“They really show us how people used to live and can help us understand the stories of people who came before us, good and bad.”

[00:00:08] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to what's your story? [00:00:11] Speaker B: Threads of human experience. A podcast of perspectives that weaves past, present and future. [00:00:22] Speaker A: I am your host Ethan Seaborn. And in this episode, take a look at your surroundings because well be exploring the history around you. In Calgary, the buildings tell stories from the olden days to now. The city has changed a lot. Some buildings are gone, but others still stand, holding memories of the past. One resident in Calgary is curious about these old buildings, wanting to learn their history and understand how they fit into the city's story. So Frank Finley set out on a journey to uncover the secrets of Calgary's past. As he walks through the streets, he imagined what life was like long ago. Frank pictures the people who lived and worked in these buildings and they wonder about the events that shaped the city. With each step, Frank discovers something new. Maybe it's an old building with a hidden story. Or a forgotten corner of the city that holds clues to its past. He pieces together these clues like a detective solving a mystery. Bringing the history of Calgary to life. To find out more about Frank, I. [00:01:36] Speaker B: Drove down to the community of Kensington. [00:01:38] Speaker A: And talked with him in his apartment about his life and where his interest in the history of Calgary's architecture came from. [00:01:46] Speaker C: I remember when they opened Lougheed House as a public tourist site. It had been restored by a group of community leaders through their painstaking efforts. And I remember going there as a really young kid and seeing this really beautiful, grand, spectacular house and starting to realize how many of these places existed in this city, but might kind of. [00:02:06] Speaker D: Be hidden out of view. [00:02:08] Speaker A: A born and raised Calgary resident, Frank. [00:02:10] Speaker B: Has found a passion for old architecture. [00:02:12] Speaker A: And the stories that come with them. His love of architecture, however, came from something much smaller. [00:02:22] Speaker C: I think, oddly enough, it started with an obsession with old books. When I was a kid, I loved the idea that something that seemed otherwise quite fragile could make it a few hundred years into my hands. And then I realized buildings are kind of like that as well. But surprisingly, maybe even less likely than a lot of books to survive a long period of time. [00:02:43] Speaker A: As a child, Frank explored the prairies on vacation with his mother who was a schoolteacher. That would bring Frank to historic sites. At this time, historic buildings began to pique his interest. [00:02:54] Speaker C: Who doesn't love to go somewhere as a kid that's like a big, beautiful, interesting building. Something that you might not be able to find everywhere. I think there's maybe some sort of magic as a kid to go somewhere that's really spectacular and beautiful. [00:03:07] Speaker A: One moment from Franks childhood stands out. [00:03:10] Speaker C: When I was a kid sometimes wed go to Saskatoon and theres this beautiful hotel called the Bezborough in Saskatoon and wed stay there on occasion. And I remember going inside and just being in awe at this huge castle like building in a city that isnt a huge city but has these amazing pieces of architecture. [00:03:29] Speaker A: As Frank got older, he became interested in politics. This influenced his views on the architectural landscape. [00:03:36] Speaker C: I realized how political the building of cities and architecture really is and how much of the political process is involved in that. And so I began to kind of mesh together my interests of architecture and aesthetics and art and then the political realm and how that influences everything, either for good or bad. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Here in Calgary. Frank's interest in lost historic buildings within the city stems back to his time at Lockheed House. He said a lot of buildings are either hidden or not in the public's consciousness. [00:04:10] Speaker C: Number one, they really show us how people used to live and can help us understand the stories of people who came before us, good and bad. And beyond that too, there are pieces of art, paintings and poetry and music is much more likely to survive hundreds of years than most buildings are. But we need to view these places. [00:04:30] Speaker D: As works of art, as works of. [00:04:31] Speaker C: Public beauty, and understand why then they're important to preserve. [00:04:35] Speaker A: Frank looks to preserve the memory of these historic buildings. In a book he is currently writing with excitement, Frank shared the history of two historic buildings that no longer exist within the city. The first story is a building that once stood alongside 17th Avenue and Fifth street southwest. Thomas and Robert Jaland built Jaland block in 1907. Acting as a commercial and residential property. The first floor was used as a grocer, cobbler, tailor and post office with two rental apartments on the second floor. The building was a bambrel roofed house with green siding that wrapped around the upper part of the building. A bright yellow Pepsi sign hung above. [00:05:22] Speaker B: The front door and you could see. [00:05:24] Speaker A: All sorts of produce and items through the front windows. [00:05:27] Speaker B: The building seemed innocent enough. However, nobody could have predicted that this building would house a dreadful tale. John Davis arrived in Calgary in 1906 as the construction boom took off within the city. Working as a real estate agent, he. [00:05:48] Speaker A: Was a regular customer at the Leonard Cafe, located alongside Center Street. [00:05:53] Speaker B: 21 year old irish waitress Minnie Black caught John's attention. [00:05:58] Speaker D: She'd previously worked as a prostitute, though John didn't seem to mind. By all accounts, he was very much in love with her, at least at this point. [00:06:06] Speaker A: The couple eventually got married, but things. [00:06:09] Speaker B: Began to take a dark turn. [00:06:11] Speaker C: John grew increasingly paranoid, believing Minnie to be cheating on him despite Minnie assuring. [00:06:18] Speaker D: Her husband that she was absolutely faithful. He would not seem to listen and seemed to descend into some sort of madness. [00:06:25] Speaker B: John abused Minnie physically. When Minnie brought the issue forward to the police, they refused to intervene. We're going to pause here on the story of John and Minnie and focus on another character within the story named Mildred Dixon. Mildred was a scottish 24 year old who had moved to Canada for a new life. She found herself working as a waitress at the Victoria Hotel, yet became bored of her job. Craving a more exciting career, Mildred was. [00:06:53] Speaker C: Intrigued when she learned of an organization. [00:06:56] Speaker D: Called the Capitol Detective Agency, which was a private investigative office. Eventually, she went to the office and requested to be given a position. While no woman investigators worked in the city, Mildred argued that this was what. [00:07:09] Speaker C: Would actually make her an acid, and she was eventually hired and put to. [00:07:12] Speaker D: Work on a number of cases. [00:07:13] Speaker B: And now back to John and Minnie. Months after Mildred started working for the capital detective Agency, John visited Mildred's workplace. [00:07:22] Speaker A: Asking them to follow his wife. [00:07:24] Speaker B: To prove she had been unfaithful, Mildred. [00:07:27] Speaker A: Took on the case and rented a. [00:07:29] Speaker B: Room in the same boarding house as John and Minnie lived in. [00:07:33] Speaker D: But over the coming weeks, Mildred found nothing unusual about Minnie, in fact, finding her perfectly lovely and kind. But she also came to find that John was a violent and paranoid man. [00:07:43] Speaker B: After a severe moment of abuse from John, Mildred told Minnie she was hired to follow her and prompted Minnie to leave John. Mildred invited Minnie to live with her in her Jalan block apartment. Over the weeks, the two women grew close, trying to stay hidden from John. Despite this, John managed to find them. He made multiple attempts to see his wife. [00:08:07] Speaker D: On October 6, 1912, John went to the woman's apartment again, requesting to see his wife. Mildred answered the door, later exclaiming, he demanded to be let in. I was afraid. I told him to let me see what he had in his pocket before he came in. I felt that he was armed. He refused my request, and as I tried to close the door, he drew a gun and shot me. [00:08:25] Speaker A: Shooting Mildred twice. [00:08:27] Speaker B: John forced his way into the apartment. He shot Minnie four times, killing her instantly. John then turned the gun to his head and took one final shot. The next day, Mildred passed away after giving her statement to the Calgary Herald. The Jaaland block apartments sat empty for a time after the murders, with the main floor continuing to run as a grocery. Between the years of 1923 and 1951, Harry vicars would run Vickers grocery, where he converted the upstairs apartments into one living space where he lived with his family. The building was later purchased by Peter Gold turning the upstairs into a photography studio that would operate until 1988 and then becoming a beauty parlor. The building was eventually purchased and torn down in 2017, where a new commercial and residential development would take place. [00:09:23] Speaker D: Gunn was one of the last remaining commercial structures of the boom era on 17th Avenue, and gone also is perhaps a reminder of the lives and friendship of Minnie in Mildred as well. [00:09:32] Speaker E: I'm standing on the corner of where Jaaland block used to be and what I can see is a commercial and residential property that now stands in its place with a cafe bar, a sandwich shop and a cinnamon bun store on the lower levels. And as I look up, I can see roughly four stories of apartment buildings and it's been very modernized in comparison to what used to stand here. [00:09:56] Speaker B: I decided to make my way to Lougheed House, a historic site that sits. [00:10:00] Speaker A: In the middle of downtown Calgary and. [00:10:02] Speaker B: That has played a significant role in Frank's life. Pulling up to the site, the large sandstone mansion stands out from its surroundings. I sat down with associate curator Aaron Benedictson, who shared a brief history of the house and why it still remains as a historic site in the city. [00:10:22] Speaker F: This whole street was littered with these giant sandstone mansions and Lougheed house is the only one that remains. It didn't have an opportunity to be bulldozed and so that's kind of why it was important to preserve Lockheed House, is that while these kind of buildings, like sandstone buildings, are, you know, kind of all over the place in Calgary. And there's the Prince house at Heritage park. Although that's been relocated from its original location, Lockheed House is the only one that stands on its original spot. [00:10:46] Speaker B: Aaron said the preservation of history is to remember those who were involved in building the city. However, it is also important to recognize the history of settlers within Canada. [00:10:57] Speaker F: But it's also important to remember that all of these people are settlers on the colonial undertones to Lahitos being built, this obviously all was indigenous land. There's some history of the land that we know a little bit before Laheet House was built, particularly cause Lahide House was built on the outskirts of the city. So it was kind of like bald open prairie. So it's important to remember the story like it's not just a building, it's not just a historic building. And this is what it was from this year to this year or this year to this year. It's important to remember like the stories of the people who built it, but also, you know, who came after the Lougheeds. Who came before the Lougheeds. You know, kind of have that context of all those things. [00:11:37] Speaker B: Now let's transition as Frank shares the history of the Dufferin Lodge apartment buildings and its unfortunate demise. [00:11:48] Speaker A: The edwardian era was the time period between 1901 and 1910. [00:11:53] Speaker B: And at the time Calgary had a. [00:11:56] Speaker A: Number of well developed properties along the belt line. [00:11:59] Speaker C: Think places like Lougheed house just spread out over blocks and blocks. These really spectacular homes with walled gardens and towers and beautiful tiled roofs. [00:12:11] Speaker B: Amongst some of these luxurious homes were apartment buildings. [00:12:15] Speaker A: And being among wealthy residents, these apartments. [00:12:17] Speaker B: Were on the nicer end. [00:12:19] Speaker C: One such place was called Dufferin Lodge and was built in 1912. It was this spectacular brick and sandstone building with this three story veranda on. [00:12:27] Speaker D: The front that provided ample outdoor room. [00:12:29] Speaker C: For anybody who wanted to take advantage of our relatively short summers here. [00:12:34] Speaker A: Elaborate parties would occasionally take place within Dufferin Lodge. [00:12:39] Speaker D: A 1914 society column actually details a dinner party of a resident. [00:12:43] Speaker C: A misses G. Denham. Who received her guests in a elaborate white silk gown. [00:12:47] Speaker D: With a girdle of tango silk apparently. And in the dead of winter, her guests enjoyed a meal surrounded by palms and red tulips. [00:12:55] Speaker C: Before later departing to attend a New Year's ball. [00:12:58] Speaker A: Over the years, however, the beltline began to change. Along with the luxurious description of the Dufferin Lodge. In the 1970s, the apartments were dwarfed by high rise buildings that surrounded it. The Dufferin lodge was eventually purchased by the First Baptist church which sat directly in the lot beside the apartments. [00:13:20] Speaker D: In the 1980s, 1st Baptist Church actually wanted to tear down Dufferin Lodge to expand their service parking for their congregants. [00:13:27] Speaker C: Though a lot of people protested this decision and ultimately the city said let's. [00:13:32] Speaker D: Find a different way for you to get more service parking. But keep Dufferin Lodge, this beautiful building. [00:13:36] Speaker C: That is still in able to provide housing to people. [00:13:40] Speaker A: However, in late May of 1995, while the congregates of the church were in the middle of a service, people began to smell smoke exiting the church. People witnessed flames come through the roof of Dufferin Lodge. [00:13:54] Speaker D: For 2 hours, firefighters attempted to put out the blaze. [00:13:57] Speaker C: But by the time it was extinguished. [00:13:59] Speaker D: The building was in pretty poor condition. The blaze was eventually determined to be arson. [00:14:04] Speaker C: Though ultimately it would go unsolved. [00:14:07] Speaker A: The church seemingly got what they asked for. As a service parking lot sits where Dufferin Lodge once did. Frank hopes his book will give people an appreciation for some of the beautiful architecture in the city. As the city continues to develop, Frank believes that the be all, end all to architecture should not solely be about profit. [00:14:35] Speaker D: It's worth building something beautiful, even if it costs more. And after all, isn't it, in fact, cheaper in the long run to build a building that might last one or 200 years, rather than a structure that. [00:14:47] Speaker C: Is considered ugly and dilapidated in 40. [00:14:50] Speaker D: And has to be torn down and replaced? [00:14:58] Speaker A: You've been listening to what's your story? [00:15:00] Speaker B: Threads of human experience. [00:15:02] Speaker A: I am Ethan Seaborne. Special thanks to Frank Findlay and Aaron Benedictson. This series was produced in Mokinsis, also known as Calgary, the ancestral lands of the Nisitapi, Ayanokoda, and Sutina, and this series is part of the Community podcast. [00:15:21] Speaker E: Initiative based out of Mount Royal University. [00:15:23] Speaker B: Where we are grateful for the opportunity. [00:15:25] Speaker A: To create, learn, and grow. As our stories interact, we see value and importance in learning about the people and places where our lives unravel and recognizing our responsibility to decolonize our media practice. Be sure to subscribe to what's your story? Wherever you get your podcasts to pull more threads and discover new stories.