A Virtual Tour of Historic Calgary

Building Trivia

At 215 metres, the 52 storey Petro Canada Building, completed in 1984, is the city’s tallest building. It is followed by Banker’s Hall (196.5m) and the Calgary Tower (191m)

Downtown Calgary includes over 2.5 million square feet of retail space.

There are 42,000 parking spaces in Downtown Calgary.

The Palliser Hotel was the tallest building in Calgary until 1958.

Calgary is built on the site of a dried up lake bottom.

Currie Barracks, built in 1934, was named for General Sir Arthur Currie, Commander of the Canadian Corps in WWI.

Beginning in 1890 Senator Lougheed built four downtown blocks named after his sons; Clarence, Norman, Edgar and Douglas. Both the Norman Block and the Clarence Block are still standing.They are located on Stephen Avenue Mall.

The first meeting of the City Planning Commission was held in December 1911.

Calgary's first public park was developed adjacent to the railway station in 1891 (where the Calgary Tower   now stands).

Construction of the $8 million Chinook Centre began in September 1958 on the former site of the Chinook Drive-In Theatre.

The Colonel Belcher Hospital officially opened in June 1919 in a converted warehouse on 8th Avenue West.

In 1885 Calgary’s first town hall and jail were built of wood at a cost of $1,694.

Old City Hall is the only Calgary building designated as an Historic Resource by three levels of government.

Old City Hall has been the site of municipal government since 1885.

In 1913 a time clock was installed in the corridor of city hall to monitor the arrival and departure of city employees.

Calgary’s first parking lot designed exclusively for high school students opened in 1957 at  Crescent Heights High School  accommodating 70 cars.

Calgary's first cottage or temporary hospital opened in the fall of 1890 in a two storey frame house which accommodated eight patients.  In 1895 Calgary officially opened the first permanent structure modern hospital, the Calgary General, built just north of the Stampede Grounds.

The recently renovated Grain Exchange Building at 815 - 1st Street S.W. was Calgary's first "skyscraper" (six storeys) and one of the tallest buildings in the province at the time it was built in 1910.

The statue of General Wolfe in front of the Calgary Planetarium was salvaged from the top of a New York skyscraper by Eric Harvie, founder of the Glenbow Foundation.

Calgary’s first public outpatients clinic opened at Holy Cross Hospital in 1949.

In 1911 Calgary had 25 apartment houses, a number equal to Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal combined.

In 1910 lots in Forest Lawn sold for $60.00.

Calgary is one of 7 cities which still retains an original City Hall.

Seven million passengers per year pass through Calgary International Airport. It is the fourth busiest airport in Canada and in 1995 was ranked as the 55th busiest airport in the world by Airport Council International.

There are more than 100 works of public art  located through downtown Calgary.

Winston Churchill visited Calgary in 1929 and attended a luncheon given in his honor at the  Palliser Hotel.

Of the hundreds of sandstone buildings constructed in Calgary, only about 50 survive.

When Eaton's  first store opened on Eighth Avenue in February 1929 it featured the city's first escalator.

Calgary Public Library, the first public library established in Alberta in 1912, celebrates 85 years of service to Calgarians.

When City Hall opened in 1911 it was home to Mayor, Council, administration, Council chambers, courts, police department and municipal telephone system.

The city’s first Opera House was located on the present day site of the Calgary Public Building, part of the Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts.

In 1910, during an economic boom, building permits worth a total of $5,589,594 were issued for fourteen business blocks, 16 warehouses, eight hotels, 5 schools, two hospitals and several other projects including Mount Royal College and Calgary Public Library.

The Calgary Zoo is the second largest in Canada and attracts over 850,000 visitors annually.

The original Seth Thomas clock (no. 1639) in City Hall's  tower was purchased in 1911 through the Calgary jeweller D.E. Black for $3,657.00.

Sixteen buildings along Stephen Avenue were demolished to construct the first Convention Centre complex, which opened in 1974.

Calgary’s first fire department was organized in 1885.

Calgary's 102 year old Ranchmen's Club approved admission of female members for the first time in 1993.

In November 1922, "The Arcade", Calgary's first shopping mall, was built on 8th Avenue between 1st St. and Centre Street.

In 1883, a corner lot in the heart of downtown Calgary, 8th Avenue, cost $450.00.

The 1,950 seat Palace Theatre on 8th Avenue S.W. first opened October 25, 1921.

In 1995 more than 8,000 building permits were issued in Calgary for an estimated value of $900 million.

Alberta’s first public library opened in Calgary’s Central Park in 1912.

In 1912 Calgary firemen earned $70.00 a month and lived 24 hours a day in the station.

Calgary's second city hall cost $300,000 to complete in 1911, double the architect's original estimate.

On June 10, 1907 the Calgary Post Office inaugurated letter carrier delivery.

Calgary's first recorded fire took place January 1885 in a house on 9th Avenue.

In 1908 the suburb previously known as the "C.P.R. Addition" was renamed Mount Royal.

The $30 million Scotia Centre and the $85 million Toronto Dominion Square opened in a buoyant local economy in 1976.

Safeway opened its first two Calgary stores in January 1930, on 2nd Street East and 8th Avenue, and on 17th Avenue and 14th Street West.

Prior to 1904, Calgary streets and avenues were named rather than numbered.

Enrollment in Calgary's first public school, taught by Mr. J.W. Costello, in 1883 was thirteen.

Palace Theatre on 8th Avenue S.W. opened October 25, 1921, it was the largest and grandest in the city.

When Eaton's first store opened on Eighth Avenue in February 1929 it featured the city's first escalator, moving stairs complete with wooden treads.

In 1911 Calgary had 25 apartment houses, a number equal to Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal combined.

On February 15, 1929, 700 local people lined Eighth Avenue to apply for work at the new Eaton’s  store.

The second Centre Street Bridge, with reposing lions and concrete turrets was built in 1916 at a cost of $375,000.

The first Centre Street Bridge, a steel and wooden structure, was built by private investors in 1906 for $17,000.

The Colonel Belcher Hospital official opened in June 1919 in a converted warehouse on 8th Avenue west.

On August 7, 1942 the Honourable Ian Mackenzie laid the cornerstone for the new $600,000 Colonel Belcher Hospital.

In 1933, the Glenmore reservoir and water treatment plant was opened at a cost of $4 million.

The Planetarium, opened in 1967, was Calgary's largest centennial project.

 

© Calgary Public Library. July 21, 2005