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St. Mary’s Parish Hall-CNR Station
Calgary
Other Names:
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Old CN Station; Nat Christie Centre; Scarth Street Station; 17th Ave Station
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Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The St. Mary’s Parish Hall-CNR Station is a three-storey sandstone building constructed in 1905, with one-storey brick (1916) and wood-frame (1951) additions at the south end. The sandstone Parish Hall portion features a gambrel roof with hipped dormers along both sides, and Classical detailing on its “boomtown” front façade. These features are integrated with the more functional railway style of the additions through a canopy and overhanging eaves along the east elevation. Many of the building components, including the roof, front entablature, and trackside canopy, were reconstructed after a fire in 1985. The structure is situated on six irregular lots adjacent to the Elbow River, in the community of Mission.
Heritage Value
The St. Mary’s Parish Hall-CNR Station is valued as an early sandstone building in Calgary, influenced by the Edwardian Classical style. Constructed of locally sourced sandstone, the parish hall was designed by prominent Calgary architect James J. O’Gara, who worked in partnership with F.J. Lawson from 1905 to 1907. O’Gara was a member of St. Mary’s Parish and later designed several other church-sponsored projects including the Lacombe Home in Midnapore, a wing of the Holy Cross Hospital, and (with Hodgson and Bates) St. Mary’s School. The former parish hall is distinguished by its unique gambrel roof with rows of windowed dormers along both sides, and a false “boomtown” front more commonly seen on commercial structures of the era in western Canada. The façade is dominated by Classical details including four pilasters that support a heavy cornice and central pediment, giving the building an appearance of symmetry and solidity. The round-arched window on the upper front façade is reminiscent of the Romanesque Revival style, which was preferred among Catholic institutions around the time of construction. The contrasting rear extension, with its deep roof overhang supported by brackets, has a more functional quality that is typical of railway architecture and embodies the building’s long identity as a railway station.
The St. Mary’s Parish Hall-CNR Station has institutional value for its association with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Roman Catholic missionary congregation that established the mission of Notre Dame de la Paix that eventually became the Roman Catholic francophone village of Rouleauville in 1899. The Oblates also established the Sacred Heart Convent, Holy Cross Hospital, and St. Mary’s Church in the district.
As one of few extant structures built during the period of Oblate influence in Rouleauville (now Mission), the parish hall has symbolic value as a reminder of the community’s early French-speaking, Roman Catholic character. After its completion in 1905, it became the centre of the community’s social and cultural life, seating 500 people, used for recitals and plays, and housed as many as 19 societies and organizations. Members of the St. Mary’s Club could access a reading room, music rooms, a bowling alley, and billiard rooms. The Ukrainian Catholic community met there from 1905 to 1908, and St. Mary’s Boys School operated out of classrooms in the basement from 1907 to 1910. The increasingly Anglicized community of Rouleauville was annexed to Calgary in 1907, and by 1916 Bishop McNally replaced the Oblate Fathers with diocesan clergy, effectively ending the Francophone dominance in the Parish.
The former parish hall has further activity value for its use as a rail transportation hub for almost six decades under the ownership of the Canadian Northern Railway, which merged with Canadian National Railways in 1923. In 1911, the company purchased St. Mary’s Parish Hall with the intention of building a larger terminal on the site. Passenger service began in 1914, east to Winnipeg along the Goose Lake Line, and north to Edmonton. In 1916 Canadian Northern Railway converted the former Parish Hall into a temporary train station, adding a trackside wooden platform and canopy on the east side of the building, and a brick extension to the south, which served as the Express department. Plans for the new terminal were shelved due to financial difficulties exacerbated by the First World War, and the CNR remained in the former Parish Hall, which they further extended with a wood frame freight shed in 1951. On July 5, 1971 rail service ended, and the station was permanently closed.
The St. Mary’s Parish Hall-CNR Station sat vacant for several years while then, in 1979 the City of Calgary acquired the station as part of a larger purchase from the CNR, and soon afterward the building took on a new role as the first permanent home of the fledgling Calgary City Ballet, founded in 1982. A school of ballet and full-sized professional rehearsal and recital studios opened in the spring of 1987, following a major restoration that was compelled in part by a fire two years earlier. In 1990 the Calgary City Ballet and Alberta Ballet merged into one resident dance company, which continues to occupy the building.
Through its distinct phases of use, the St. Mary’s Parish Hall-CNR Station has become a well-known landmark in the community of Mission. Familiar to generations of Calgarians because of its long service as a train station, this structure also has a distinctive presence in Mission as part of grouping of similar-scale buildings constructed under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church.
Character-Defining Elements
Character-defining elements of the St. Mary's Parish-CNR Station include:
Sandstone Parish Hall:
- the structure’s three-storey massing and rectangular form;
- rubble-coursed sandstone foundation and sandstone masonry walls;
- Boomtown façade with rough-faced sandstone lintels, sills, voussoirs, and string course, and four smooth sandstone pilasters supporting pressed metal entablature with central pediment;
- gambrel roof with cedar shingles and rows of six hipped windowed dormers along side elevations;
- fenestration pattern comprising rows of rectangular windows along side elevations; four rectangular windows in third storey of north elevation; and pairs of rectangular windows on main façade, flanking one semi-circular window on third storey, a band of three narrow rectangular windows on second storey, and double door opening with single-pane transom on main level;
- door openings on west elevation including single door (north end) and double door (south end), and two double-door openings on east elevation; and
- wooden platform on east elevation, and canopy supported by rounded brackets.
1916 Brick Station Addition:
- single-storey massing, rectangular form, and red brick cladding;
- hipped roof with wide overhanging eaves and exposed rafter tails, supported by rounded brackets on east elevation;
- fenestration pattern comprising eight rectangular window openings with segmental arches and concrete sills on west elevation; and five on east elevation; and
- single and double door openings on east elevation.
1951 Wood Frame Freight Shed:
-Single-storey massing, rectangular form, and wood frame construction;
-Cedar shingle cladding with four horizontal wood “bumper bands” along east elevation;
-Hipped roof with wide overhanging eaves and exposed rafter tails, supported by rounded brackets on east and south elevations;
-Fenestration style comprising multi-pane ribbon windows; and
-Overall structure’s siting along almost a full north-south city block, with wide setback on north end.
Location
| Street Address: |
141 - 18 Avenue SW |
| Community: |
Calgary |
| Boundaries: |
Lot 1, Block 11, Plan 8611375 |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
8611375
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11
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1
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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51.03684 |
-114.06547 |
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NAD83 |
UTM Reference:
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Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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5658020 |
705733 |
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NAD83 |
Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Local Governments (AB) |
| Designation Status: |
Municipal Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
2020/09/14 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1905 to 1951 |
| Period of Significance: |
1885 to 1971 |
| Theme(s): |
Building Social and Community Life : Religious Institutions
Developing Economies : Communications and Transportation
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| Historic Function(s): |
Religion, Ritual and Funeral : Religious Institution
Transport - Rail : Station or Other Rail Facility
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| Current Function(s): |
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| Architect: |
Lawson & O'Gara
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| Builder: |
John Gillespie
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| Context: |
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Additional Information
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