Historic assets impacted by future Calgary events center

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Two pieces of Calgary history will need to be removed to make way for the city’s new downtown events centre, which includes a century-old grocery store and an iconic elm tree.

Built in 1911, the Stephenson and Co. Grocers building at the corner of 13th Avenue and 5th Street SE will be dismantled and relocated this spring, according to a city news release Monday.

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Plans are being explored to preserve the two-story brick building and “integrate it back into Calgary’s modern streetscape,” the city said.

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How that will be done has yet to be determined, but the city said options could include repurposing the building into a store, cultural or community-focused facility.

Until then, the building will be stored at an undisclosed location for safekeeping.

Josh Traptow, executive director of Heritage Calgary, said the Stephenson and Co. building has “withstood the test of time” despite the ever-evolving nature of Victoria Park. He said he is pleased to see that the city is choosing to reintegrate it, rather than simply demolish it to make room for the future events center.

While it does not have an official heritage designation, the Stephenson and Co. building is subject to a legal agreement between the city and the Calgary Stampede that protects it.

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Although the building has recently been used for other functions, Traptow said it has served as a popular grocery store for more than 80 years, making it “one of the last remaining elements” of Victoria Park’s early history.

“When Victoria Park was built. . . That would have been where a lot of people went to do their shopping,” he said.

Iconic elm to cut

The other piece of Calgary history that will be affected by the impending construction of Calgary’s new $900 million stadium and events center is the nearly 125-year-old American elm tree rooted in the Saddledome parking lot. .

Often known as Stampede Elm, the iconic tree is believed to have been planted in the early 1900s, originally at the intersection of four backyards.

Despite the effects of development since then, the tree has remained in Victoria Park, near the Stampede grounds, for its more than 100-year life.

Although the tree will need to be taken down to make way for the event center, the city said it intends to “honor its legacy” through various preservation efforts.

These include a partnership with the University of Calgary in 2021 to create a three-dimensional digital representation, which was captured by scanning the tree from 12 locations using a ground-based laser. That image is now part of the U of C. Alberta Digital Heritage Archive.

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Calgary Parks staff also collected approximately 150 seeds from the tree, according to the city, which will be replanted at a local tree nursery. They also cut branches from the tree, with plans to grow them into new, self-sustaining trees.

If the branches are successfully propagated, trees genetically identical to the Stampede Elm will be created that can be replanted in Calgary’s urban forest.

“While the success rate is not guaranteed and is often unpredictable, we are hopeful that between 100 and 200 trees will be replanted in Calgary’s urban forest in the coming years amid all ongoing preservation efforts,” the city said. .

Traptow called that solution the “best case scenario” for the impressive elm, noting that the tree likely would not have survived a translocation.

“I know at first the city had looked at whether it was possible to move it, but moving a tree that size and the likelihood of it surviving the move was small,” he said. “I think cloning and seedlings are a great way to go.”

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