in enrolment 1953 only elementary grades were taught; and by 1957
justified larger, more permanent structures, at which it combined these levels, offering grades I to VII. It later
time they could be resold for residential use. With the added adult night classes and served as a practicum
nearby Riley and Hillhurst athletic parks serving the school for student teachers. Hillhurst School continues

Sunnyside panorama (cropped) showing Sunnyside Cottage School (orange arrow), ca1911 [Credits: City of Calgary Corporate Archives
CalA 2000-003]

67
to serve its original educational function, currently for century boom, rear extensions were added in 1954
kindergarten to Grade 6 students. In contrast with the and 1967 to increase its capacity. Since 1985 it has
cottage school that blends into the streetscape, the served as a Fine Arts Magnet School. The school and
Hillhurst Community School with surrounding grounds its grounds are an interesting element of Kensington
is highly visible from 14th Street and a well-known Road, which displays a mix of residential, commercial
landmark. and institutional build-out.
Five years later the community’s first bungalow school,
the 1916 St John Elementary (extant), was erected for In 1919 the public school board erected the Sunnyside
children of the Roman Catholic faith. Like its public Bungalow School. During the recessed economy of the
counterpart, the separate school board was also inter-war period the school board by necessity had to
building bungalow-type schools during the Second return to its earlier resourceful philosophies, keeping
World War and Inter-war periods. This Georgian Revival- re-use in mind and once again designing schools with
style bungalow school was designed by JE Burrell of the intention that they could be converted to apartment
the Calgary firm of Burrell and McDowell, and the same use if replaced by larger schools in the future.
plans were used three years later for another separate
school, Holy Angels School in Cliff Bungalow.
The brick exterior and formal, traditional lines of the The design for this school by Calgary Board of Education
school lend it a sense of permanence. To meet the architect William A Branton, who had recently returned
growth in enrolment experienced during the mid- from service and just passed his requirements to be

Hillhurst School, ca1912 [Credits: Glenbow Archives na-613-10]

68
Sunnyside Bungalow School, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

a Canadian architect that year, differed from other In Hillhurst there were also pressures to provide more
‘bungalow’ schools of the time. It differed as a typology, classroom space. In 1920 space was rented in St
a lower, one-storey school vs. one and one-half-stories Barnabas Church, and in 1921 a wooden-frame cottage
of the earlier versions, and with six classrooms vs. four. school was moved from the Mount Pleasant area to
It also differed in style with a flat vs. steep-pitched 2nd Avenue and 17th Street and renamed the Upper
roof. The wide, horizontal façade displays a projecting Hillhurst School. It remained in service until the 1958
front entry bay flanked on each side by recessed and Queen Elizabeth elementary school was built, at which
projecting bays, with decorative parapets centred time it was demolished.
above the projecting bays. Like many of Branton’s
inter-war schools it featured durable and decorative Built in 1921 to 1922, the Provincial Institute of
tiles. He was designing for brick schools since, as Technology Building and Normal School (teacher
he explained later in an interview, following the First training centre) was the first name given to the centre
World War Calgary’s excellent Scottish stone masons of higher education which we know today as the
and cutters appeared to have “vanished”. It continues Southern Alberta Institute of Technology or simply
its original use for education to this day. During the SAIT. The Province had begun plans for their southern
post-war economic boom it was also expanded with technical institute in 1919 when they purchased the
1956 rear additions that added three more classrooms part of Ezra Riley’s estate lying directly north of Riley
and a gymnasium. Park. The impetus at that time was the need to retrain
First World War veterans.

69
Heritage Hall of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, n.d. [Credits: Alberta Culture]

British Commonwealth Air Training Program. In the

The institute was designed by architect Richard past century there has been tremendous growth on
P Blakey, the Provincial Architect at that time, in the campus, and the original building has been called
the Collegiate Gothic style, the style favoured for Heritage Hall since 1985.
educational institutional buildings in the first part of The technical institute also expanded to include an arts
the 20th Century. The linear horizontal lines of the style school on campus in 1926. The Art department was
also adapted well to the emerging steel and concrete known as the Alberta College of Art and evolved to
construction methods used for this building. While include a gallery in 1958 (extant, renamed Illingworth
the institute is faced in red brick, there is significant Kerr Gallery). From 1969 to 1973 a modern college
detailing in carved stone, most notably the massive building designed by Cohos Evamy & Partners was
surrounds for the entries and multi-assembly windows, erected on campus near the Jubilee Auditorium. Its
and the carving in the gothic arches, pinnacles and brick and concrete materials house simple, flexible
crenulations along the parapets and towers. interior spaces. The architecture is enduring and
creative, especially in its response to the sloping
The interior is equally grand with oak doors, terrazzo site and connectivity between the college, technical
flooring and solid maple banisters, and has a institute and auditorium.
magnificent auditorium, MacDonald Hall, with stage
and gallery. In 1934 the school offered aeronautical The college became independent of SAIT in 1985 and
training, and during the Second World War, the federal changed its name to Alberta College of Art + Design to
government took over the building for the No. 2 underline the importance of design in 1995. That year it
Wireless Training School to train airmen as part of the also became accredited to award Fine Arts bachelor’s

70
Queen Elizabeth (orange arrow) and Upper Hillhurst cottage school (blue arrow) centre right; Hounsfield Lodge (Frank Riley family home at
the time) foreground, ca1933 [Credits: Glenbow Archives na-3246-2]

degrees, and Bachelor of Design and Masters degrees Elementary School was built immediately south of the
followed in 2000 and 2015. It achieved full university complex, also fronting 18th Street. A gymnasium was
status in 2018, reflected in another name change to the added in 1963, and for Canada’s Centennial in 1967 a
Alberta University of the Arts in 2019 85. Its significant raised library wing designed by architect JJ Smart was
contribution to Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s flourishing arts constructed.
community is discussed further in Section 7.

In 1930 a nine-room, two-storey Collegiate Gothic-

style Bow View School was built just to the north and
west of the Upper Hillhurst School. It was one of three
identical schools built at that time, the others being
Rideau Park (extant) and Knob Hill (non-extant). Very
few schools were built in Alberta from 1914 to 1930,
and no schools were built in Calgary from 1931 to 1946
so schools built between 1914 and 1946 are rare, and
large schools like Bow View especially so.

The original building and its cohesive and sensitive

six-room 1948 and expansive 1953 additions were all
conceived by WA Branton. His 1953 wing fronting 18th
Street is the largest structure in the complex; that year
the school was re-named Queen Elizabeth Junior and
Senior High School in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s
Coronation. In 1958 the standalone Queen Elizabeth

85
Alberta University of the Arts, History and Mission.

71
 In 1924 a long association of the site with the
Salvation Army, who had been active in Calgary
since 1887 and caring for single mothers since
1904, began when the building and grounds
were acquired from the diocese. The hospital
opened their new Grace Maternity Hospital and
Girls Home in spring 1926, a significant step
forward from their small nursing home for single
mothers in Victoria Park86.

Post-war, there was a demand for quality

maternity care for all mothers, but the
original building had insufficient capacity to
accommodate married women as well. Staff
living quarters were also needed. A two-storey
west wing was added in 1954; four years later
a third storey was added to the wing and a
separate building was constructed to house
hospital staff. A major expansion took place
from 1965 to 1967, seeing a south wing erected
Nurses at Grace Hospital, Calgary, Alberta ca1920s [Credits:
Glenbow Archives na-2954-19] and the 1911 building demolished.

c) Health Care
A range of women’s health programmes were
added, and the single mothers program moved
Health care services in the community first developed
off site. To reflect its new mandate the hospital’s
around the institutional lands of the Anglican Diocese
name changed in 1986 to the Salvation Army Grace
(north of Hillhurst School) which were originally
Hospital Women’s Health Centre. Over time fewer
used for education, and later expanded to include
Salvation Army officers were involved in the hospital’s
the adjacent Ezra Riley Lodge and estate when they
administration, however the Executive Director and
were acquired by the diocese. Following the advent
Board of Directors remained high-ranking officers.
of the First World War, with the young men of Calgary
The maternity program was ended when the hospital’s
leaving to join the war effort, the Anglican boy’s
responsibility came under the Calgary Regional Health
school changed its purpose to health care while
Authority in 1995. In 1996 the provincial government
continuing its institutional use. In 1919, under the
permanently closed the Grace Hospital, transferring
Invalided Soldiers Commission, the building became
many women’s health programs to the Foothills
the SCR (Soldiers Civil Re-establishment) Sunnyside
Hospital. Although no longer serving as a hospital,
Hospital with Dr Huxley Johnson as medical officer
the building continues to be used as an active
and Margaret Duffield as matron. When the hospital
maternity clinic with prenatal and postnatal care.
closed in 1922, the diocese retained ownership of the
site. 86
Original nursing home location at 11 Ave and 1st Street SE.

72
Grace Maternity hospital, 1954, with new west wing [Photography by Jack De Lorme, Credits: Glenbow Archives na-5600-7431a]

When Louise Riley and her father Ezra moved from Sunnyside was Dr Duncan Gow (ca1860-1938),
the Ezra Riley family home in 1936, just prior to although he lived across the river in Connaught. Born
Ezra’s passing in 1937, the Salvation Army purchased and trained in Ontario, Dr Gow had moved to Calgary
the land and home. From 1937 they expanded into in 1904, and was the City’s Medical Health Officer and
this site which was adjacent to the Grace Hospital Superintendent of the General Hospital from 1923-
grounds to the south, and there was a parallel 1933, before focusing on his private practice.
evolution of this additional part of the site for health
care. The Salvation Army Sunset Lodge for female Physician, surgeon and Hillhurst resident Dr Robert
senior citizens relocated to this new site that year, Francis (1881-1955), lived in a stately two-storey brick
and later expanded into modern buildings. The home (extant) on 11A Street and had offices in the
Sunset Lodge transitioned in 1992 to become the Carscallen Block for the early years of his practice.
Agapé Hospice which provides end-of-life palliative He was also born in Ontario where he trained before
care. Today the hospice remains one of three key coming to Calgary in 1909. Dr Francis was socially
locations operated by today’s Salvation Army in active with numerous societies including Hillhurst
Calgary. United Church87.

In addition to the larger institutions, medical care was

administered by local practitioners in the community.
One of the first physicians to practise in Hillhurst-
87
Jamieson (1947).

73
Ezra Riley family home, 1965 [Credits: Calgary Public Library Alison Jackson collection]

Theme Summary:

Thematic value

• The Hillhurst-Sunnyside community possesses institution value for its historic associations with education,
health care and its many community institutions like the local post office and telephone exchange.

Existing historic resources

• Heritage Hall (SAIT Campus) (1921), Hillhurst Cottage School (1910), Hillhurst School (1911), Queen
Elizabeth Junior and Senior High School (1930), St John Elementary School (1916), Sunnyside Bungalow
School (1919)

Potential historic resources associated with this theme

• Alberta University of the Arts (1973)

• Francis Residence (ca1910) at 236 11A Street - residence of early Alberta pioneer doctor and long-time
Hillhurst community member
• Great West Trading Company at 429 11th Street as the first location for the community’s post office

74
75
Building Social and
Community Life

View of former Norfolk (10A) Street. [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

a) Social, Intellectual and Ethnic England. Both Ezra’s original 1904 subdivision and its

English Cultural Life 1906 addition employed street names that referenced
English place names including Oxford, Gladstone,

The threads of ethnic English and Scottish traditions that Buckingham, Norfolk and Essex. When his mother,

ran through the early cultural life of Hillhurst-Sunnyside Georgiana Riley, registered Upper Hillhurst in 1906 she

began with the area’s pioneers and developers whose also used street names with English references like

families had roots in those two homelands and brought Marlborough and Wellington streets and others named

the customs of those countries to their new home. for the British Royal family.

The Englishness of Hillhurst was clearly shaped by the English roots are also evident in Col Lawrence

vision of its pioneer landowner and developer, Ezra Herchmer’s 1907 Westmont subdivision which had

Riley, whose father Thomas came from Derbyshire, original street names like Cambridge, Devenish and

England and whose mother Georgiana from the small Beveridge. Herchmer descended from a prominent

town of Kirton in Lindsey, in North Lincolnshire, Kingston, Ontario family of United Empire Loyalists
whose arrival in North America dates to the 18th
76
century. As a result he was born and received most of superintendent William Reader to install cricket pitches
his education in England. in the park. He also requested that cricket be the only
team sport to be played in Riley Park. Another English
The Church of England (Anglican Church) also featured custom - ‘afternoon tea’ - played out every Sunday
conspicuously in Hillhurst, with Morleyville Road named at Riley Park, when it was served at the cricket club
for the Anglican Mission at Morley, and after 1906, with house.
St Barnabas Church and churchyard. In 1912 Ezra gifted
a new brick-clad St Barnabas Church to the parish. As The game of cricket in Riley Park where the Calgary
well, an Anglican boy’s school, the Bishop Pinkham and District Cricket League are currently based,
College (the site that would be used for health care), and worship in St Barnabas Church of England, are
was built just north of Hillhurst School. The architect enduring examples of intangible cultural heritage that
responsible for these ecclesiastical buildings was Leo have been practiced for over a century.
Dowler (1876-1921), an Anglican himself as well as a
Sunnyside resident. A parallel ethnic cultural development was unfolding in
Sunnyside where Scottish influences in the landscape
One of Calgary’s most prolific early architects, and culture originated with landowner and developer
Dowler was born in Kingston, Ontario where he William Ross who settled in Calgary in 1905. He was
trained in architecture, arriving in Calgary in 1899. from Kincardine Township, Bruce County, Ontario and
He first worked in carpentry before establishing his of Scottish descent, his father Allan being from Rosshire
architecture practice in 1905. He worked with a variety and his mother Alexandria from the Isle of Harris in
of partners before returning to independent practice, Scotland. Ross and business partner Arthur Bennett
during which time he also served as the Dominion registered Sunnyside, both its original subdivision
Government’s resident architect in Calgary. Leo married and larger addition, and Broadview subdivisions in
pioneer Samuel Livingston’s daughter Mary in 1904, 1907. ‘New Edinburgh’ was the east part of the larger
and designed and built their 1911 home 88 where they Sunnyside addition with the east-west grid orientation
raised their large, growing family. His other works in as shown in the advertisement on the next page.
and near the community include Hillhurst School, Ezra
Riley’s Hillhurst estate home, Alfred’s Riley’s Lodge in Although not shown in the advertisement, New
Parkdale, landowner AJ McArthur’s Crescent Heights Edinburgh street names included Dundee, Glasgow and
residence and - just across today’s Mewata Bridge - Leith avenues 89; in Sunnyside, for example, 9A Street
the Mewata Armory. Although he is responsible for was originally Merchison Street. New Edinburgh Park,
numerous historic resources in the city, only Hillhurst immediately west of where New Edinburgh was shown
School and St Barnabas Church tower remain of his on early maps, is named for the former subdivision. It
Hillhurst-Sunnyside works. has a playground, as well as a skating rink in winter,
and is known for becoming the city’s first pesticide-
Perhaps the most unusual English influence to find free park in 1999.
in a North American community is the cricket field,
also a legacy of Ezra. He donated the land for a City In Broadview, Bennett and Ross’s only Hillhurst-
park, Riley Park, in 1910 and in 1919 he asked parks Sunnyside subdivision west of 10th Street, a Church
88
428 Boulevard (now Memorial Drive, home non-extant or
significantly altered).
89
1910 City of Calgary engineering map.

77
Top: Cricket match in Riley Park [Credits: Glenbow Archives pa-3383-4]

Bottom: William Ross New Edinburgh and Sunnyside real estate ad, 1907 [Credits: Daily Herald March 15, 1907]

78
Statue of King Robert the Bruce, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

of Scotland - Hillhurst Presbyterian Church90 - was emigrated with his parents from the Scottish isle of
erected south of Kensington Road, the first in 1907 and Iona, in the Inner Hebrides, as a small child. Like Ross,
a second permanent church in 1912. The architect was he was raised in Bruce County, Ontario. He settled
George Gilbert Irvine (1868-c1932), born in Edinburgh, in the Calgary area in 1890. However, he had less
Scotland, and this ecclesiastical British Arts & Crafts- influence on the Sunnyside community partly due to
style church is his only known work from his brief his sudden passing in 1911 when he died intestate and
practice in Calgary from 1912-1913. his lands were tied up for many years. This prevented
his widow Catherine from managing the inherited real
Irvine articled under his father, architect James Irvine, estate until the boom had long passed. For this reason,
who was the clerk of works for George Gilbert Scott, and because of his aspirations towards incorporating
London’s leading church architect in the latter 19th his lands at the top of the hill as the village of Crescent
Century and George Gilbert Irvine was almost certainly Heights, McArthur is today mainly associated with
named for him. After gaining experience in England, Crescent Heights.
Irvine opened an office in Aberdeen and later Edinburgh.
He immigrated to Canada in 1911, briefly settling Nevertheless, part of his lands just east of 3rd Street
in Calgary (living in Sunnyside) before returning to at the base of the bluff have had a Scottish connection
England in late 1913. The church’s British Arts & Crafts since mid-century times. The Scottish sport of curling
style employs diverse traditional architectural elements formally arrived in the community when the Calgary
and natural materials to evoke the rural countryside of Curling Club constructed a Sunnyside rink complex
the British Isles. The ecclesiastical version of the style in 1953 91. The club had moved from Victoria Park
uses prominent gothic-arched windows. where they were located from 1909 although they had
built their first rink two decades earlier92. One well-
Rancher and developer Archibald McArthur, who had known Scottish resident of Sunnyside, James ‘Cappy’
acquired the land homesteaded by Philip Van Cortlandt Smart, who was born in Arbroath, Scotland and had
in 1906 and subdivided the area shortly after, had 91
The current facility dates to 1976.
90
Today’s Hillhurst United Church.
92
There had been curling in Calgary from 1885.

79
immigrated to Canada in 1883, was president of the and one is left to wonder exactly what is meant by ‘the
Alberta Curling Club in 1904. high plan of Anglo-Saxon and Canadian ideals’, there
is no evidence this was a view espoused in general by
Also during the community’s mid-century period, in the residents of Hillhurst-Sunnyside, and the reference
1967, a statue of King Robert the Bruce was installed to class was certainly not reflected in the working-
on the hillside below the Jubilee Auditorium. The class occupations of residents. On the other hand,
sculpture had been acquired by Eric Harvie, whose as seen in the New Edinburgh advertisement above,
grandparents came from Scotland, who donated it William Ross chose to market Sunnyside as a ‘clean,
to the city. The twenty-seven foot bronze sculpture healthy’, affordable and beautiful suburb and there
is one of two statues created by Scottish sculptor C is no mention of promoting a certain social class or
d’O Pilkington Jackson to commemorate the Battle ethnic background.
of Bannockville, a famous Scottish victory during the
First War of Scottish Independence. The other was As well, an item in the same 1907 Albertan feature
unveiled in Stirling, Scotland. In 2014 the statue was article entitled “Workmen’s cottages in Sunnyside”
re-dedicated by Calgary’s Robbie Burns club to mark reported that the Calgary Building Company had
the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockville. erected good quality cottages in the entire block 20 in
Sunnyside that were “within reach of any workingman
While it is easy to understand the longing for one’s who wishes to secure a neat and comfortable home in
homeland, and wanting to bring customs and re-create a pleasant locality”. Yet history tells us that there was
places of their youth in their newly adopted country, much opportunity for change, inclusivity, diversity and
it is another matter entirely to promote these interests a new cosmopolitan perspective in the neighbourhood
by excluding other races, nationalities and/or income and in the wider global community.
levels. There is at least one unfortunate example that
appeared in a piece regarding Hillhurst within a larger To give an idea of provincial government policy of
two-page 1907 Albertan feature article about suburbs the time, the first government following the formation
north of the Bow: of the province in 1905 were the Liberals who held
twenty-three of twenty-five seats and were to serve four
“A great feature of the Hillhurst settlement successive terms. Liberal MLA Ezra Riley, whose riding
is the fine class of people who are making included North Calgary, was part of this government
homes there. They are mostly Canadians or
from 1906 to 1910. The Liberals’ success in the
people from the British Isles and great care is
election was due partly to policies that were popular
exercised in the choice of people to whom to
with voters, like their support for free trade, reforms
sell lots for building purposes. As a result there
is no foreign settlement in Hillhurst and all the such as women’s rights and open immigration 94.

new-comers speak the English language and

are of Anglo-Saxon origin. This is a guarantee Regarding the place of origin of Calgarians at the time,
that the public institutions and private homes in 1906 51 per cent were born in Canada, 25 per cent
will be built upon the high plan of Anglo-Saxon in Ontario and 16 per cent in Alberta. Of those born
and Canadian ideals .” 93
in British Empire countries other than Canada, the
highest percentage were born in England, 13 per cent,
Although the perspective of the journalist is regrettable
93
The Morning Albertan, November 16, 1907 94
Palmer (1990).

80
followed by Scotland, 5 per cent. Only 28 per cent of when hotels and motels could refuse accommodation
Calgarians were born outside the British Empire, and, to people of visible minorities, and Ted used the courts
of those, two-thirds were from the United States. to fight this discrimination.

Two Sunnyside residents played an important role Violet and Ted’s parents Stella, a seamstress and cook,
in the movement towards change, notable Canadian and her husband John moved to Sunnyside in 1929
racial equality pioneers, Violet and Theodore (Ted) to raise their family. John worked as a sleeping car
King. Violet (1929-1982) broke barriers for both gender porter, one of the few occupations available to Blacks
and racial equality. In 1954 she became the first Black prior to the First Work War. John’s parents, African
person to obtain a law degree in Alberta and the first Americans who emigrated in 1911 from Oklahoma
to be admitted to the Alberta bar, the latter being a to a small farming community in Alberta, had also
feat that would not be repeated for another decade. faced discrimination when in the early 19th Century
She was also Canada’s first Black female lawyer. Her politicians were attempting to implement policy that
brother Ted was an early human rights advocate who would restrict the number of Black immigrants to the
served as president of the Alberta Association for the Canadian Prairies. Fortunately these policies were
Advancement of Coloured People. This was a time never adopted.

Violet King shakes hands with EJ McCormick with whom she articled, 1954 [Credits: Glenbow Museum NA5600-7760a, originally featured in
the Albertan]

81
b) Spiritual Life from the trail north (today’s 10th Street). From 1888
until 1906 Baptist worship in Calgary was held in

The churches of Hillhurst-Sunnyside were all built in downtown locations, but by 1906 First Baptist, the

Hillhurst. In addition to serving as places of worship mother church, seeded five new congregations from

for most of the denominations of Western Europe, they its members including Hillhurst; an assistant from First

were the places where major life events like baptisms, Baptist, Reverend DA Gunn, became its first pastor.

weddings and funerals were held. They offered many Before the building was constructed Morleyville Road

other social and institutional activities from serving Baptist members met in private homes and organized

as classroom space to providing a gathering place for a Sunday school in rooms above a store.

clubs and events.

Typical of Carpenter Gothic churches stylistic

The first purpose-built church in the community was elements are crafted in wood rather than stone, and

the 1906 St Barnabas Church of England (replaced) parish volunteers, often skilled craftsmen, assisted

fronting Church Avenue (today’s 7th Avenue) and was with building activities. The church grew rapidly in

also the first Anglican church north of the Bow River. the pre-war boom, in 1911 the name changed to the

The small wooden-frame church was based on plans for Hillhurst Baptist and in 1914, with a congregation

an Anglican Church in East Calgary to save costs. Prior of 140, the building was expanded. Membership

to that, religious services were held at the Chenery continued to grow during Calgary’s mid-century

Residence (non-extant) as were the first meetings of period of economic prosperity; the congregations of

St Barnabas parish. Hillhurst and Emmanuel (West Hillhurst, non-extant)

consolidated in 1952, and an adjoining church hall

In 1912 Ezra Riley gifted a new brick and sandstone and Christian Education Building was erected in 1958.

church designed by Leo Dowler in the Ecclesiastical In 1971 the congregation disbanded, and the place

Gothic Revival Style to replace the 1906 church. of faith was for next year rented to the Bible Baptist

Anglican Bishop Pinkham laid the red granite Church before being sold. Following its service as a

cornerstone95 engraved ‘erected by Ezra Hounsfield church, the building was home to a variety of occupants

Riley as a loving memory of his Mother, Father and Infant including art, theatre and martial arts groups before

daughter’. Most of the place of faith was destroyed being converted to retail use, with long term tenants

in a 1957 fire, although the cemetery, the tower, all Weddings ’n Things and Lifesport. With its tall steeple

stained-glass window sashes but one, and the chancel and setting on a unique triangular-shaped lot, the

furniture donated by Maude Riley in memory of her church is a community landmark.

husband Harold remain. All the building elements

were incorporated into a new mid-century church. The The Hillhurst Presbyterian Church (Church of Scotland)

place of worship and cemetery continue to serve the congregation was established in 1907 and a small

community in their original use. church was erected on Kensington Crescent 96 where
96
Originally 2nd Avenue and later Bowness Road; ca1986 the name
of the portion east of 11A Street of the short segment of Bowness
The Morleyville Road Baptist Church (extant) was a Road in the original Broadview subdivision was changed (along
with the portion of 11A south of Kensington Road) to Kensington
modest Carpenter Gothic-style church built in 1907 Crescent and the street was reconfigured and closed to traffic from
the west half. The remaining portion of Bowness Road between
at the intersection of two trails, taking its name 11A and 14th Streets was changed to Kensington Close in ca1990
to reflect a more prestigious address for the new Providence
95
Extant, in the tower Kensington development.

82
it intersects Kensington Road at 10A Street. In 1912 a a mixed use commercial-residential building has taken
charming British Arts & Crafts-style church was built its place.
further west on Kensington Close at 12th Street. In
the early years the congregation boasted over 400
members, and at one point its Sunday school was one
of the largest in Calgary. By 1925 the membership was
further bolstered, and the expenses of the large pre-
war church were offset when the congregation of St
Paul’s Methodist Church, a few blocks north, joined
Hillhurst Presbyterian to become a single congregation,
Hillhurst United, located in the Presbyterian building.

The flourishing, active congregation engaged in many

social activities in the facility’s auditorium, gymnasium
and meeting hall equipped with supper kitchen. During
the Second World War the Young Ladies Mission Circle
was founded to visit shut-ins and host tea meetings
and fireside evenings for servicemen in the community.
Despite a decline in Sunday school numbers from the
1950s the church was expanded to the west with a new
church hall which opened in 1965.

The Roman Catholic faith community was represented

by four sites in Hillhurst, including the 1916 St John’s
Elementary School on Kensington Road and three other
sites near 10th Street and Gladstone Road: the 1953
St John’s Church (non-extant), its nearby 1957 rectory
and St John’s convent. St John’s Roman Catholic parish
worshippers first met in a temporary chapel in the
school. It served Hillhurst-Sunnyside as well as many
other northwest districts. Work started in 1930 for the
edifice, and as happened with many Calgary churches
erected at the time, it began as a ‘foundation church’,
the first phase of a church intended to be completed
at a later date when the economy permitted. When the
economy did improve a church designed by Hodgson
and Bates was erected between 1953 and 1954. The
place of faith was in active service until 2001 when
St Bernard’s became the principal parish church. The
following year the church was destroyed in a fire, and

83
Hillhurst Presbyterian Sunday school group promoting prohibition/temperance, 1912-1916 [Credits: Glenbow Archives na-1639-1]

84
Calgary Tigers, the precursors to the Stampeders, playing football at Hillhurst Athletic Park, 1913 [Credits: Glenbow Archives na-1744-7]

c) Connecting community and opened in May 1913. The club membership, which

through Sports, Clubs, had free playing rights, grew rapidly 98. Probably the

Recreation and Leisure most popular area for the neighbourhood, Riley Park,
was a place for informal leisure and recreation in all
In addition to the social role played by the early seasons. The park was donated by Ezra Riley in 1910.
churches, recreation and leisure - both formal and Within two years it was cultivated and sown with grass,
informal - figured prominently in the social life of landscaped with flower beds and thousands of trees
residents. In March of 1911 the lands immediately west and shrubs, and had a wading pool for children. An
of Riley Park were donated to the City by the Riley early toboggan run on the hillside immediately north
family for Hillhurst Athletic Park . By 1912 a grandstand
97
of the park was dismantled after the First World War,
and bleachers were erected, and the existing Hillhurst possibly to accommodate the land sale to the province
Football club clubhouse/dressing cabins were moved for the technical institute. Another very popular informal
to the playing field and enlarged. Ezra and Frank Riley winter activity was skating on the frozen sloughs, an
organized the Hillhurst Football Club which won the activity that lasted well into the post-war period when
Dominion Championship twice. Frank served as the the last slough was reclaimed for development.
club’s president Club from 1910-1922 and was an
active promoter of rugby football in Calgary. Local fraternal lodges were also established early on.
The Riley Hall in the Great West Trading Co building
In 1912, Harriet Riley loaned her land nearby to the housed the 7th Day Adventists, two orders of the Loyal
north and west (today’s St Andrews Heights) to be Order of Lions and the King George Masonic Lodge
developed as Calgary’s second golf course, St Andrews No 59. As soon as the Ross Block was completed
Golf Club, named for the famous links course in Scotland by William Ross in 1911, the Masons leased its new
97
The Calgary Daily Herald, March 24, 1911. 98
Per research by Marg McReady.

85
 which had been acquired by the City in 1922, likely due
to tax forfeiture. The bowling club is still active and has
expanded to indoor uses in its 2002 club house.

Formal team sports and the athletic park were

especially important in the depressed economy of the
inter-war era. Spectators watched talented athletes
play the most popular sports at that time - soccer,
hockey and American football - for free on the playing
field they at that time referred to as the ‘Hillhurst Ball
Park’. The sports teams, in turn, received support from
King George Masonic Lodge No 59, n.d. [Credits: City of Calgary, the business proprietors who would act as sponsors
Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources website]
and advertise their businesses on team jerseys. Two
public hall next to the Hillhurst Pool Room. Members sponsors on 10th Street were Ken Morgan’s barber
included pharmacist WC Black who was Chair in 1922 shop and the Dari Rich Milk Bar, both shops were
and Calgary’s mayor at the time, and Andrew Davidson also ‘hangouts’ for the sportsmen. In 1922 the senior
(term 1929-1945) who lived north of the Bow. soccer team won the Dominion Championship. Local
Dodger Lewis played fastball in the 1930s for the St
The Masons sublet the hall to other groups, among Louis Browns (American League). Sunnyside resident
them the Rebeccah Lodge, the Order of the Eastern Lloyd Turner (1884-1976) started up and managed
Star, the Loyal Orange Lodge and the Oddfellows several leagues, tournaments, and teams including
Hillhurst No 46 lodge. In 1926 the King George the creation of two professional teams in Alberta. He
Masonic Lodge No 59 erected their own hall while later managed senior amateur hockey at the Corral.
the Oddfellows remained in the Ross Block. The new Turner was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a
Masonic Lodge was a Spanish Colonial Revival-style ‘Builder’ in 1958.
building (extant, 1126 Kensington Road) designed by
architect DS McIlroy who was also a Mason 99. In 1984 In 1948, during the mid-century oil boom, the first
the lodge moved to the city’s southwest; since that Hillhurst/Sunnyside Community Association was
time the building has provided a new use as the Higher incorporated as a non-profit society. The 1912
Ground coffee house, and still continues its social dressing rooms in the athletic field had also been used
purpose as a popular community gathering place. as meeting rooms and became the original community
centre. As with other Alberta community associations
Immediately after the war in 1919, the City Parks and leagues of this era, the focus was primarily on
Department installed three cricket pitches and a organising and supporting sports and social gatherings
clubhouse in Riley Park at Ezra’s request. Also in the like winter festivals. Hockey had emerged as the
inter-war period the Bow Valley Lawn Bowling pitch most popular sport in the 1950s, and the community
was developed on Bowness Road in 1932. Member of association maintained two rinks, one just for hockey.
council and successful plumbing contractor Frederick Long-time residents and well-known community
(Fred) Lepper (term1937-1938) was the club’s founding association volunteers at that time were Bernice and
president and was instrumental in negotiating the land John Corless and their son Bob. Bob and John flooded
99
McIlroy also built the Odd Fellows temple on 6th Avenue SW.

86
One of the banquets at the community hall following an exchange match with children from the Morley Reserve, ca1950s [Credits: Bob
Corless private collection]
the rink, and John managed the teams and assisted Association that had formed in 1973, the 1953/4
the coaches. Children from the community would play community buildings underwent a major expansion with
exchange matches with the children from the Morley a gymnasium and recreation complex. The mandate of
Reserve in both Hillhurst and Morley. the centre also significantly expanded in this period
of revitalisation to include almost every aspect of life
Bernice and John Corless managed the community in the community including child care, youth drop-
association facility as volunteers. In 1953/54, the in programmes, programmes for seniors, community
association added a kitchen and hall to the dressing assistance and collective kitchens. After the Norfolk
cabins, and in the mid-1950s tennis courts were House mixed-use seniors complex on Kensington Road
opened. The Calgary Curling Club also built their new was completed in 1982 for the Hillhurst Sunnyside
arena in Sunnyside during the mid-1950s. Non-Profit Housing Association, new organisations
opened on the main floor: the Hillside Seniors’
There were also local sports heroes during this Welcome Centre, the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community
period. Hillhurst resident Joseph Sidney (Sid) Finney Information Centre and the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Non-
(1929-2009), who had emigrated from Ireland, played Profit Housing Association.
professionally in the 1950-60s, first for the Calgary
Buffalos, then the senior Calgary Stampeder’s hockey
club and on to the National Hockey League for the
Chicago Blackhawks. His brother James (Jim) was a
hockey player and a coach in the community.

Hockey was still one of the community’s two strongest

sports in the 1970s, the other being baseball. In
1978, under the new Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community

87
John Corless at the athletic concession and membership stand run by his wife Bernice, ca1950s [Credits: Bob Corless private collection]

d) Thriving Arts Community was opened in 1958 and renamed the Illingworth Kerr
Gallery in 1990; Kerr who taught and served as the

With two important provincial centres for the director of the art department at Alberta University

performing arts and fine arts, as well as galleries being of the Arts (then Alberta College of Art) from 1947

located in the community, Hillhurst-Sunnyside has to ca1967 was also named to the Order of Canada in

become a nucleus of arts in the city. Residents have 1983.

been attracted to the neighbourhood by the thriving

local arts centres and in turn have shaped and fostered The exhibition space is the longest-running international

the local culture in the community. art program in Calgary. A second student-run gallery
opened by at least 1986 to showcase student work,

Fine Arts the Marion Nicoll Gallery, which was named for Marion
Florence Nicoll (1909-1985), one of the province’s

The Alberta University of the Arts was established on earliest abstract painters who became the art school’s

the SAIT campus in 1926, beginning as a department first female instructor in 1933. The arts university’s

of the technical school, and growing to become a students, former students and staff have made

fully accredited university in 2019. A public art gallery Hillhurst-Sunnyside their home.

88
Plaza Theatre on Kensington Road. [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

Performing Arts theatre house created by adapting and renewing the

façade of a 1929 garage, to the community in 1935, a

One of the earliest examples of the performing arts, and wide variety of affordable films aimed at diverse age

an important example of intangible heritage in Hillhurst- groups were accessible to residents.

Sunnyside, is the bandstand in Riley Park, which

was planned for at least by 1913. Funding was made The Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, a 2,700-

available for a new bandstand as a commemorative seat concert hall and theatre was built between 1955

project in 1980, but it was not constructed until the and 1957 as a venue for both local and international

late 1980s. This bandstand was in turn replaced in performing artists. From 1982 to 2004 the basement

2018. was reconfigured to add a second more intimate

250-seat auditorium, the Dr Betty Mitchell Theatre,

The youngest daughter of pioneers Felix and Florence named for Betty Mitchell who founded several Calgary

McHugh, Florence McHugh Piercy (1901-1984), was theatrical groups in the 1930s-40s100.

a talented artist who achieved renown for her roles -

many of them leading roles - in plays, light opera and Residents have been attracted to the neighbourhood by

musical comedy in live theatre and film. She was still a the thriving local arts centres and in turn have shaped

student in the field when she moved in 1921 to London and fostered the local culture in the community. This

to finish her training. After establishing a successful was no more evident than during the counter-culture

career in London she made it her permanent home. movement of the 1960s and 1970s. For a few years
100
Another theatre that opened in the Allied Arts Centre (non-extant)
With the introduction of the Plaza Theatre, a small
in 1962 was also named in her honour.

89
Love-In in at Riley Park where ‘flower children’ passed around incense and flowers, read poetry and danced to rock bands, 1967. [Credits:
Calgary Daily Herald, August 7, 1988, p44]

Riley Park became a magnet for free-spirited, anti- the community, began his fine arts studies at AUARTS
establishment youth. It began in July 1967, when an in 1960. At that time he connected with musicians and
estimated 5,000 hippies and spectators participated to form a band. The Sunnyside property he rented in
in a Love-In, a full year before San Francisco’s 1968 the late 1960s was a gathering place for both artists
‘summer of love’. The Love-In was promoted by and musicians. At that time he also was involved with
Luvinc, a free society for the promotion of arts and the ‘Diggers’ a counter-culture movement of social
artisanry in Calgary. In her community newsletter activists and street performers that originated in
article ‘Confessions of a Hippie’, long-time resident Haight Ashbury, San Francisco that promoted the idea
Patti Dawkins, explains that these gatherings were her that everything should be free. Smith helped others in
introduction to Riley Park and the wider community need find free accommodation.
of like-minded individuals and disillusioned youth.
Another sign of the times in the community was the
Garnet Block which became the Headquarters head
shop which advertised with psychedelic posters by
artist Bruce Pearson.

Another long-time resident Brian Smith, who was born

at Grace Hospital eight decades ago and was raised in
90
The Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

Theme Summary: Building Social and Community Life

Thematic value

• H illhurst-Sunnyside possesses symbolic value for its association with the cultural aspirations of its ethnic
English and Scottish settlers, developers, business owners and residents. The east part of Sunnyside was
called New Edinburgh during the early 1900s, and both Hillhurst and Sunnyside had original English and
Scottish street names. The game of cricket in Riley Park, and worship in St Barnabas Church of England and
Hillhurst United (originally Presbyterian) Church are enduring examples of intangible cultural heritage that
have been practiced for over a century.
• H illhurst-Sunnyside possesses person value for notable Canadian racial equality pioneers, Violet and

Theodore (Ted) King. Violet (1929-1982) broke barriers for both gender and racial equality; she was the first
Black person to obtain a law degree in Alberta and the first to be admitted to the Alberta bar association,
and was also Canada’s first Black female lawyer. Ted was an early human rights advocate who served as
president of the Alberta Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.
• H illhurst-Sunnyside possesses institution value for its extant churches, some which are still active places of
worship.
• H illhurst-Sunnyside possesses activity value for its association with sports, and for playing fields and cricket
pitches.
• H illhurst-Sunnyside possesses person value for its local sportsmen who achieved national and international
recognition including Lloyd Turner who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a ‘Builder’ in 1958,
Dodger Lewis who played fastball in the 1930s for the St Louis Browns, professional hockey player Joseph
Sidney (Sid) Finney who played in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Blackhawks (1951-54), and
Ezra and Frank Riley who organized the Hillhurst Football Club which twice won the Dominion Championship.

91
Character Defining Elements

• English place names that exist today including Gladstone and Kensington
• Scottish place names that exist today New Edinburgh Park
• Riley Park Cricket Pitches (1919) at Riley Park
• Robert the Bruce statue (1967) south of the Jubilee Auditorium
• intangible heritage practices which continue today including the game of cricket in Riley Park, worship in
the active community churches, performing arts in community venues
• Existing historic resources associated with this theme
• Bow Valley Lawn Bowling Club (1932), Hillhurst Baptist Church (1907), Hillhurst United Church (1912), King
George Masonic Hall (1926), Plaza Theatre (1928), Riley Park (1911) including the cricket pitches, St Barnabas
Church Tower (1912), St John’s Church (1953, demolished), Senator Patrick Burns memorial Rock Garden
(1956), Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium (1957)
 
Potential historic resources associated with this theme

• AUArts facilities including the Illingworth Kerr Gallery (1958) and the Marion Nicoll Gallery (1986) for their
continued use as art galleries and interpretive spaces
• Great West Trading Company at 429 11th Street, which hosted the 7th Day Adventists, the Loyal Order of
Lions and the King George Masonic Lodge No 59
• Norfolk House (1982), designed by James S. Jones Architect and located at 1114-1120 Kensington Road NW
and 206 10 A Street NW, designed for the Hillhurst Sunnyside Non-Profit Housing Association
• Violet and Ted King’s childhood residence at 518 7th Avenue
• Irvine Residence (ca1912) at 729 5th Street - home of architect George Gilbert Irvine when he designed
Hillhurst Presbyterian Church
• Residences
of Sunnyside’s professional athletes, including Lloyd Turner, Dodger Lewis
and Joseph Sidney ‘Sid’ Flemming if extant (addresses and years to be determined)

Potential sites for interpretation

• Dr Betty Mitchell Theatre (1982) in the basement of the Jubilee
• H illhurst-Sunnyside Community Association (1953) at 1320 5th Avenue
• H illhurst Athletic Park (1911) which now exists as Hillhurst-Sunnyside Park for its role in hosting early

organized sport; Riley Athletic Park building - (ca1911) if any part has been incorporated into the present
day community centre
• Bandstand at Riley Park
• Street names at the time of subdivision representing communities English and Scottish influences - street
signs that include historic street-naming is a popular, everyday type of interpretation
• O riginal location of the Hillhurst Presbyterian Church (ca1907) at 10A Street and Kensington Road
• Calgary Curling Club (1976), at the site since 1953 and rebuilt following a fire, the club is located at 720 3rd
Street
• Robert the Bruce statue (1967) south of the Jubilee Auditorium
• New Edinburgh Park (ca1900s) at 625 3rd Avenue, the only remaining Scottish name of the subdivision of
New Edinburgh

92
93
Special Streetscapes and
Cultural Landscapes

Pre-war public sidewalk boulevards with mature trees, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

a) Special streetscapes house number 333

• 1 0A Street - 200-300 block, east side north of

Heritage in the built environment is not limited to house number 218

individual structures with special significance. A • Bowness Road - 1600 block, east and west sides

group of modest buildings, which individually would and lilac boulevard

not qualify as historic resources, when considered

together with each other and their landscape can Sunnyside residential streetscapes:
create a special sense of place, time, aesthetics or • 5 th Street - 900 block, east side south of 934 in

identity that is valued by a community. The following New Edinburgh (contains the two brick houses)

residential and commercial streetscapes create all of • 1 st Street - 1000 block, south side north of 1027

these things. They were selected because of their

higher integrity in terms of the proportion of remaining Heritage Value
pre-war and inter-war housing stock. A unique and
exceptional First World War streetscape, ‘Bennett’s Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s residential pre-war streetscapes:

Bathhouses (or Bath Houses), is considered at the end • are symbolic of the working-class and lower middle-

of this section. class community that was almost fully developed

during Calgary’s pre-First World War construction

Hillhurst residential streetscapes: boom. (symbolic value)

• 12th Street - 200-400 blocks, east side north of • possess style value for their remaining pre-war and
house number 222 inter-war cottages which feature Edwardian (1901-

• 13th Street - 300-400 block, west side north of

1914) architectural styles including Edwardian

94
 Commercial, Edwardian Gable-front, Edwardian Road possesses heritage value as an intact section
Cottage, Craftsman and Foursquare styles. of Kensington Road, which developed as a busy
social hub and commercial street from 1912 when
Character defining elements the streetcar was introduced.

• E dwardian cottages on twenty-five or fifty-foot

Character defining elements
lots fronting uniform, front setbacks with soft
landscaping, most with mature plantings, public • buildings built out to the property line along
sidewalk boulevards with mature trees; rear lanes a common setback with adjacent buildings;
with garage access from the lane; commercial uses and storefronts at street level;
• C haracteristics of the remaining pre-war and inter- street trees;
war cottages: Edwardian (1901-1914) architectural • o ne and one-half-storey and two-storey buildings
styles including Edwardian Commercial, Edwardian with storefronts at street level, recessed entry ways,
Gable-front, Edwardian Cottage, Craftsman and large display windows with transom lights, brick
Foursquare; one, one and-one-half and two-storey façades, signbands and pressed metal cornices;
form; full-width front verandahs or front porches • commercial signage such as wooden or pressed
with front entries, tall vertical single and multi- metal signbands, and/or small projecting signs on
assembly windows with hung-sash profiles, front building façades at top of storefront.
and side-gabled and hipped roof profiles with
medium to steep roof pitch; and cladding in natural Existing or potential historic resources
materials like brick, plaster (stucco) from natural associated with this theme
components, wooden shingles and bevelled-wood
siding. • refer to Section 4b commerce
• raised median with continued plantings of grass
and purple-flowering Lilac shrubs; original Sunnyside Commercial
Bowness Road street name and historic relation Streetscape
to planned streetcar route to Bowness (Bowness
Road streetscape) Heritage Value

Existing and potential historic • The contiguous stretch of 1911-19 buildings at the
resources associated with this theme south end of the east side of 10th Street possesses
heritage value as an intact section of historic 10th
Existing - Bowness Road lilac medians Street, one of Calgary’s earliest and most important
Potential - n/a commercial streets, which has been associated
with commerce since the streetcar was introduced
Hillhurst Commercial Streetscape in 1909.

Heritage Value Character defining elements

• buildings built out to the property line along

• The east side of the 1100 block of Kensington a common setback with adjacent buildings;

95
1100 Block of Kensington Road, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

commercial uses and storefronts at street level; Marion (nee Marchant, 1861-1954) who had lived in
street trees; London from childhood. They started their family of
• two-storey Edwardian Commercial Style buildings five children before coming to Canada from England
and one-storey Commercial Style buildings with ca1903. A City of Calgary auditor, Arthur became
storefronts at street level, recessed entry ways, a developer when he formed a partnership with
large display windows with transom lights, brick William Ross around 1906, and the two registered the
façades, signbands and pressed metal cornices; Sunnyside subdivision that year as well as Broadview
• commercial signage such as wooden or pressed and an addition to Sunnyside in 1907. He also became
metal signbands, and/or small projecting signs a property owner with property elsewhere in Alberta,
on building façades at top of storefront; original and a builder. In 1914 Arthur built a contiguous row
painted “ghost” signs; and of nine charming one-storey gable-front cottages on
• inter-war and post-war vernacular commercial
3rd Avenue (Nos. 641,647-661), which he extended
buildings with interpretations or influences of to eleven cottages when he built two more in 1915
styles of the period. (Nos. 637 & 639). The houses represented substantial
and rare construction during the First World War.
Existing or potential historic resources According to Florence Wilson, whose family arrived in
associated with this theme the community in 1914 and after several moves lived
at 661, the homes were referred to as Bennett’s Bath
• refer to Section 4b commerce Houses in the 1920s, clearly for their resemblance to
the snug rows of colourful gable-fronted seaside beach
Bennett’s Bathhouses huts with verandahs found at seashore vacation spots.

Arthur Bennett (1865-1946), was born and raised in Bennett’s cottages were mainly destined for middle-
London, England where he married Australia-born class owners. The positions of the earliest owners were
96
651 3rd Avenue, one of Bennett’s Bathhouses, 2021 [copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

salesman, carpenter, sanitary inspector, a clerk with ‘very easy terms’. The couple moved to Ontario by 1926
the CPR, a wire chief101, two mechanics, two police where they lived the rest of their lives, first in Toronto
constables - one for the RNWMP and one for the City - and then in York. In 1929 an Interwar Craftsman-style
and a porter for the Hudson’s Bay Company. Based on cottage built on the empty double lot between 641
the details for number 659 each cottage had five rooms and 647 integrated discreetly into the row. Currently,
and a bathroom, and their cosy interiors featured fir his eleven original houses remain, despite the frequent
floors and trim, and a fireplace. The 1914 fire insurance flooding that they sustained before the Bear’s Paw Dam
map showed that construction had begun on all eleven was operating. Recently the three east-most homes
homes, each wooden-frame with wooden siding and a have been visually orphaned when the 1929 cottage
full-width front verandah (many which have since been was replaced by a two and one-half-storey infill.
enclosed).
Heritage Value
From his offices at home or in the McDougall Block
he built and sold other cottages; short advertisements • Bennett’s Bathhouses (1913-15) possess heritage
titled ‘A very pretty bungalow’ and ‘Fully modern value for their associations with their builder
cottage’ promoted their access to the street car and Arthur Bennett, one of Sunnyside’s developers
101
Supervisor responsible for maintenance, operation and personnel for and an important builder in the community. The
telegraph and telephone systems.
97
653 3rd Avenue, one of Bennett’s Bathhouses, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

eleven charming one-storey gable-front cottages Existing or potential historic resources

with wooden siding and full-width front verandahs associated with this streetscape
represent substantial and rare construction
during the First World War, especially on a single Existing: none
street with a contiguous row of eight houses. Potential: Bennett’s Bathhouses streetscape as
described above - could include all eleven original
Character defining elements homes, or just the eight in a row.

• Bennett’s Bathhouses streetscape, eleven 1913-15 b) Cultural Landscapes

one-storey, Edwardian Gable-front Style cottages
with wooden-shingle siding and full-width front
Cultural landscapes in Hillhurst-Sunnyside include
verandahs (many enclosed), with a contiguous row
a designed landscape, Riley Park, a commemorative
of eight cottages, in the 600 block of 3rd Avenue
landscape, Memorial Drive, and a natural landscape, in
• Edwardian
cottages on twenty-five foot lots
this case a reclaimed natural landscape, the McHugh
with uniform narrow front setbacks with soft
Bluffs. Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden is
landscaping, fronting treed, grassy public sidewalk
both a designed and commemorative landscape.
boulevards; rear lanes with garage access from the
lane

98
Riley Park designed cultural landscape By the summer of 1913 the Herald described the
design proposed for the park including tree-lined walks

In 1910, the year after Calgary’s first Parks Board bordered with flower beds radiating from a central

was established, Ezra Riley donated 20 acres of land bandstand and refreshment room and an artificial lake.

immediately north of his Hillhurst subdivision to Although the latter never materialized, later that year

the City for ‘park purposes only’, like other wealthy construction began on a wading pond. Cricket pitches

landowners at that time giving a kickstart to the and a clubhouse were formally developed in 1919,

city’s park system. The park was named Riley Park although the sport had been played there since the

by council the same year. Although the first Parks time the park was donated.

Superintendent John Buchanan intended to make

Riley Park one of his priorities, he resigned when the Heritage Value
required budgetary support from Council was not
forthcoming. Development began in earnest under his Riley Park is valued for:

replacement, Richard Iverson, in 1911; by the following • its association with the Riley family as former Riley

year a perimeter picket fence and elegant gates as well lands which were donated by Ezra Riley (person

as play structures were erected. In April 1913, Iverson, value)

who had also resigned, was replaced by long-time • its service for eleven decades as one of the most

Parks Superintendent William Reader. distinctive and important public spaces in the city
(institution value)

Riley Park pathway [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

99
• the park’s aesthetic appearance from its early residence with a rock garden. The location chosen for
development with formal, City Beautiful influences the stone and garden was on SAIT lands with sloping
such as geometric floral displays and curvilinear terrain adjacent to 10th Street that were unlikely to
pathways (design value) be used for future development. The garden was
designed as a naturalistic-style alpine rock garden by
Character defining elements Alex Munro, the Parks Superintendent at that time.

• views to Riley Park from 10th Street and from the Heritage Value
North Hill above the park;
• the historic relation of the park to its setting on • together with Riley Park the rock garden is a

adjacent former Riley lands, the undeveloped verdant and aesthetic landmark on the busy 10th
slopes above the park and the memorial rock Street corridor;
garden; and • the commemorative site, designed by Alex Munro,
• the formal, geometric floral display along 10th
is a unique example of a naturalistic-style alpine
Street influenced by the City Beautiful movement; rock garden that employs sandstone from an
curvilinear circulation pattern; wading pool; the historic residence (design value).
cricket pitches and club house.
Character defining elements
Existing or potential historic resources
associated with this streetscape • e lements and plantings of a naturalistic-style alpine
rock garden
Existing: Riley Park • o riginal sandstone from the 1901 Burns mansion
Potential: n/a • plaques honouring Senator Patrick Burns and Alex
Munro
Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock
Garden commemorative designed Existing or potential historic resources associated with
landscape this streetscape
Existing: Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden
The creation of this rock garden in the community Potential: n/a
dates to 1956 when the 1901 mansion of Patrick Burns,
city-builder, pioneer rancher and one of Canada’s most
noted entrepreneurs, was slated for demolition. It Memorial Drive commemorative
had been acquired in 1941 for the site of the Colonel landscape
Belcher federal military hospital and served as the
patient’s canteen and recreation centre after the Heritage Value
hospital was built.
Memorial Drive is valued:
Appeals to save the mansion were unsuccessful, • a s a ‘Road of Remembrance’ parkway planned in
however a solution was found to both commemorate 1922 and renamed Memorial Drive to remember
Burns and reuse 20,000 sandstone blocks from his those soldiers who fell in the First World War

100
Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden commemorative designed landscape [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

(design value)
• for the use of trees as a living memorial to symbolize
the triumph of life over death (symbolic value)
• as the city’s only parkway and therefore a well-

known landmark (landmark value)

Character defining elements

• landscaped parkway along the north bank of the

Bow River
• continued plantings of propagations of the original
Poplar trees planted in 1922

Existing or potential historic resources associated with

this streetscape
Existing: Memorial Drive
Potential: n/a

101
 transportation route which winds up the North Hill
(activity value)
• for the aesthetic contributions to 10th Street of

the City Beautiful geometric floral displays of
Riley Park, and the formal design and plantings of
the Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden
(design value)
• for the extensive, verdant green space along the
sloping terrain of both sides of the busy corridor,
including the landscaped grounds of SAIT
(landmark value)

Character defining elements

• c urvilinear route with uninterrupted landscaped

plantings of grass and mature trees on both sides
of the corridor where it climbs the North Hill
• v iews to the geometric floral displays and the east
cricket pitch of Riley Park, and to the Senator
Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden

View of heritage trees along Memorial Drive commemorative

landscape. [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

10th Street cultural landscape

This cultural landscape extends north along 10th Street

from the south end of Riley Park to 16th Avenue. From
about 1930 it was envisioned by William Reader as a
‘Tenth Street Park Way’. Expanding upon Riley Park
and the beautifully landscaped grounds of SAIT, Reader
planned to create green space on City lands located
along this important traffic corridor. These lands likely
had been acquired through tax forfeitures during the
inter-war recession and depression. Much of his vision
came to fruition; in addition, in 1956 the memorial rock
garden further enhanced this landscaped drive.

Heritage Value

The 10th Street cultural landscape is valued: William Reader’s plans for a 10th Street parkway, ca1930 [Credits:
• as the section of the historic Morleyville Trail
City of Calgary Archives 2001-032-082]

102
Existing or potential historic resources associated with Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community
this streetscape Garden cultural landscape
Existing: Riley Park and Senator Patrick Burns Memorial
Rock Garden This cultural landscape, situated in Sunnyside,
Potential: 10th Street cultural landscape comprises the 1989 Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community
Garden and the 2009 Hollicky Park and Community
McHugh Bluffs Orchard adjacent to the west across Sunnyhill Lane.
The community garden was first conceived by the
Heritage Value community association board in the mid-1970s during
its period of revitalisation. After funding became
The McHugh Bluffs reclaimed natural landscape is available in the mid-1980s, site acquisition and
valued value for its associations with: planning began under the guidance of resident Tref
• H illhurst-Sunnyside’s
frontier industry, Felix Burnett and his garden committee. The first earth
McHugh and John McCallum’s quarries (activity was turned in 1989, when the cooperative endeavour
value) became Calgary’s third community garden.
• historic flooding and mudslides after which the

slopes were stabilised and reclaimed (event value) Hollicky Park and Community Orchard, a small grove
• early pioneer homesteaders Philip Van Cortlandt
of fruit trees and shrubs incorporated into an existing
and Felix McHugh who farmed the land (person park adjacent to the garden, was part of a 2009 City of
value) Calgary pilot project for four urban orchards, and the
first to be completed. It was named for local resident
Character defining elements James Hollicky (Jim, 1931-2013) in recognition of his
long-time stewardship of the garden, park and orchard.
• the vegetation of the natural area: native and Hollicky was a constant presence in the garden from
introduced grasslands, extensive balsam poplar 1989 and its leader for many years. He had adopted the
forest with willow, ash, white spruce and Colorado park early on, and became the new orchard’s caretaker.
blue spruce, and small stands of upland tall shrub Gardening within this popular cultural landscape with
and aspen along the bluffs; over thirty garden plots has connected residents to
• views from the top of McHugh Bluffs to the city the land, to gardening, to the food they produce and
skyline, the Rocky Mountains, the Bow River Valley to each other.
and the flats below

Heritage Value
Existing or potential historic resources associated with
this streetscape The Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Garden cultural
Existing: none landscape is valued for its associations with the social
Potential: McHugh Bluffs activity of communal gardening (activity value)

103
View of Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Garden commemorative landscape [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

Character defining elements Existing or potential historic resources associated with

this streetscape

• location fronting 9th Avenue and setting next to Existing: none

the treed slopes at the base of the McHugh Bluffs Potential: none; Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community

• landscaped triangular community garden site with Garden cultural landscape is recommended for a site

mature trees and garden plots perpendicular to the for interpretation

cliff base
• central brick walkway laid by James Hollicky and
his family
• community orchard site with fruit trees and shrubs
such as apple, apricot and pear trees, and cherry,
hazelnut, gooseberry and honeyberry bushes;
grassy open space for use as playing field and
gathering place
• intangible heritage of continuous gardening since
1989

104
Appendix A: Tables
Use this page to reference each site’s theme number on the following tables:

• Existing Historic Resources on the Inventory

• Places of Interest List (PoIL)
• List of Potential Interpretive Sites

To save on space in the tables themselves, this legend will help you decipher relevant
themes of the sites.

Theme Number legend 7. Building Social and Community Life

a. Social, Intellectual and Ethnic English Cultural

1. The Landscape of Hillhurst-Sunnyside Life

a. Description b. Spiritual Life

b. Community Contours c. Connecting Community Through Sports,

c. Natural Habitat Clubs, Recreation and Leisure

d. The North Bank of The Bow d. Thriving Arts Community

2. The First Nations, Trails and Crossings 8. Special Streetscapes and Cultural Landscapes

a. The First Nations a. Special Streetscapes

b. Pre-Contact Trails b. Cultural Landscapes

c. Early Crossings
3. Early Homesteaders and Pioneer Settlement
(1883-1907)
a. Felix and Florence McHugh
b. The Riley Family, A Legacy In The Landscape
c. Other Pioneers
d. Early Subdivisions
4. Early Commerce & Industry
a. The Streetcar
b. Early Commercial Development
c. Early Industry
5. Urban Development
a. Pre-War Boom and First World War
Development (1904-1918)
b. Inter-War and Second World War Development
(1919-1944) and Memorial Drive
c. Post-War and Mid-Century Hillhurst-Sunnyside
(1946-1960)
d. Hillhurst-Sunnyside Renaissance (1970-1983)
6. Establishing Community Institutions
a. Public Institutions and Services
b. Health Care

105
Existing Historic
Resources on the Inventory
Hillhurst Sites
Date Historic Name Address Theme Comments
(Current) Number
1913 A.B.C. Dando Residence 1722 6 AV NW 5a, 3c
1922 AGT Building - Hillhurst 1510 Kensington RD NW 4b
Exchange
1932 Bow Valley Lawn Bowling Club 1740 Bowness RD NW 7a, 7c
1932 Bowness Road NW Lilac 0 Bowness RD NW 8a, 5b City Beautiful influence
Medians
1909 Fire Hall No. 6 1111 Memorial DR NW 6a, 5a Currently used by Parks
1912 Hayden Block 1134 Kensington RD NW 4b
1921 Heritage Hall (SAIT Campus) 1301 16 AV NW 6b
1921 Hillhurst (Louise) Bridge 0 10 ST NW 1d, 2b, 3d
1907 Hillhurst Baptist Church 1110 Gladstone RD NW 2b, 7b
1910 Hillhurst Cottage School 455 12 ST NW 6b Was later (post 1950s) used
for clubs/activities etc.
1911 Hillhurst School 1418 7 AV NW 6b
1912 Hillhurst United Church 1227 Kensington CL NW 7b
1912 Hunter Block (Riley Park 1209 5 AV NW 5a, 3d, 4b Also listed as 1908,
Grocery) first grocery in the
neighbourhood
1913 John A. Tweddle Residence 1728 6 AV NW 5a
1926 King George Masonic Hall 1126 Kensingon RD NW 7a
1912 Malcolm Clair Residence 226 11A ST NW 5a
1954 Mewata Bridge 0 14 ST NW 5c, 1d
1928 Plaza Theatre 1133 Kensington RD NW 7c, 5b, 4b
1930 Queen Elizabeth Junior and 512 18 ST NW 6b, 5b, 5d
Senior High School
1911 Riley Park 800 12 ST NW 3b, 3d, 7c
1956 Senator Patrick Burns 1103 10 ST NW 3c, 3d, 7c
Memorial Rock Garden
1911 Smith (Cozzubbo) Residence 207 10A ST NW 5a
1911 Smith Block 1122 Kensington RD NW 4b
1957 Southern Alberta Jubilee 1415 14 AV NW 7d, 7c, 6a, 6b
Auditorium
1912 St. Barnabas Church Tower 1407 Kensington RD NW 7b
1916 St. John Elementary School 1309 Kensington RD NW 6b
1953 St. John’s Church (Demolished 409 10 ST NW 7b
- 2003)
1911 William J. Gray Residence 424 11A ST NW 5a
1919 11 Street NW Lilac Median 0 11 ST NW 8a, 5b City Beautiful
1929 6 Avenue NW Lilac Medians 0 6 AV NW 8a, 5b City Beautiful
106
Sunnyside Sites
Date Historic Name Address Theme Comments
(Current) Number
1907 Brower House 1052 Memorial DR NW 5a
1914 Cappy Smart Residence 436 Memorial DR NW 5a Cappy was a chief with fire
dept
1911 Carscallen Block 116 10 ST NW 4b
1903 Donegal Mansions 830 Memorial DR NW 5b
1913 East Sunnyside Grocery 540 7 AV NW 4b
1928 Glenwood Manor 904 Memorial DR NW 5b Samuel Nickle and other
notable Calgarians have lived
here
1912 Irwin Block 110 10 ST NW 4b
1923 Lough & Elaine Apartments 820 Memorial DR NW 5b
1922 Memorial Drive Memorial DR (10 ST NW to 8a, 8b, 5b
Zoo RD)
1912 Orman Residence 734 Memorial DR NW 5a
1911 Palfreyville Apartments 802 2 AV NW 5a
(Demolished - 2014)
1910 Smalley Residence 440 Memorial DR NW 5a
1919 Sunnyside Bungalow School 211 7 ST NW 6b
1911 Sunnyside Grocery 802 2 AV NW 4b
(Demolished - 2018)
1908 Upton Residence 1035 1 AV NW 5a
1912 Vendome Block 938 2 AV NW 5a, 4a
1911 Wellington Terrace 1001 3 AV NW 5a
1919 104/106 10 ST NW 104 10 ST NW 5b
1919 106A 10 ST NW 106A 10 ST NW 5b
1910 118-120 9 ST NW 120 9 ST NW 5b
1919 108 10 ST NW 108 10 ST NW 5b
1939 1037 2 AV NW (Demolished - 1037 2 AV NW 5b
2013)
1912 144/146 10 ST NW 144 10 ST NW 4b Lido
(Demolished - 2014)

Outside Hillhurst-Sunnyside

1910 Riley Lodge 843 27 ST NW (Parkdale) 3b Home of Alfred Riley located

in Parkdale within original
Riley Family homestead
1959 Louise Riley branch of Calgary 1904 14 AV NW 3b within original Riley
Public Library homestead boundaries

107
Places of Interest List
(POIL)
Date Historic Name Address Theme Comments
(Current) Number
n/a 10 ST Cultural Landscape n/a 8b Cultural landscape
1913 A. Florence Residence 756 5A ST NW 1b Moved from 618 9 AV NW
after 1948 mudslide
1973 Alberta College of Art 1407 14 AV NW 3b, 6b, 5d, Innovative architecture,
(Alberta University of the 6b excellent example from
Arts campus) period
1981 The Arbours 834 2 AV NW 5d Innovative architecture,
excellent example from
period
~1912 Bennett’s Bathouses 639-659 3 AV NW 5a rare grouping of cottages
by developer/builder Arthur
Bennett
~1912 Clement & Thorton 918-920 5 ST NW 5a Rare residential brick
Residences construction in Sunnyside
~1951 Davies Residence 737 5 ST NW 5c Rare mid-century residence
1900s Dodger Lewis Residence 940 Memorial DR NW 7a Person Value (athlete)
1945 Doherty Residence 745 4 ST NW 5b Rare Second World War
residence
1912 Donald Residence 1410 Memorial DR NW 5d Reconverted to single
family
~1910 Francis Residence 236 11A ST NW 6c Health care theme
1980 Gladstone Court Townhouses 11 ST & Gladstone RD 5d Innovative architecture,
NW excellent example from
period
~1907 Great West Trading Company 429 11 ST NW 4b, 6a, 7a Early post office and
community hub
1911 Hay Residence 318 7 ST NW 5a Architect-designed built for
personal residence
1901- Herchmer Residence 1643 Broadview RD NW 3d Person value
1903
1911 Irvine Residence 729 5th Street NW 5a, 7b Architect-designed built for
personal residence
1983 Kensington House 1167 Bowness RD NW 5d Innovative architecture,
excellent example from
period
1981 Kensington Place 1240 Kensington RD NW 5d Innovative architecture,
excellent example from
period
1939 Kerr Residence 715 4A ST NW 5b Rare Second World War
residence

108
Date Historic Name Address Theme Comments
(Current) Number
~1945 Locke Residence 1631 Bowness RD NW 5c Rare Modern Bungalow in
neighbourhood
~1914 Lloyd Turner Residence 842 4 AV NW 7a Person value (athlete)
1912 MacLean Residence 821 4 AV NW 5a Architect-designed built for
personal residence
n/a McHugh Bluffs n/a 8b Cultural Landscape
~1912 Bennett’s Bathouses 639-659 3 AV NW 5a Innovative architecture,
excellent example from
period
~1912 Memorial Drive Condominium 934 Memorial DR NW 5d Rare residential brick
construction in Sunnyside
1955 Michael Residence 640 3 AV NW 5c Rare Modern Bungalow in
neighbourhood
1955 Norfolk House 1114-1120 Kensington RD 5d, 7c Innovative architecture,
NW excellent example from
period
2012 Peace Bridge n/a 1d Design by Santiago Calatrava

~1912 Piper Residence 638 2 AV NW 1b Moved from 568 9 AV after

1948 mud slide
1978 Ross Place 1400 Kensington RD NW 5d, 7a Innovative architecture,
excellent example from
period
1980 Spindler Office Building 1601 Westmount RD NW 5d Innovative architecture,
excellent example from
period
1978 Sunnyside Housing 725 3 ST NW 5d Innovative architecture,
excellent example from
period
1981 Two One Three Nine 4 Avenue 2139 4 AV NW 5d Innovative architecture,
excellent example from
period
1912 Whitten Residence 1016 Memorial DR NW 5a Architect-designed built for
personal residence
n/a ** Residence 202-6 ST NW (laneway) 1d floated across the Bow,
possible livery stable

109
List of Potential
Interpretive Sites
Date Historic Name Address Theme Comments
(Current) Number
1912 144/146 10 Street NW (Lido 144/146 10 ST NW 4b, 5a see item under inventory listing,
Block) demolished 2014
1939 1037 2nd Avenue Apartment 1037 2 AV NW 5b see item under inventory listing,
demolished 2013
n/a Bandstand, Riley Park 800 12 ST NW 7a, 7d original replaced
1976 Calgary Curling Club 720 3 ST NW 7a
1982 Dr. Betty Mitchell Theatre 1415 14 AV NW 7d see item under inventory listing,
demolished 2004
n/a Felix McHugh House location Corner of Memorial DR and 3a
9a ST NW
n/a First Nations Trails (10th St, 10 ST, Gladstone RD, 4 AV 2b First Nations pre-contact
Gladstone Rd & 4th Ave east of (east of 10 ST) NW trails that shaped the current
10th St) subdivisions
~1912 Garnet Block 302 10 ST NW 4b Additional original location on
8th Street and 2nd Avenue, see
item under inventory listing,
demolished ca1970s
1911 Hillhurst Athletic Park (Hillhurst- 1320 5 AV NW 7a, 7c
1953 Sunnyside Park) & Hillhurst-
Sunnyside Community
Association)
~1989 Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community n/a 8b Cultural landscape
Garden
~1907 Hillhurst Presbyterian Church Kensington RD & 10 A ST 7b see item under inventory listing,
NW demolished ca1914
~1911 Kerr Block 1118a Memorial DR NW 4b
~1900s New Edinburgh Park 625 3 AV NW 7a
1911 Palfreyville Apartments 214 9 ST NW 5a see item under inventory listing,
demolished 2014
1889 Riley Family Pioneer Cemetery n/a
1967 Robert the Bruce Statue 1415 14 AV NW 7a
1911 Ross Block 109a 10 ST NW 3d, 4b, 5a, 7a destroyed by fire, 1988
1906 St. Barnabas Churchyard 1407 7 AV NW 3b Burial place of Thomas &
Georgiana Riley family members
1953 St. John’s Church 409 10 ST NW 5c see item under inventory listing,
demolished 2003
1911 Sunnyside Grocery 802 2 AV NW 3d, 4b, 5a see item under inventory listing,
demolished in 2018
1910 Theophilus Thompson grouping 412-422 11 ST NW 5a Theophilus Thompson (builder
-1911 of Edwardian homes and craftsman)

110
Community Statement
of Significance
Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses activity value:
Summary of Significance • for its associations since 1909 with its historic

streetcar system, which was one of the earliest
Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses landmark value for its in Calgary to develop and which offered the best
setting along the Bow River valley, its striking topology service outside the city centre.
of bluffs rising above river flats and its extensive natural • its historic streetcar commercial streets, which are
areas on the escarpment and river banks that contrast the social and commercial hub of the community:
with its urban context. (Landmark Value) • 1 0th Street, one of Calgary’s earliest and most
important commercial streets, which has been
The Hillhurst-Sunnyside community possesses activity associated with commerce since 1909;
value for its associations with transportation: • Kensington Road, which developed from 1912
• for the 10th Street NW transportation route, once a • i ts associations with its frontier industries: Felix

pre-contact trail for First Nations peoples which in McHugh and John McCallum’s quarries in Sunnyside;
1873 became the Morleyville Trail historic cart trail, Peter Prince’s Calgary Water Power Company just
the first streetcar service north of the Bow in 1909, west of today’s Louise (Hillhurst) bridge; and the
and the northwest light rail transit line in 1987; leg of the Anderson Brother’s Calgary Hydraulic
• and for the 1921 Louise Bridge which marks the Company which ran through Hillhurst. (Activity
historic crossing location of an early fording place, Value)
and later the 1888 Bow Marsh Bridge, the second
bridge to cross the Bow River. (Activity Value) Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its streetscapes and remaining
pre-war housing stock possess symbolic value as a
Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses person value for: working-class and lower middle-class community that
• the Riley pioneer ranch family, city-builders who
almost fully developed during Calgary’s pre-First World
left a legacy in the landscape with the subdivisions War construction boom. (Symbolic Value)
they established, the land they donated for park
space and education, and the institutions they Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its inter-war buildings and
created and supported. landscapes possess symbolic value for the resilience
• the other early pioneers who homesteaded on the and determination of those who built during the
lands where the community is located: the Felix depressed economy of the inter-war and Second World
McHugh family, Byam Godsal, Philip Sidney Van War periods. (Symbolic Value)
Cortlandt, Samuel William Trott, George and Henry
Alexander, and Lawrence and Jane Herchmer. Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its mid-century buildings and
(Person Value) structures possess symbolic value for their associations
with Calgary’s post-war economic oil boom when

111
Louise (Hillhurst) Bridge looking from the southeast

renewed prosperity enabled the final build-out of the Park, and worship in St Barnabas Church of England
community. (Symbolic Value) and Hillhurst United (originally Presbyterian) Church
are enduring examples of intangible cultural heritage
Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its 1970s and early 1980s that have been practiced for over a century. (Symbolic
architecture is symbolic of the period of urban Value)
revitalisation of the historic neighbourhood led by
community residents and businesses. (Symbolic Value) Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses person value for notable
The Hillhurst-Sunnyside community possesses Canadian racial equality pioneers, Violet and Theodore
institution value for its historic associations with (Ted) King. Violet (1929-1982) broke barriers for both
education, health care and its many community gender and racial equality; she was the first Black
institutions like the local post office and telephone person to obtain a law degree in Alberta and the first
exchange. (Institution Value) to be admitted to the Alberta bar association, and was
also Canada’s first Black female lawyer. Ted was an
Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses symbolic value for its early human rights advocate who served as president
association with the cultural aspirations of its ethnic of the Alberta Association for the Advancement of
English and Scottish settlers, developers, business Coloured People. (Person Value)
owners and residents. The east part of Sunnyside was
called New Edinburgh during the early 1900s, and Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses institution value for its
both Hillhurst and Sunnyside had original English and extant churches, some which are still active places of
Scottish street names. The game of cricket in Riley worship. (Institution Value)

112
Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses activity value for its
Heritage Value
association with sports, and for playing fields, cricket
pitches and lawn bowling greens. (Activity Value)
Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses landmark value for its
setting along the Bow River valley, its striking topology
Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses person value for its local
of bluffs rising above river flats and its extensive
sportsmen who achieved national and international
natural areas on the escarpment and river banks that
recognition including Lloyd Turner who was inducted
contrast with its urban context. A large part of the
into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a ‘Builder’ in 1958,
community’s terrain has been retained as natural area
Dodger Lewis who played fastball in the 1930s for the
green space which encircles the neighbourhood along
St Louis Browns, professional hockey player Joseph
the bluffs and riverbanks, as well as a very small green
Sidney (Sid) Finney who played in the National Hockey
space on the west-most flats. In addition to its natural
League for the Chicago Blackhawks (1951-54), and Ezra
areas, Hillhurst-Sunnyside has an historical relation to
and Frank Riley who organized the Hillhurst Football
its geographic features which have shaped its urban
Club which twice won the Dominion Championship.
development on the river flats. Sloughs located on the
(Person Value)
flats, at one time extensive, have gradually disappeared
over time as they were reclaimed. The area has also
Description experienced mudslides and slope instability at the
base of the bluffs, as well as a legacy of historic floods
Hillhurst-Sunnyside comprises two northwest inner-city
left by the Bow River.
communities, Hillhurst and Sunnyside, located across
the river from the Downtown Centre. The Bow River
These lands are also part of the traditional territories
forms its southern boundary. The northern boundary
of the Blackfoot peoples, comprising the Siksika
runs along 8th Avenue NW between 18th and 14th
(Blackfoot), the Kainai (Blood) and the Piikani (Peigan);
Streets NW, jogs north to 16th Avenue NW between
the Stoney Nakoda comprising the Bearspaw, Wesley
14th and 10th Streets, then south again to 8th Avenue
and Chiniki; and the Tsuu T’ina (Sarcee) peoples. They
before wrapping around the Sunnyside and McHugh
used the lands for hunting and gathering supplies and
Bluffs and Crescent Road. The eastern boundary is
food as they followed the migration of the bison which
Centre Street North, while the western boundary is
were central to their way of life and essential for their
18th Street between the Bow River and 8th Avenue,
survival. The Bow River, while too shallow for reliable
and 14th Street north of 9th Avenue. Hillhurst and
transport, was important for navigation, its life-giving
Sunnyside are separated by 10th Street NW, a major
waters, and sustaining the plants and game that the
traffic corridor, formerly the Morleyville Trail, and later
First Nations peoples used for medicines and food.
an historic commercial street and early streetcar route,
The sheltered river valley was also an ideal location for
with Hillhurst to the west and Sunnyside to the east.
winter camps.

Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses activity value for its

associations with transportation, for both its overland
routes and its river crossings. The 10th Street NW
transportation route is associated with its service
as a pre-contact trail for First Nations peoples, as
113
the Morleyville Trail historic cart trail between the and settled in in today’s Hillhurst, West Hillhurst and
Morleyville mission and Calgary from 1873, as the first Hounsfield Heights with his wife Georgiana Hounsfield
streetcar service north of the Bow in 1909, and as the (1843-1907) in 1887. His sons worked on the family
northwest light rail transit line from 1987. Another trail farm and also acquired homesteads nearby as they
used in pre-contact times ran diagonally across the reached the eligible age to apply. They entered into
communities towards the northeast, skirting the north partnership with their father as the Riley & Sons
edge of the sloughs, to the Sunnyside bluffs. In the agricultural enterprise.
early 20th Century, the trail took the name Gladstone
Avenue (later Gladstone Road) in Hillhurst, and 4th Of Thomas and Georgina’s large family, their son,
Avenue in Sunnyside. philanthropist and pioneer rancher Ezra Hounsfield
Riley (1866-1937), made the strongest influence on the
The 1921 Louise Bridge marks an historic crossing landscape of Hillhurst. An important Calgary developer
location where the Morleyville Trail crossed the Bow and the MLA for Gleichen from 1906-10, Toronto-
River, which was first an early fording place, and born Ezra subdivided the land immediately west of
later the 1888 Bow Marsh Bridge, the second bridge Morleyville Trail in 1904 as Plan 5609J ‘Hillhurst’, naming
to cross the Bow River. The Bow Marsh Bridge was it for the Quebec stock farm of Senator Cochrane. In
rebuilt following the 1897 flood, replaced in 1906 by 1910 he also donated 20 acres of land bordering his
the steel trestle Louise Bridge and again replaced subdivision to the north to the City for ‘park purposes
by the new concrete arch Louise Bridge in 1921 to only’, expressing his desire that cricket be played there
facilitate streetcar service. Other river crossings in the forever. The park was named Riley Park by council the
community include the 1954 Mewata Bridge at 14th same year. In 1912 Ezra provided an endowment for St
Street, the 1972 pedestrian/cyclist crossing between Barnabas Anglican Church and cemetery, and in 1919
Memorial Drive and Prince’s Island Park, the 1987 Light he sold the part of his estate located directly north of
Rail Transit overpass and pedestrian/cyclist crossing the park to the Province for their technical institute.
just east of the Louise Bridge, and the 2012 Peace
Bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. Ezra’s daughter, author and longtime children’s
librarian Margaret Louise (1900-1957), is best known
Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses person value for early for her role in introducing children’s sections to
pioneers who homesteaded on the lands where Calgary’s public libraries. Ezra’s brother Harold Riley
the community is located. The Riley pioneer ranch (1877-1946) first earned recognition at age twenty-
family were city-builders, who left a legacy in the seven as the youngest deputy minister in Canada when
landscape with the subdivisions they established, he was appointed the first deputy Provincial Secretary
the land they donated for park space and education, and Registrar of Companies. He served in municipal
and the institutions they created and supported. The politics as alderman, and provincially as the Member
Riley lands would eventually become Hillhurst, West of the Alberta Legislature for Gleichen. Harold’s wife,
Hillhurst, Briar Hill, Hounsfield Heights, St Andrew’s Maude Riley (nee Keene, 1880-1962), is recognized for
Heights, University Heights, parts of Brentwood, her achievements in women’s rights, child welfare and
Charleswood, parts of Parkdale and the north campus justice reforms, and family courts.
of the University of Calgary. Thomas Riley (1842-1909), Other important pioneers include the Felix McHugh
a farmer from England, immigrated to Canada in 1862 family, Byam Godsal, Philip Sidney Van Cortlandt,

114
McHugh Bluffs and the wooden stairs leading up. The stairs are something of a community focal point and are a popular exercise location

Samuel William Trott, George and Henry Alexander, connect. The Sunnyside and Hillhurst plans retained
and Lawrence and Jane Herchmer. Well-known pioneer the routes of the pre-contact trails, the Morleyville Trail
rancher and contractor Felix Alexander McHugh (1851- and the diagonal trail north of the slough. Byam Martin
1912) came west in 1883 shortly after his marriage to Godsal (1856-1935) - described by the Herald as ‘one
Florence O’Doherty (1861- 1933). He established his of Calgary’s earliest settlers before the railway was
21-acre homestead in the southeast part of Section 21 built’ - had a homestead along the Bow River in the
on the north bank of the Bow across from Prince’s southeast corner of today’s Hillhurst (NW16, northwest
Island, and together with his brother Thomas, cultivated quarter of Section 16) which he began homesteading
about 8 hectares east of 10th Street. Developers in the summer of 1883. His land would also be acquired
Arthur Bennett and William Ross eventually acquired by Bennett and Ross and became the 1907 Plan 4163P
these lands and engaged surveyor Herbert Harrison ‘Broadview’ subdivision in southeast Hillhurst. From
Moore to register the 1906 Plan 2448O ‘Sunnyside’ early 1883 ex-NWMP officer Philip Sidney Van Cortlandt
and its larger 1907 addition, Plan 1948P. Moore’s homesteaded the part of the southwest quarter of
layout employs a striking juxtaposition of grid lots Section 22 that lay north of the boulevard fronting the
with east-west orientation along the main corridors, Bow River. His farm was located in the part of today’s
and northeast-southwest orientation in the centre to Sunnyside farthest east between 4th Street NW and
align with the river, set against deep, narrow lots that Centre Street North. His lands became the east part
run perpendicular to the base of the bluff. Distinctive of the 1907 Sunnyside addition referred to as ‘New
intersections are created where the different grids Edinburgh’.

115
Samuel William Trott (1847-1891), a pioneer pharmacist Hillhurst. It was a two-storey, wood-frame vernacular
from Collingwood, Ontario, came west in 1871 with building erected along a weir across the Bow River just
a survey team, establishing himself as a druggist in west of the Bow Marsh Bridge. It was built and operated
Winnipeg before settling in Calgary in 1883, where he by the Calgary Water Power Company established by
opened Trott Brothers drug store on Stephen Avenue Peter Prince in 1889. The Anderson Brother’s Calgary
the following year. He raised cattle on the south half of Hydraulic Company, incorporated in 1893, constructed
Section 20 although he lived in the town. and operated an irrigation ditch along the Bow River
that originated in today’s Montgomery and ended in
Irish-born cousins George and Henry (Harry) Alexander today’s Hillhurst.
began accumulating land near Calgary from 1888, and
purchased the southeast quarter from Trott. The cousins Although commerce was present in the community
also purchased Section 19 north of the Bow from the many years before, its historic commercial streets, the
CPR in 1888, and it appears they ranched the land they social and commercial hub of the community, were
amassed in this area. In 1902, they sold the southeast enabled by its streetcar system which was one of the
quarter of Section 20 to Georgiana Riley which she earliest in Calgary to develop, and which offered the
developed in 1906 as Plan 6219L ‘Upper Hillhurst’. best service outside the city centre. 10th Street, one
In 1901, Lawrence William Herchmer (1840-1915) of Calgary’s earliest and most important commercial
purchased CPR land in the north half of Section 17 in streets, has been associated with commerce since
the southwest part of today’s Hillhurst, where he built 1909, and Kensington Road from 1912 when streetcar
and resided in the ca1901-1903 ‘old colonial Herchmer service was introduced. The commercial area first
House’ for several years. Herchmer, Commissioner developed south of 3rd Avenue near the bridge and
for the NWMP from 1886 to 1900, is credited with was referred to as ‘The Bridge’. The sloughs which
shaping the early NWMP into an efficient organization remained prevented development north of 3rd Avenue.
and effective military operation, improving training and
living and working conditions. He left a legacy of a A contiguous stretch of 1911-19 buildings on the
NWMP with significantly higher morale and reputation, east side of 10th Street near the bridge is a strong
and the wide-brimmed felt hat and the musical rides reminder of the early commercial street. These pre-
that he adopted have become widely popular. He and WWI commercial buildings are typical of the blocks
his second wife, Jane Ashworth, developed the land built outside the city centre: smaller, two-storey
in 1907 as the Plan 5151O ‘Westmont’ subdivision of buildings with residential suites above and storefronts
Hillhurst. at street level. They display Edwardian Commercial-
style features such as recessed entry ways, large
Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses activity value for its early display windows with transom lights, brick façades,
commerce and frontier industry. Felix McHugh operated signbands and pressed metal cornices. Later buildings
a quarry, one of two quarries in today’s Sunnyside, at constructed at the end of the First World War have
the base of the escarpment near today’s 4th Street. many of the storefront features but are generally one-
The second, the Sunnyside Freestone Quarry, was storey, wood-frame Commercial-style buildings.
located east of McHugh’s quarry and run by Scottish
quarry operator John McCallum from at least 1889. One Since the 1970s the 10th Street Business Association,
of Calgary’s first hydro plants was located in today’s which became the ‘Kensington at Louise Crossing

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Business Revitalisation Zone’ in 1985, has been most common occupation in the community), builders,
promoting the commercial area as Louise Crossing, stone masons and cutters, brick-layers, steam-fitters,
maintaining the reference to the bridge. Today the tinsmiths and blacksmiths, steel and iron workers,
district is the Kensington Business Improvement millwrights, plasterers, painters and electricians.
Area (BIA), also promoted as Kensington Village and There were also many labourers, many of whom
one of fifteen BIA’s in Calgary. There were less than would have been employed in the construction sector.
five commercial businesses on 14th Street prior to Transportation was also a sector where many early
the construction of the Mewata Bridge in 1954, after residents worked, their roles identified as teamsters,
which commercial activities expanded rapidly, with the drivers, warehousemen, shippers, and liverymen.
businesses generally clustered near the intersections
with Kensington Road and with 5th Avenue. The pre-war residential streetscapes are characterised
by Edwardian cottages fronting shallow, landscaped
Hillhurst-Sunnyside, its streetscapes and remaining front yards, most with mature plantings, as well
pre-war housing stock possess symbolic value as a as treed sidewalk boulevards. As well, since most
working-class and lower middle-class community that blocks have lanes, the residential streets can retain
almost fully developed during Calgary’s pre-First World their tree-lined, pedestrian-friendly character since
War construction boom. The most popular housing garages, outbuildings and utilities are at the rear of the
types by far during the boom were one-storey and one properties so front driveways are not necessary. The
and one-half storey cottages, with twice as many one- preferred pre-war styles in Hillhurst-Sunnyside were
storey homes being built. This is not surprising since the popular Edwardian domestic styles of the time. In
cottages were affordable and especially appealed to general they were constructed on 25-foot lots with full-
first-time working-class and lower middle-class buyers. width front verandahs, and their stylistic detailing was
Approximately one third of the one and one-half storey less ornate than their Victorian predecessors. While
houses (houses where the entire upper storey is prized for their modernity, efficiency and affordability,
contained within the roofline) were constructed with Edwardian cottages were also valued for their cosiness,
undeveloped upper storeys. This further reduced the charm and versatile designs. Their common floor plans
initial cost of the home, while permitting owners to could be given a distinctive appearance by creatively
develop the attic space in the future to accommodate applying simplified architectural detailing - often of
their growing families. Two-storey homes were less earlier styles such as Queen Anne, Tudor, Colonial and
common, especially in Sunnyside where a relatively Classical Revivals.
small number were built; their first owners had a Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its inter-war buildings and
wide variety of occupations. Most buildings were landscapes possess symbolic value for the resilience
wooden-frame with bevelled wood siding with notable and determination of those who built during the
exceptions in Sunnyside. depressed economy of the inter-war and Second World
War periods. There was little construction during the
The overwhelming majority of Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s period between the First and Second World Wars. For
working-class and lower middle-class new home owners most of the 1920s, five or fewer homes were built
were trades persons employed in the construction annually; during the Second World War (1939-44) less
industry, reflecting the demands of the boom for a than ten houses, a single 1939 apartment building
complete range of services: carpenters (by far the (non-extant) and no commercial blocks were built. Any

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Looking down the McHugh Bluffs into the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden at 9 AV and Sunnyhill LN NW

extant homes from that period should be considered houses - were erected, most replacing existing homes.
rare. Of the remaining extant, unaltered 1950s homes there
are interesting examples of the popular mid-century
Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its innovative mid-century Modern Bungalow and Minimal Traditional styles.
buildings and structures possess symbolic value for
their associations with Calgary’s post-war economic Hillhurst-Sunnyside and its 1970s and early 1980s
oil boom when renewed prosperity enabled the final architecture is symbolic of the period of urban
build-out of the community. It was not until the Post- revitalisation of the historic neighbourhood led by
war period of prosperity which began with the 1947 community residents and businesses. Commercial
Leduc oil discovery that the remaining vacant lots on complexes include the 1977-1978 Ross Place by
the commercial street were filled in. By the end of Pendergast & Purl, 1978-1980 Spindler Office Building
the 1960s, about twenty-three new bungalows infilled by Ken Hutchinson, 1979-1981 Two One Three Nine
the vacant lots interspersed through the community. 4th Avenue by Tom Laird & Associated, 1980-1981
Also by the end of the 1960s, with new land use Kensington Place by Peter & Symonds, and 1981-1983
classifications introduced in the 1950s, twenty-one new Kensington House by Barry Pendergast. Residential
walk-up style apartment buildings - almost as many as architecture from this period includes 1977-1979

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Kensington Road NW, facing east. King George Masonic Hall and Smith Block are visible to the right, while Irwin Block can be seen in the
distance at the far traffic lights.

Memorial Drive Condominium by George Brown, Sunnyside Bungalow School.

1979-1981 The Arbours by James McKellar, 1979-
1980 Gladstone Court by Sturgess Donnell, and the Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses symbolic value for its
mixed-use 1981-1982 Norfolk House by James Jones. association with the cultural aspirations of its ethnic
Perhaps the most impressive building from this period English and Scottish settlers, developers, business
is institutional, the expansive 1969-1972 University of owners and residents. The east part of Sunnyside was
the Arts building by Cohos Evamy. called New Edinburgh during the early 1900s, and
The Hillhurst-Sunnyside community possesses both Hillhurst and Sunnyside had original English and
institution value for its institutional buildings and Scottish street names. The threads of ethnic English
their historic associations with education, health care and Scottish traditions that ran through the early
and community institutions like the local post offices cultural life of Hillhurst-Sunnyside began with the area’s
and telephone exchange. Many significant buildings pioneers and developers whose families had roots in
associated with education remain including the 1921 those two homelands, and brought the customs of
Heritage Hall and the 1973 Alberta University of the those countries to their new home.
Arts complex on the SAIT Campus, the 1910 Hillhurst
Cottage School, the 1911 Hillhurst School, the 1930 The Englishness of Hillhurst was clearly shaped by the
Queen Elizabeth Junior and Senior High School, vision of its pioneer landowner and developer, Ezra
the 1916 St John Elementary School and the 1919 Riley, whose father Thomas came from Derbyshire,

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England and mother Georgiana from North Lincolnshire, Sunnyside where Scottish influences in the landscape
England. Both Ezra’s original 1904 subdivision and its and culture originated with landowner and developer
1906 addition employed street names that referenced William Ross who settled in Calgary in 1905. He was
English place names including Oxford, Gladstone, from Kincardine Township, Bruce County, Ontario and
Buckingham, Norfolk and Essex. When his mother, of Scottish descent, his father Allan being from Rosshire
Georgiana Riley, registered Upper Hillhurst in 1906 she and his mother Alexandria from the Isle of Harris in
also used street names with English references like Scotland. Ross and business partner Arthur Bennett
Marlborough and Wellington streets and others named registered Sunnyside, both its original subdivision and
for the British Royal family. larger addition, and Broadview subdivisions in 1907.
‘New Edinburgh’, the east part of the larger Sunnyside
English roots are also evident in Col Lawrence addition, had street names like Dundee, Glasgow
Herchmer’s 1907 Westmont subdivision which had and Leith avenues. New Edinburgh Park takes the
original street names like Cambridge, Devenish, and subdivision’s former name. In Broadview, Bennett and
Beveridge. Herchmer descended from a prominent Ross’s only Hillhurst-Sunnyside subdivision west of 10th
Kingston, Ontario family of United Empire Loyalists Street, a Church of Scotland - Hillhurst Presbyterian
whose arrival in North America dates to the 18th Church - was erected south of Kensington Road, the
century. As a result he was born in England and first in 1907 and a second permanent church in 1912.
received most of his education there.
Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses person value for notable
The Church of England (Anglican Church) also featured Canadian racial equality pioneers, Violet and Theodore
conspicuously in Hillhurst, with Morleyville Road named (Ted) King. Violet (1929-1982) broke barriers for both
for the Anglican Mission at Morley, and after 1906, gender and racial equality. In 1954 she became the first
with St Barnabas Church and churchyard. In 1912 Ezra Black person to obtain a law degree in Alberta and the
gifted a new brick-clad St Barnabas Church to the first to be admitted to the Alberta bar, the latter being
parish. As well, an Anglican boy’s school, the Bishop a feat that would not be repeated for another decade.
Pinkham College (the site that would be used for health She was also Canada’s first Black female lawyer. Her
care), was built just north of Hillhurst School. Perhaps brother Ted was an early human rights advocate who
the most unusual English influence to find in a North served as president of the Alberta Association for the
American community is the cricket field, also a legacy Advancement of Coloured People. This was a time
of Ezra. He donated the land for a City park, Riley Park, when hotels and motels could refuse accommodation
in 1910 and in 1919 he asked parks superintendent to people of visible minorities, and Ted used the courts
William Reader to install cricket pitches in the park. He to fight this discrimination.
also requested that cricket be the only team sport to
be played in Riley Park. The game of cricket in Riley Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses institution value for its
Park where the Calgary and District Cricket League are extant places of worship, some of which are still active
currently based, and worship in St Barnabas Church of places of worship: the 1907 Hillhurst Baptist Church,
England, are enduring examples of intangible cultural the 1912 Hillhurst United Church and cemetery, and
heritage that have been practiced for over a century. the 1912 St Barnabas Church Tower.

A parallel ethnic cultural development was unfolding in Hillhurst-Sunnyside possesses activity value for

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 arts and fine arts, as well as galleries being located in the
community, Hillhurst-Sunnyside has become a nucleus
of arts in the city. Residents have been attracted to the
neighbourhood by the thriving local arts centres and
in turn have shaped and fostered the local culture in
the community. The Alberta University of the Arts was
established on the SAIT campus in 1926, beginning
as a department of the technical school, and growing
to become a fully accredited university in 2019. A
public art gallery was opened in 1958 and renamed
the Illingworth Kerr Gallery in 1990; Kerr who taught
and served as the director of the art department at
Alberta University of the Arts (then Alberta College
of Art) from 1947 to ca1967 was also named to the
Order of Canada in 1983. The exhibition space is the
longest-running international art program in Calgary.
The Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, a 2,700-
seat concert hall and theatre was built between 1955
and 1957 as a venue for both local and international
performing artists. From 1982 to 2004 the basement
was reconfigured to add a second more intimate
250-seat auditorium, the Dr Betty Mitchell Theatre,
named for Betty Mitchell who founded several Calgary
theatrical groups in the 1930s-40s.

St. Barnabas’s Church Tower

its association with sports, and for playing fields

and cricket pitches. It also possesses person value
for its local sportsmen who achieved national and
international recognition including Lloyd Turner
who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a
‘Builder’ in 1958, Dodger Lewis who played fastball in
the 1930s for the St Louis Browns, professional hockey
player Joseph Sidney (Sid) Finney who played in the
National Hockey League for the Chicago Blackhawks
(1951-54), and Ezra and Frank Riley who organized the
Hillhurst Football Club which twice won the Dominion
Championship.

With two important provincial centres for the performing

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Historic aerial photo of Sunnyside facing south towards the downtown. Sunnyside Bungalow School can be seen on the right, as can
Glenwood Manor, the Donegal Mansion and a handful of other Inventory sites

122
Character Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Hillhurst-Sunnyside community include but are not
limited to:
• views from the top of McHugh Bluffs and the plateau at the top of the North Hill (north of Riley Park) to
the city skyline, the Rocky Mountains, the Bow River Valley and the flats at the base of the North Hill
• the vegetation of the natural area green spaces: native and introduced grasslands, extensive balsam poplar
forest with willow, ash, white spruce and Colorado blue spruce, and small stands of upland tall shrubs
and aspen along the bluffs; riparian tall shrubs bordered by balsam poplar forest along the river bank in
Hillhurst and in Sunnyside east of 7th Street
• its setting north of the Bow River, with river flats rising to the plateau of the North Hill
• views to Riley Park from 10th Street and from the North Hill above the park; the historic relation of
the park to its setting on adjacent former Riley lands, the undeveloped slopes above the park and the
memorial rock garden; the formal, geometric floral display along 10th Street influenced by the City
Beautiful movement; the curvilinear circulation pattern; the wading pool; the cricket pitches and club
house
• views to Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden from 10th Street; elements and plantings of a
naturalistic-style alpine rock garden; original sandstone from the 1901 Burns mansion; plaques honouring
Senator Patrick Burns and Alex Munro
• the 10th Street ‘parkway’ from the south end of Riley Park to 16th Avenue, a curvilinear route with
uninterrupted landscaped plantings of grass and mature trees on both sides of the corridor where it
climbs the North Hill;
• the Memorial Drive landscaped parkway along the north bank of the Bow River; continued plantings of
propagations of the original Poplar trees planted in 1922
• the 1921 Hillhurst (Louise) Bridge marking the historic 1888 Bow Marsh Bridge crossing and historic
fording place, and landscaped east and west bridge approaches
• street layouts that follow the pre-contact trails that traversed the neighbourhood, Gladstone Avenue and
10th Street (Morleyville Trail)
• historic street and feature names:
• English street names which remain, Kensington and Gladstone
• sidewalk stamps like Norfolk at the corner of 10A Street and Kensington Road
• Westmont and Broadview road names and New Edinburgh Park’s name which reference their original
subdivision names
• historic subdivision names:
• the original names of early subdivision plans, Hillhurst and Sunnyside, maintained for today’s
communities
• historic subdivision plan layouts:
• surveyor Herbert Moore’s street layout for Sunnyside with east-west lot orientation along the main
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 corridors, and northeast-southwest lot orientation in the centre to align with the river, set against
deep, narrow lots that run perpendicular to the base of the bluff; distinctive intersections where the
different grids connect
• surveyor Albert Charles Talbot’s street layout for Hillhurst with roads that reference pre-contact trails
• 10th Street commercial street with buildings built out to the property line along a common setback with
adjacent buildings; commercial uses and storefronts at street level; street trees
• two-storey Edwardian Commercial Style buildings and one-storey Commercial Style buildings with
storefronts at street level, recessed entry ways, large display windows with transom lights, brick façades,
signbands and pressed metal cornices
• contiguous stretch of 1911-19 buildings on the east side of 10th Street at the south end of the corridor;
and east side of the 1100 block of Kensington Road
• commercial signage such as wooden or pressed metal signbands, and/or small projecting signs on
building façades at top of storefront; original painted ‘ghost’ signs
• inter-war and post-war vernacular commercial buildings with interpretations or influences of styles of the
period
• the pre-war residential streetscapes characterised by Edwardian cottages on twenty-five or fifty-foot lots
fronting uniform setbacks with soft landscaping, most with mature plantings, public sidewalk boulevards
with mature trees; rear lanes with garage access from the lane
• specific highly intact pre-war residential streetscapes:
• 12th Street - 200-400 blocks, east side north of house number 222
• 13th Street - 300-400 block, west side north of house number 333
• 10A Street - 200-300 block, east side north of house number 218
• Bowness Road - 1600 block, east and west sides and lilac boulevard
• 5th Street - 900 block, east side south of 934 in New Edinburgh (contains the two brick houses)
• 1st Street - 1000 block, south side north of 1027
• Bennett’s Bathhouses streetscape, eleven 1913-15 one-storey, Edwardian Gable-front Style cottages
with wooden-shingle siding and full-width front verandahs (many enclosed), with a contiguous row
of eight cottages, in the 600 block of 3rd Avenue; Edwardian cottages on twenty-five foot lots with
uniform narrow front setbacks with soft landscaping, fronting treed, grassy public sidewalk boulevards;
rear lanes with garage access from the lane
• characteristics of the remaining pre-war and inter-war cottages: Edwardian (1901-1914) architectural styles
including Edwardian Commercial, Edwardian Gable-front, Edwardian Cottage, Craftsman and Foursquare;
one, one and-one-half and two-storey form; full-width front verandahs or front porches with front entries,
tall vertical single and multi-assembly windows with hung-sash profiles, front and side-gabled and hipped
roof profiles with medium to steep roof pitch; and cladding in natural materials like brick, plaster (stucco)
from natural components, wooden shingles and bevelled-wood siding
• places and practices associated with Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s ethnic Scottish and English roots:
• early cricket pitches at Riley Park

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 • 1967 Robert the Bruce statue south of the Jubilee Auditorium
• Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s institutional buildings associated with education, health care and public services
including the 1921 Heritage Hall and the 1973 Alberta University of the Arts complex on the SAIT Campus,
the 1910 Hillhurst Cottage School, the 1911 Hillhurst School, the 1930 Queen Elizabeth Junior and Senior
High School, the 1916 St John Elementary School, the 1919 Sunnyside Bungalow School, the ca1910
home of early Hillhurst-Sunnyside doctor Robert Francis at 236 11A Street, the 1922 AGT Building -
Hillhurst Exchange, the 1909 Fire Hall No. 6 and the Great West Trading Company, the location of the
community’s first post office, at 429 11th Street
• extant institutional buildings for arts and societies like the 1926 King George Masonic Hall, the 1928 Plaza
Theatre and the 1957 Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
• Extant places of worship, some of which are still active places of worship: the 1907 Hillhurst Baptist
Church, the 1912 Hillhurst United Church and cemetery, and the 1912 St Barnabas Church Tower
• Intangible heritage practices which continue today including the game of cricket in Riley Park, worship in
the active community churches, performing arts in community venues

Louise Bridge viewed from the southwest, 2021 [Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]

125
Statement of Integrity

Location:

Hillhurst-Sunnyside retains its original location and situation relative to its natural topographical boundaries as
well as its roadway boundaries as per the original subdivision plans.

Design:

The community of Hillhurst-Sunnyside retains a high degree of design integrity. The historic subdivision
plan layouts as surveyed by Albert Charles Talbot in Hillhurst and Herbert Moore in Sunnyside have
remained intact, including the reference to pre-contact trails that traverse the neighbourhood, unique grid
patterns aligned with the river, lots perpendicular to the base of McHugh Bluffs and distinctive intersections
where grids connect (Sunnyside), and Memorial Drive, as an amalgamation of the original neighbourhood
‘Boulevards’ that followed the banks of the Bow River.

10th Street retains the layout of the historic Morleyville Trail transportation corridor. To the north, the
‘parkway’ design is retained, a curvilinear route with uninterrupted landscaped plantings of grass and mature
trees on both sides of the corridor from the south end of Riley Park to 16th Avenue. The design of Riley Park
remains highly intact with the preservation of the formal, geometric floral display along 10th Street influenced
by the City Beautiful movement, the curvilinear circulation pattern, the wading pool, the cricket pitches and
club house.

Changes to the community’s original subdivision layouts have occurred to accommodate changing
infrastructure needs. The most significant design changes resulted from the construction of the 1954 Mewata
Bridge and the 1987 LRT line and station. Following the construction of the Mewata Bridge, 14th Street
changed from a primarily residential street to a commercial street and major traffic corridor with some high
density residential. This change has somewhat isolated the portion of Hillhurst west of 14th Street, with
Bowness Road, once continuous from the 1100 block westward, now converted to cul-de-sacs on either
side. Memorial Drive, Westmount Boulevard and Broadview Road were also reconfigured. The construction of
the LRT changed the residential nature of 9A Street with the loss of many homes south of 4th Avenue, and
reduced the accessibility and permeability between the two neighbourhoods.

In residential areas, the neighbourhood streetscape design is retained with predominantly single family homes
on single or double 25-foot lots with uniform front setbacks with soft landscaping, public sidewalk boulevards
with mature trees, and rear lanes with garage access from the lane. The retained pre-war homes still feature
their Edwardian architectural style and their original tall vertical single and multi-assembly wood framed
windows with hung-sash profiles. Planning policy introduced since the post-war period to accommodate
population growth has resulted in a loss of historic structures, and the streetscapes have evolved to include a
variety of multi-family dwellings and apartments, which to varying degrees disrupt the streetscape design of

126
uniform lot widths, front setbacks and house forms. Especially intact streetscapes have been listed in Section
8.

For commercial streets, post-war development was mainly infill on undeveloped parcels and generally did
not result in a loss of historic structures. However, since that time most developments have been erected on
large land parcels and do not maintain scale or the fine-grained massing, articulation or bay rhythm at street
level of the early 20th Century commercial buildings. Remaining intact commercial areas include the south
end of 10th Street where retained features include its commercial storefronts with a 25-foot bay rhythm, and
buildings built out to the property line along a common setback with adjacent buildings. Early 20th Century
commercial streetscape design is also retained along Kensington Road in the 1100 and 1200 blocks.

Environment:

The environment of Hillhurst-Sunnyside retains a high degree of integrity. A defining feature of the
neighbourhood is its setting north of the Bow River. The distinct riverine habitat of the natural area green
spaces along the river banks in Hillhurst remains intact as does Sunnyside’s balsam poplar forest east of 7th
Street. The 1921 Hillhurst (Louise) Bridge, connecting Hillhurst-Sunnyside to downtown Calgary, remains
and marks the location of the 1888 Bow Marsh Bridge crossing as well as the historic fording place. The
north edges of the neighbourhood are still defined by the North Hill; especially notable are the natural area
green spaces of McHugh Bluff and their characteristic vegetation. Views towards the city skyline, the Rocky
Mountains, the Bow River valley and the flats at the base of the North Hill remain intact.

Materials:
Hillhurst-Sunnyside retains many original materials. In the residential portion of the neighbourhood, where
early dwellings have been maintained many of the original materials have been preserved as well. The
predominantly Edwardian and inter-war homes often include extensive woodwork such as wooden shingles
and bevelled-wood siding, although homes with plaster (stucco) and brick cladding are also present within the
neighbourhood.

There is a high degree of material integrity in Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s commercial and institutional buildings. The
two-storey Edwardian Commercial Style buildings and one-storey Commercial Style buildings with storefronts
at street level have frequently retained their brick façades, wooden signbands and pressed metal cornices.
Especially intact streetscapes with groupings of these buildings are the south end and east side of 10th
Street and the east side of the 1100 block of Kensington Road, but individual examples remain elsewhere in
the neighbourhood as well, a particularly good example is the 1912 Vendome Block. Institutional buildings
were solidly constructed with enduring materials such as brick and stone; these materials are retained in
educational, healthcare, religious and civic buildings. Notable examples include but are not limited to the
brickwork on Heritage Hall and the Alberta University of the Arts complex, the stonework at Hillhurst School,
the red brick façade and classical detailing of the 1909 Fire Hall, the brick and stone work of the 1912 St
Barnabas Church Tower and the brick and stucco with half timbering at Hillhurst United Church. Many of these
institutional buildings also retain other materials, such as wooden doors and original windows.
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In addition to the materials seen in extant buildings, there is also a high degree of material integrity in the
neighbourhood landscape and infrastructure. Good examples are the concrete in the 1921 Hillhurst (Louise)
bridge and the original sandstone from the 1901 Burns mansion used in the Senator Patrick Burns Memorial
Rock Garden.

Workmanship:

Hillhurst-Sunnyside retains many of its materials, and therefore the associated workmanship. Craftsmanship
including woodworking, metal work and masonry is retained within the well-crafted residential, commercial
and institutional historical building stock, as well as the Hillhurst (Louise) and Mewata bridges. Retained
workmanship can also be seen in original commercial signage such as wooden or pressed metal signbands,
projecting signs, and original painted ‘ghost’ signs. Skilled workmanship is evident in the continued
landscaping of Riley Park, including the curvilinear circulation pattern, floral displays, and the naturalistic-style
alpine rock garden in Senator Burns Memorial Rock Garden.

Feeling:
Hillhurst-Sunnyside retains the feeling of the pre-war period when it was mainly settled, an era of prosperity,
optimism and city-building. Design elements, such as the original subdivision layouts contribute to this
feeling, but it is the City Beautiful-inspired features including the Louise Bridge, Riley Park and the 10th Street
parkway as well as the community’s intact streetscapes identified in Section 8 which play the most significant
role. These include the busy historic streetcar commercial main streets of 10th Street and Kensington Road
which have many groupings of buildings that have operated continuously in a commercial capacity since
the 1910s and retain much of their original design, materials and associated workmanship. Similarly, the
residential portions of the neighbourhood have many unique streetscapes that feature groupings of well-
preserved Edwardian cottages. These intact streetscapes, along with the many retained institutional buildings
convey the feeling of the busy early Calgary neighbourhood north of the Bow River.

Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s natural area green spaces along the bluff and riverbanks recall the community’s frontier
period when the landscape was pioneer homesteads and ranches.

Association:
Hillhurst-Sunnyside retains many historical associations, including its associations with:

• its natural environment, with its setting north of the Bow River, views from the top of McHugh Bluffs and
the plateau at the top of the North Hill (north of Riley Park) to the city skyline, the Rocky Mountains, the
Bow River Valley and the flats at the base of the North Hill, and the vegetation of the natural area green
spaces
• its pre-contact use through street layouts that follow the pre-contact trails that traversed the
neighbourhood, Gladstone Avenue and 10th Street (Morleyville Trail)
• its early homesteader and quarry operator Felix McHugh, and Calgary pioneer ranching Riley family,

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 recognized through the naming of McHugh Bluffs, Riley Park and the Louise Riley Library
• commercial activity along 10th Street from 1909, Kensington Road from 1912 and 14th Street from the
mid-1950s, through its many intact two-storey Edwardian Commercial-style buildings and one-storey inter-
war Commercial-style buildings with storefronts at street level, particularly visible with the contiguous
stretch of 1911-19 buildings on the east side of 10th Street at the south end of the corridor and east side
of the 1100 block of Kensington Road
• u rban development and revitalisation during the 1970s and early 1980s through the innovative
architecture of that time
• institutional activity and strong connections to education and the arts, through the many extant buildings
of learning and in particular Heritage Hall and the 1973 Alberta University of the Arts complex on the SAIT
Campus, the 1928 Plaza Theatre and the 1957 Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
• early land use patterns, through the locations of residential, commercial and institutional areas and green
spaces
• its initial development as a pre-war working and lower middle class neighbourhood through its residential
streetscapes and their remaining one storey, one-and-one-half storey and two storey Edwardian cottages
that symbolize the community’s working-class roots and intact streetscapes of cottages such as ‘Bennett’s
Bathhouses’ on the 600 block of 3rd Avenue
• the ethnic Scottish and English roots of its early developers through historic street and feature names,
such as English street names that remain in use (Kensington and Gladstone), sidewalk stamps like Norfolk,
and road names Westmont and Broadview and park name New Edinburgh Park which references the
original New Edinburgh subdivision. These associations are also maintained through the cricket pitches at
Riley Park, the 1967 Robert the Bruce statue south of the Jubilee Auditorium, and heritage practices which
continue today including the game of cricket in Riley Park and worship in the active Anglican (Church of
England) and United (originally Presbyterian or Church of Scotland) community churches.

View from the hillside above Riley Park, 2021[Copyright: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Assn]
129
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Alberta Land Titles
1884 Township No. 24 map - compiled from 1883 survey by M. Aldous - notes locations of early settler
homesteads within the township grid
1904 Plan 5609J ‘Hillhurst’ subdivision by owner Ezra Riley, surveyed by Albert Charles Talbot - retains the
Morleyville Road name
1906 Plan 2448O ‘Sunnyside’ subdivision by owners Arthur Bennett & William Ross, surveyed by Herbert
Harrison Moore – also retains the Morleyville Road name
1906 Plan 6219L ‘Upper Hillhurst’ subdivision by owner Georgiana Riley, surveyed by A.P. Patrick
1907 Plan 1948P ‘Sunnyside - Addition’ subdivision by owners Arthur Bennett & William Ross, surveyed by
Herbert Harrison Moore
1907 Plan 4163P ‘Broadview’ subdivision by owners Arthur Bennett & William Ross, surveyed by Herbert
Harrison Moore
1907 Plan 4456R ‘Crescent Heights’ subdivision by owner McArthur, surveyed by A.P. Patrick
1907 Plan 5151O ‘Westmont’ subdivision by owners Ethel Jane and Col Laurence Herchmer, surveyed by
Herbert Harrison Moore

Archives Society of Alberta

Salvation Army Grace Hospital fonds - crha-2033

Calgary Public Library

1913 Street Map of the City of Calgary, compiled by surveyor EA Victor (CALG-45) - early subdivision and
street names

Henderson’s Directories

City of Calgary Archives

Correspondence between City Clerk and Ezra Riley’s legal firm, Stuart & Lathwell, regarding donation of 20
acres for park purposes only, May 1910

Report to council on street railway extension dated Aug. 9, 1910 by Chairman (committee not indicated)

Glenbow Archives
Historic photographs
Calgary Power Company Ltd fonds
Eau Claire and Bow River Lumber Company fonds

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Glenbow CPR land sales records - Vol 89 Contract 19532 1902 June 19 Riley, Alfred George Frederic S31
T24 R1 W5 397.50 acres $5.00 Paid In Full - all land north and east of trail of Section 31; Vol 93 Contract
23376 1903 March 2 Riley, Georgiana J., (Wife of Thomas Riley) S31 T24 R1 W5 232.48 acres $5.00 Paid
In Full - all south and west of trail of Section 31
Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association fonds
McHugh family fonds
Morleyville Road (Hillhurst) Baptist Church fonds
Peter Prince fonds

Riley Family fonds

Library and Archives Canada

Canada North West Land Co (Limited) dated July 12 1889 granting the portion of Section 21 northwest of the
Bow River (593.5 acres)
Census of 1861 - life details and family background, Felix McHugh, Peter Prince, William Ross
Census of Canada, 1871 - life details and family background, William Ross
Census of Canada, 1891 - life details, Felix McHugh, Ethel Jane Ashworth, Samuel Trott
Census of Canada, 1901 - life details, Felix McHugh, Ethel Jane Ashworth, Peter Prince
Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906 - life details, Felix McHugh, Arthur Bennett
Census of Canada, 1911 - life details, Arthur Bennett
Census of the Prairie Provinces, 1916 - life details, George Kerr
Census of Canada, 1961 - life details, Eric Harvie
Census of England, 1851 - birthplace and details of Georgiana Hounsfield (Riley)
Fire Insurance Plan of Calgary, Alberta. Western Canada Fire Underwriter’s Association, Registered at Ottawa,
Volume II, sheets 78, 79, 81, 83, 1911 & 1913; Volume I, sheets 140-43, June 1961
Postal Heritage and Philately Collection Item 16385 (Calgary Sub No 3)

Postal Heritage and Philately Collection Item 21519 (Calgary Sub No 17)

Ancestry.com
1836 Baptism Records, St Stanislas (Trois-Rivières) - life details of Pierre (Peter) Prince
1878 Birth Schedule, York North Riding, Newmarket - life details, Ethel Jane Ashworth
1851 Baptism Records, Ottawa Roman Catholic Archdiocese - life details, Felix McHugh
1888 and 1893 homestead records Thomas and Alfred Riley
1889 homestead records of Felix McHugh (file 43503)
homestead records of Lawrence W Herchmer (file 14606)
homestead records of Thomas Riley (file 99927)
homestead records of BM Godsal (file 153632)
homestead records of The Eau Claire and Bow River Lumber Company (file 44547)
1890 homestead records of Samuel Trott (file 44621, 86787)

131
1887 homestead records of Thomas Jackson (files 10130, 136765, 170097)
1887 homestead records of Philip Sidney Van Cortlandt (files 11731, 164439, 164607)
British Columbia Death Registration Index - 1968 death of Ethel Jane Herchmer
British Columbia Marriage Index - 1905 marriage details, Ethel Jane Ashworth and Laurence Herchmer
Felix McHugh Family Tree - collection of obituaries and gravestone images confirming life details of Felix
McHugh and descendants
Last Will and Testament of Thomas Riley, 1909 - personal estate to three daughters
Passenger Lists (1889-1910) - various passenger lists showing travel history of B M Godsal
Marriage record (1889) - Samuel Trott and Elizabeth Jane Wardlow

Other
Aerial photographs 1924, 1951 Department of Energy, Mines and Resources
Certificate of Title, Lots 33-41, Block Q Plan 5609J Hillhurst Calgary to Maud Thompson, 19 January, 1906
(Owner Provided) - building history of Theophilus and Maud Thompson
Title Search, Sunnyside property on 10th Street (from Discover Historic Calgary database):
1889 Nov. 15: Canada North West Land Co
1890 Jan. 18: Calgary & Medicine Hat Land Co Ltd.
1893 Nov. 18: The Calgary Water Power Company Limited
1904 Jun. 29: James Heath (Esquire, M.P.) and Ernest Wooley (Esquire)
1905 Mar. 2: Charles L. Davidson (Gentleman) & Wm. B. Throckmorton (Merchant)
1906 Jul. 23: Charles Davidson (Gentleman)

1906 Aug. 23: Arthur Bennett & William Ross, (Real Estate Agents)

Secondary Sources
Alberta on Record (n.d.) Calgary St Andrew’s Golf Club https://www.albertaonrecord.ca/calgary-st-andrews-
golf-club - sport history in Hillhurst
Alberta Register of Historic Places, Alberta Heritage Survey Programme, https://hermis.alberta.ca/ARHP -
Morleyville Methodist Mission, Fire Hall no. 6,
Alberta University of the Arts (n.d.) About AUArts - History and Mission https://www.auarts.ca/why-auarts/
history-and-mission
Beevis Trickett, Christine (2014) Orchard Project Rooted in Community, The YYScene, May 15, 2014 https://
theyyscene.com/category/ffwd-rew/ - details Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden
Bentall, Shirley (1975) Buckboard to Brotherhood: The Baptist Church in Calgary, Calgary: Century Calgary
Publications
Bentall, Shirley (2005) Hillhurst Sunnyside Walking Tour and Map, Calgary : Hillhurst Sunnyside Community
Association
Blue, John (1924) Alberta, past and present: historical and biographical Chicago: Pioneer Historical - Calgary
Hydraulic history
Cameron, Donald M (1993) The History of Pharmacy in Alberta: The First One Hundred Years (From Leeches to
Lasers) Edmonton: Alberta Pharmaceutical Association

132
Canadian Encyclopedia (n.d.) Illingworth Holey Kerr, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/
illingworth-holey-kerr - life details Kerr, ACA career
Century Homes Calgary (2013) 418 11 Street NW https://calgarypubliclibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/
collection/p16114coll4/id/94/ - building details Theophilus Thompson
City of Calgary (1988) Hillhurst-Sunnyside Area Redevelopment Plan and Supporting Information, 2012 office
consolidation
City of Calgary (n.d.) Calgary’s river flood story - historical data website, https://maps.calgary.ca/
riverflooding/ - flood maps, flood history, floodway and fringe bylaw maps
City of Calgary (n.d.) Calgary river flows - historical data website, https://www.calgary.ca/uep/water/flood-
info/types-of-flooding-in-calgary/calgary-river-flows-historical-data.html - historical flooding and flow rate
data
City of Calgary (n.d.) Discover Historic Calgary Resources website, http://www.calgary.ca/PDA/pd/Pages/
Heritage-planning/Inventory-of-evaluated-historic-resources.aspx
City of Calgary (n.d.) Discover Historic Calgary Resources: 106A 10 Street NW https://www.calgary.
ca/content/www/en/home/pda/pd/heritage-planning/discover-historic-calgary-resources.html.
html?dhcResourceId=570
City of Calgary (n.d.) Discover Historic Calgary Resources: Fire Hall No. 6 https://www.calgary.ca/
content/www/en/home/pda/pd/heritage-planning/discover-historic-calgary-resources.html.
html?dhcResourceId=384
City of Calgary (n.d.) Discover Historic Calgary Resources: Hillhurst Baptist Church https://www.calgary.
ca/content/www/en/home/pda/pd/heritage-planning/discover-historic-calgary-resources.html.
html?dhcResourceId=186
City of Calgary (n.d.) Discover Historic Calgary Resources: Hillhurst (Louise) Bridge https://www.calgary.ca/
pda/pd/heritage-planning/discover-historic-calgary-resources.html?dhcResourceId=641
City of Calgary (n.d.) Discover Historic Calgary Resources: Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden
https://www.calgary.ca/content/www/en/home/pda/pd/heritage-planning/discover-historic-calgary-
resources.html.html?dhcResourceId=244
City of Calgary, Land Use Planning & Policy Planning, Development & Assessment (2008) Parkdale Community
Heritage Inventory Calgary: City of Calgary
City of Calgary (n.d.) Parks and Recreation: History of Fire Hall # 6 https://www.calgary.ca/csps/parks/
history/history-of-firehall-6.html
Clark, Jessica (2019) Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden Turns 30! , Hillhurst Sunnyside Community
Association blog, Jun 18, 2019 https://www.hsca.ca/blog/2019/6/18/hillhurst-sunnyside-community-
garden-turns-30 - details Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden history
Dawkins, Patti (2011) ‘Confessions of a Hippie’ The Hillhurst Sunnyside Voice, Summer 2011 Calgary: Hillhurst
Sunnyside Community Association
Foran, Max (1978) Calgary: an illustrated history, Toronto: Lorimer
Government of Alberta, Culture and Tourism (n.d.) Electricity & Alternatives, Early Alberta Hydro History: to
1913 website, http://history.alberta.ca/energyheritage/energy/hydro-power/early-alberta-hydro-history/
default.aspx - details of Calgary’s early hydraulic infrastructure
Green, Rick (1996) ‘Hillhurst-Sunnyside Historic Building Inventory 1908-1995’ Calgary: Hillhurst-Sunnyside
Community Association - Phase 1 data only use
Guimond, Pierre S. and Sinclair, Brian R. (1984) Calgary Architecture: The Boom Years 1972-1982. Calgary:
Detselig Enterprises Ltd.
Hatcher, Colin (2013) Calgary’s Electric Transit: A century of transportation service in Canada’s stampede city
Montreal: DC Books
Hatcher, Colin (1975) Stampede City Streetcars Montreal: Railfare Enterprises Ltd.
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Hiltermann, Matt (2020) The Métis of Rouleauville, Alberta Culture Retroactive blog https://
albertashistoricplaces.com/2020/11/16/the-metis-of-rouleauville/ - Métis at Morleyville
Humber, Donna Mae (1995) What’s in a name… Calgary? [volume II] : a look at the people behind place names
in Calgary, Calgary : Detselig Enterprises, pp. 80, 136
Jamieson, Heber Carss (1947) ‘Early medicine in Alberta: The first seventy-five years’, Edmonton: Canadian
Medical Association, Alberta division
Kensington at Louise Crossing Business Revitalisation Zone (n.d.) ‘Kensington at Louise Crossing’ brochure,
Calgary: Kensington at Louise Crossing BRZ
King George Lodge #59 (n.d.) King George Hall Lodge #59 History, https://www.kinggeorgehall.ca - historical
timeline, Odd Fellows and Ross Block
Klassen, Henry C (2002) Eye on the future: business people in Calgary and the Bow Valley, 1870-1900 Calgary:
University of Calgary Press
McTaggert, Susan (1957) 50 Years! The Story of Hillhurst Baptist Church 1907-1957 Calgary: Hillhurst Baptist
Church
Melnyk, B (1985) Calgary Builds: The Emergence of An Urban Landscape, 1905-1914, Edmonton: Alberta
Culture/Canadian Plains Research Center
Howard Palmer (1990) Alberta, a new history, Edmonton: Hurtig
Sandalack, A and Andrei, N (2006) The Calgary Project: urban form/urban life, Calgary: University of Calgary
Press
Sanders, Harry (2005) Historic walks of Calgary, Calgary: Red Deer Press
Simaluk, Vern (1968) ‘North-south highway key to traffic plans’ Calgary Herald Feb 10, 1986
Surplis, Herb ed. (1975) At Your Service, Part One: Calgary’s library, parks department, military, medical
services and fire department, Calgary: Century Calgary Publications
Surplis, Herb ed. (1975) At Your Service, Part Two: Calgary’s police force, navy base, post office, transit
system, and private service groups, Calgary: Century Calgary Publications
Surplis, Herb ed. (1975) From Slate Pencils to Instant Ink: Calgary’s public, separate, and private schools,
Calgary: Century Calgary Publications
Surplis, Herb ed. (1975) The Anglican Church in Calgary: Church Activities, 1878-1974, Calgary: Century
Calgary Publications
Tanko, Margaret (1978) ‘Hillhurst-Sunnyside Remembers’, Calgary: Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association
University of Toronto and Université Laval (n.d.) Dictionary of Canadian biography: Lawrence William
Herchmer, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/herchmer_lawrence_william_14E.html - life details, Laurence
Herchmer
University of Toronto and Université Laval (n.d.) Dictionary of Canadian biography: William Macauley Herchmer,
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/herchmer_william_macauley_12E.html - Laurence Herchmer family
background
Zakrison, Alan (2012) ‘McHugh Bluff Walking Tour’ The Crescent View newsletter, June 2012 Calgary: Crescent
Heights Community Assn

Newspapers

Anon. (1884) ‘[Advert] Denny Estate’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General
Advertiser, Jan 23, 1884 - river crossings in Calgary

134
Anon. (1884) ‘Denny and Roselle Claims’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General
Advertiser, Mar 3, 1884 - river crossings in Calgary
Anon. (1884) ‘The Floods’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser, Jul 23,
1884 - river crossings in Calgary
Anon. (1884) ‘Iron Bridge’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser, Aug 13,
1884 - river crossings in Calgary
Anon. (1884) ‘[advert] S. W. Trott, Druggist’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General
Advertiser, Sep 24, 1884 - Trott life and career details
Anon. (1885) ‘Col. Herchmer’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser, Jul 7,
1885 - Herchmer career details
Anon. (1885) ‘[notice] B M Godsal - horse brand symbol’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate
and General Advertiser, Sep 9, 1885 - location and business of BM Godsal
Anon. (1885) ‘The Bow River Bridge’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser,
Nov 4, 1885 - river crossings in Calgary
Anon. (1886) ‘Bow River Bridge’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser,
Aug 7, 1886 - river crossings in Calgary
Anon. (1886) ‘[advert] S. W. Trott, Druggist’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General
Advertiser, Aug 14, 1886 - Trott life and career details
Anon. (1888) ‘[no title] Sir Hector Langevin and Bow River Bridge’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche
Advocate and General Advertiser, Feb 8, 1888 - river crossings in Calgary
Anon. (1888) ‘[no title] Bow River Crossings’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General
Advertiser, Feb 22, 1888 - river crossings in Calgary
Anon. (1888) ‘Opening of the Bow-Marsh Bridge’ The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and
General Advertiser, Jun 6, 1888 - river crossings in Calgary
Anon. (1888) ‘[advert] Auction Sale - High Grade Dairy Cows’ The Calgary Weekly Herald and Livestock
Journal, Aug 8, 1888 - business and life details of BM Godsal
Anon. (1888) ‘Correspondence - Public Opinion’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Sep 26, 1888 - Herchmer career
details
Anon. (1888) ‘Mr B.M. Godsal’ The Calgary Weekly Herald and Livestock Journal Nov 7, 1888
Anon. (1888) ‘[no title] B M Godsal’ The Calgary Weekly Herald and Livestock Journal, Nov 11, 1888 - business
and life details of BM Godsal
Anon. (1889) ‘Sunny-side Free Stone Quarry’ Calgary Weekly Herald and Livestock Journal, Dec 18, 1889 -
details Sunnyside quarry
Anon. (1891) ‘Hotel Arrivals’ The Calgary Daily Herald, May 13, 1891 - life details BM Godsal
Anon. (1891) ‘Death of Mr. S. W. Trott’ The Calgary Weekly Herald and Livestock Journal, Nov 4, 1891 - Trott
family life details
Anon. (1892) ‘The Herchmer Inquiry’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Jan 23, 1892 - Herchmer career details
Anon. (1895) ‘[no title] B M Godsal’ The Daily Herald, Sep 18, 1895 - life details BM Godsal
Anon. (1897) ‘More Council but No More Business Than Usual’ The Daily Herald, Jul 20, 1897 - Bow Marsh
Bridge history
Anon. (1897) ‘The Rebuilding of the Bow Marsh Bridge’ The Daily Herald, Jul 20, 1897 - Bow Marsh Bridge
history
Anon. (1897) ‘The Flood’ The Daily Herald, Aug 8, 1897 - Bow Marsh Bridge history
Anon. (1898) ‘Bow Marsh Bridge’ The Daily Herald, Apr 22, 1898 - Bow Marsh Bridge history
135
Anon. (1900) ‘Herchmer’s Report’ The Daily Herald, Jul 18, 1900 - Herchmer career details
Anon. (1900) ‘Commissioner Herchmer’ The Daily Herald, Aug 1, 1900 - Herchmer career details
Anon. (1900) ‘The Government’s Thin Pretext for Shelving Col. Herchmer’ The Weekly Herald, Aug 9, 1900 -
Herchmer career details
Anon. (1902) ‘Floods in the City’ The Daily Herald, Jul 2, 1902 - flood history
Anon. (1902) ‘Tragedy of the Floods’ The Daily Herald, Jul 7, 1902 - flood history
Anon. (1902) ‘To Consider Floods’ The Daily Herald, Jul 8, 1902 - flood history
Anon. (1904) ‘Prices Put on City Lots and They Will Be Auctioned’ The Daily Herald, May 31, 1904 - bridge
history
Anon. (1906) ‘W. H. Cushing Talks of Alberta’ The Daily Herald, Jan 11, 1906 - river crossings in Calgary
Anon. (1906) ‘New Bridge Progressing Favorably’ The Daily Herald, Mar 24, 1906 - bridge history
Anon. (1906) ‘[Advert] The Elite Subdivision Westmont - The Colonel Herchmer Estate’ The Daily Herald, Oct
3, 1906 - history of Westmont subdivision
Anon. (1907) ‘Centre Street Bridge Completed’ The Daily Herald, Jul 3, 1907 - river crossings in Calgary
Anon. (1910) ‘Born - Herchmer’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Jul 27, 1910 - Herchmer family details
Anon. (1911) ‘Hillhurst Gets Athletic Park Given to Them’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Mar 24, 1911 - Hillhurst
athletic activities history
Anon. (1912) ‘Figuring Cost of Concrete Bridges’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Jan 1, 1912 - bridge (Louise) and
flood history
Anon. (1912) ‘Bridge Bylaw Voting Takes Place Tuesday’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Nov 11, 1912 - bridge
history
Anon. (1913) ‘Riley Park’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Jul 14, 1913 - Riley Park bandstand history
Anon. (1915) ‘Col. L. W. Herchmer Well Known Here Dies at Vancouver’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Feb 18, 1915
- Herchmer life and career details
Anon. (1919) ‘[Advert] The Hillhurst Furniture Exchange’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Dec 6, 1919 - info on career
of George Kerr
Anon. (1920) ‘Plans for the Louise Bridge’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Jan 15, 1920 - bridge history
Anon. (1920) ‘Tax Discount System may be Abolished by Calgary’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Jan 16, 1920 -
Louise Bridge history
Anon. (1920) ‘Louise Bridge Work is being Pushed Ahead’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Aug 14, 1920 - bridge
history
Anon. (1922) ‘Thousands Swarm Depot Front and Streets to Welcome Soccer Champs’ The Calgary Daily
Herald, Aug 18, 1922 - sport history in Hillhurst
Anon. (1925) ‘P.A. Prince, Oldtimer in Calgary, Passes Away’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Jan 13, 1925 - life
details Peter Prince, Eau Claire Lumber Company
Anon. (1926) ‘S.A. Hospital Open Wednesday’ Calgary Daily Herald, Mar 20, 1926 - SA hospital and site
history
Anon. (1927) ‘Gordon Block is Being Moved’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Jun 7, 1927 - Garnett/Gordon Block
relocation
Anon. (1927) ‘New Buildings to Cost $26,000’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Jun 22, 1927 - Details on Gordon
Block move
Bailey Price, Elizabeth (1929) ‘Popular London actress in city on wedding trip’ Calgary Daily Herald Dec 6,
1929
136
Anon. (1935) ‘F.W. Godsal, Pioneer of Alberta, Dies’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Oct 17, 1935 - details of Godsal
family
Anon. (1937) ‘‘Women’s Work for Women’ is Outlined by Salvation Army Director’ The Calgary Daily Herald,
Nov 17, 1937 - SA hospital and site history
Anon. (1937) ‘Open Salvation Army Sunset Lodge’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Nov 18, 1937 - SA hospital and
site history
Anon. (1938) ‘Dr. Gow, Former City M.O.H., Dies Suddenly at Age of 77’ The Calgary Daily Herald, Jan 12, 1938
- life details Duncan Gow
Anon. (1948) ‘Complaint from Sunnyside’ The Calgary Herald, Dec 14, 1948 - flood mitigation measures,
Boulevard history
Anon. (1950) ‘Flooding Expected Tonight; Bow River Rises During Day’ The Calgary Herald, Dec 4, 195 - Bow
River flood history
Anon. (1954) ‘A Sunnyside Sea Wall?’ The Calgary Herald, Feb 15, 1954 - history, flood mitigation measures
Anon. (1954) ‘Mewata Bridge Opens Monday’ The Calgary Herald Dec 3, 1954
Anon. (1954) ‘Altered Driving Habits for One-Way System’ The Calgary Herald Dec 4, 1954
Anon. (1954) ‘Mewata Bridge Major Project’ The Calgary Herald, Dec 4, 1954
Anon. (1954) ‘Mewata Bridge Provides Vital Major Link in Solving Ever-Growing Traffic Problem’ The Calgary
Herald, Dec 4, 1954
Anon. (1954) ‘One-Way Traffic on Downtown Thoroughfares to Become Reality with Opening of New Bridge’
The Calgary Herald, Dec 4, 1954
Anon. (1954) ‘History is Well Represented as Modern Mewata Bridge Opens’ The Calgary Herald, Dec 7, 1954
Anon. (1955) ‘Floods’ The Calgary Herald, Mar 1, 1955 - history, flood mitigation measures
Anon. (1955) ‘[Obit] Smith, Chris’ The Calgary Herald, Apr 23, 1955 - Chris Smith life details, Rossland Confy
Anon. (1955) ‘Pioneer City Doctor Dies’ The Calgary Herald, Oct 10, 1955 - life details of Robert Francis
Anon. (1956) ‘Ice Reaches Street Level’ The Calgary Herald, Dec 14, 1956 - flood history
Anon. (1957) ‘City Considers Ice Trap for River Flood Control’ The Calgary Herald, Dec 7, 1957 - flood and
mitigation history
McTavish, Alex R. (1958) ‘First Local Homesteads are Shown on Early Map’ The Calgary Herald, Aug 30, 1958 -
early pioneer history
Snell, Dick (1959) ‘Earlier River Rampages Dwarf Current Calgary Flood Threat’ The Calgary Herald, Jan 9,
1959 - flood and bridge history
Layzell, Denny (1962) ‘Calgary’s Bridges - History of Crossings in City Dates Back Over 77 Years’ The Calgary
Herald, Oct 20, 1962
Anon. (1963) ‘No-Name Street Now Memorial Dr.’ The Calgary Herald, Nov 8, 1963
Anon. (1963) ‘Street Naming Stirs Row’ The Calgary Herald, Dec 10, 1963
Anon. (1964) ‘Memorial Drive Name Extended This Week’ The Calgary Herald, Jan 30, 1964
Anon. (1965) ‘Chicken On The Way Sees Big Growth’ The Calgary Herald, May 5, 1965 - early commercial 14th
Street
Anon. (1966) ‘Statue of Robert the Bruce to Symbolize Historic Link’ The Calgary Herald, Sep 8, 1966 -
Scottish heritage in Sunnyside
Anon. (1966) ‘City Art Students Protest Robert the Bruce Statue’ The Calgary Herald, Sep 19, 1966 - Scottish
heritage in Sunnyside

137
Anon. (1967) ‘Statue of Robert the Bruce Unveiled at Jubilee Auditorium’ The Calgary Herald, Jun 23, 1966 -
Scottish heritage in Sunnyside
Daly, Conway (1967) ‘5,000 Attend City Love-In’ The Calgary Herald, Jul 31, 1967 - history Riley Park, Love-In
Breen, David H. (1970) ‘Plain Talk from Plain Western Men’ The Alberta Historical Review, Vol. 18 no. 3
(Summer), 1970
Anon. (1971) ‘[Advert] We are moving (Bible Baptist Church)’ The Calgary Herald, Sep 18, 1971 - Baptist chuch
history and tenant at 1110 Gladstone Road
Smith, Elaine (1977) ‘10th Street looks back to the way it used to be’ The Calgary Herald Oct 1, 1977
Smith, Elaine (1977) ‘Changing face of Tenth Street has a ‘Carnaby smile’’ The Calgary Herald, Oct 1, 1977 -
details on renovations of historic buildings in neighbourhood
Hutton, Randy (1978) ‘Calgary’s Corr is in Restoration’ The Calgary Herald, Apr 29, 1978 - history of sandstone
and quarries in Calgary
Barnett, Vicki (1979) ‘Hillhurst-Sunnyside downzoning brings six-year struggle to end’ The Calgary Herald Mar
1, 1979
Peach, Jack (1981) ‘City’s Name Linked to First Heavy Industry: Lumber’ The Calgary Herald, Apr 11, 1981 -
Eau Claire Lumber Company details
Abbott, Heather (1982) ‘Pharmacist to call it a day after 45 years’ The Calgary Herald Aug 28, 1982
Peach, Jack (1982) ‘Pioneer McHugh clan helped build Calgary’ The Calgary Herald Dec 4, 1982
Peach, Jack (1983) ‘Early Land Developers Prospered as City Expanded’ The Calgary Herald, Dec 17, 1983 -
details early pioneers, B M Godsal
Peach, Jack (1985) ‘Sandstone Quarries Once a Thriving Industry’ The Calgary Herald, Dec 14, 1985 - history
of stone quarries in Calgary
Anon. (1986) ‘[Obit] Kerr, Garnet’ The Calgary Herald, Jan 28, 1986 - Kerr family details
Tivy, Patrick (1986) ‘Birthday Grant to fund bandstand refurbishings’ The Calgary Herald, Apr 20, 1986 -
history of bandstand at Riley Park
Lowey, Mark (1986) ‘Quarries Part of our Past’ The Calgary Herald, May 17, 1986 - history of stone quarries in
Calgary
Peach, Jack (1986) ‘Bow Bridges added Flavor to Calgary’s History’ The Calgary Herald, Dec 6, 1986 - bridge
history
Geddes, Ashley (1987) ‘City board backs bid to save Hillhurst Blocks’ The Calgary Herald Feb 13, 1987
Brennan, Brian (1988) ‘A Community comes of age’ The Calgary Herald - Sunday Magazine, Jul 24, 1988 -
Community history, name changes
Zimmerman, Katie (1988) ‘The ‘60s Musical’s Cast Takes a Trek Back Through Time’ The Calgary Herald, Aug 7,
1988 - history Riley Park, Love-In
Anon. (1990) ‘Q&A - Robert the Bruce Statue outside the Jubilee’ The Calgary Herald - Sunday Magazine, Jun
6, 1990 - Scottish heritage in Sunnyside
Mew, Marian (1990) ‘Residents Calling McHugh’s Bluff’ The Calgary Herald, Jul 25, 1990 - McHugh history,
McHugh Bluff
Cummings, Debra (1994) ‘Take a Pleasant Walk on the Sunnyside of the City’ The Calgary Herald, Oct 9, 1994
- McHugh Bluff and skulls, First Nation history
Smith, Donald (1996) ‘French Belongs in Calgary’ The Calgary Herald, Oct 28, 1996 - Eau Claire Lumber
Company, Peter Prince details
Andreeff, Monica (1997) ‘Soggy Storm Dumps on City Gardeners’ The Calgary Herald, May 21, 1997 -

138
 Sunnyside Nurseries history
McCormick, Kathy (2002) ‘The King of Kensington’ The Calgary Herald, Aug 17, 2002 - Kensington Close name
change
Derworiz, Colette (2004) ‘Bluff too Rough, City Council Told’ The Calgary Herald, Jan 7, 2004 - McHugh Bluff
history
Marr, N., Ryder, C., Hayes, C. (2004) ‘Then & Now, Louise Bridge 10th Street W. over the Bow River’ The
Calgary Herald, May 25, 2004 - Louise Bridge history
Gilchrist, John (2008) ‘Chicken Your Way’ The Calgary Herald, Aug 22, 2008 - Early commercial history 14th
Street
Anon. (2012) ‘[Obit] Chrisohou, George’ The Calgary Herald, Jan 24, 2012 - Chrisohou life details, Rossland
Confy
Anon. (2013) ‘Obituary: James McCrie Hollicky’ The Calgary Herald, Apr 20, 2013 - life details Jim Hollicky
Anon. (2014) ‘Obituary: Gordon Frederick Jensen’ The Calgary Herald, Oct, 2014 - life and career details
Gordon Jensen (Sunnyside Nurseries)
Toneguzzi, Mario (2018) Iconic Calgary Garden Centre Sunnyside Greenhouse to Close, YYC Business, Mar 14,
2018 https://yyccalgarybusiness.ca/author/mariotonneguzzi - Sunnyside Nurseries history
Offin, Sarah (2018) ‘Sunnyside Greenhouses Closed Thursday after 100 Years of Business in Calgary’ Global
News, May 31, 2018 - Sunnyside Nurseries history
Ward, Rachel (2018) ‘Gardeners Face ‘Big Shock’ of Sunnyside Greenhouses Suddenly Closing this Week’ CBC
News Calgary, May 31, 2018 - Sunnyside Nurseries history
Anon. (2020) ‘Obituary: Elizabeth (Betty) Rose Jensen’ The Calgary Herald, Jun, 2020 - life and career details
Elizabeth Jensen (Sunnyside Nurseries)

Unpublished

Bison Historical Services Ltd (1999) ‘Historical Resources Impact Assessment and Monitoring, Canada Safeway
Limited, Calgary-Hillhurst’

Burtch, Linda (n.d.) ‘And Sow it Grows - Remembering Jim Hollicky’ - details of Jim Hollicky and the Hillhurst
Sunnyside Community Garden

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