Alberta Register of Historic Places

Calgary Cattle Company Building / Pioneer Market

Calgary

Other Names:

Art Gallery of Calgary
Calgary Cattle Company Building
Muttart Public Art Gallery
Pioneer Market
Pioneer Meat Market
Silk-O-Lina

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place
The Calgary Cattle Company Building is an early twentieth-century, two-storey brick and sandstone building featuring a corbelled brick cornice, parapet, and central pediment. It is located on a single lot along Calgary's historic Stephen Mall Avenue.

Heritage Value
The heritage value of the Calgary Cattle Company Building lies in its association with the development of a ranching economy in southern Alberta and its embodiment of the Edwardian commercial style of architecture.

In the wake of Confederation, the Canadian government endeavoured to entice homesteaders to the vast expanses of the North-West. Unable to attract substantial agricultural settlement in southern Alberta - in part because of concerns that the area was ill-suited for farming - the federal government offered incentives to cattlemen to found ranches in the region. Lured by government inducements, propitious environmental conditions, and a rapidly developing transportation infrastructure, several cattle companies took out large grazing leases and helped to establish ranching as the dominant industry in southern Alberta from the early 1880s until 1905. The vitality of the ranching industry led to the creation of numerous processing facilities and contributed to Calgary's rapid commercial and industrial expansion around the turn of the century.

The Calgary Cattle Company was incorporated in 1902. The three original directors of the company were giants of the civic community: Senator James Alexander Lougheed, lawyer and future Prime Minister R.B. Bennett, and rancher Charles Knight. In 1903, the company constructed the Calgary Cattle Company Building along Stephen Avenue and set up a meat market on the site. The company hoped to compete with legendary cattleman Pat Burns by emulating his integrated system of cattle raising, processing, and marketing, but Burns engineered a corporate take-over of the Calgary Cattle Company - along with its Stephen Avenue retail space - in 1905. By 1908, Burns had established his famous Pioneer Meat Market on the ground floor of the Calgary Cattle Company Building. The Pioneer Meat Market remained at this site until 1920, when it was moved to a nearby location.

The Calgary Cattle Company Building is composed of some of the common construction materials and architectural features used for commercial buildings erected in Calgary during its turn-of-the-century boom. The sandstone used in the Calgary Cattle Company Building was a common, inexpensive construction element in many of the city's buildings of this period and its frequent use established Calgary as the "Sandstone City." The Edwardian commercial style was also popular at the time and is evident in the building's corbelled brick cornice and parapet. The particular materials and design of the Calgary Cattle Company Building are vital contributors to the aura of Calgary's historic Stephen Avenue Mall.

Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. 2041)

Character-Defining Elements
The heritage value of the Calgary Cattle Company Building includes such character-defining elements as:
- mass, style, and form;
- brick and sandstone facade;
- corbelled brick cornice, central pediment, parapet, sandstone lintels, sills, and piers;
- pilasters rising to top of second floor;
- Edwardian style commercial store front;
- rear facade featuring hand-painted "PIONEER MARKET" and "P. BURNS (AND) CO. LTD." signs;
- sandstone lintels and sills on rear facade;
- fenestration pattern and style, including asymmetrically disposed double-hung windows on front facade and single-hung sash windows on rear facade.

Location

Street Address:	117 - 8 Avenue SW
Community:	Calgary
Boundaries:	Lot 12, Block 63, Plan A
Contributing Resources:	Buildings: 1

ATS Legal Description:

Mer	Rge	Twp	Sec	LSD
5	1	24	15	11 (ptn.)

PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):

Plan	Block	Lot	Parcel
A	63	12

Latitude/Longitude:

Latitude	Longitude	CDT	Datum Type
51.045304	-114.064113	GPS	NAD 83

UTM Reference:

Northing	Easting	Zone	CDT	Datum Type

Recognition

Recognition Authority:	Province of Alberta
Designation Status:	Provincial Historic Resource
Date of Designation:	2001/05/22

Historical Information

Built:	1903 to 1903
Period of Significance:	1903 to 1920
Theme(s):	Developing Economies : Extraction and Production Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life : Architecture and Design
Historic Function(s):	Commerce / Commercial Services : Market Commerce / Commercial Services : Shop or Wholesale Establishment
Current Function(s):	Commerce / Commercial Services : Studio
Architect:
Builder:
Context:	HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE In 1883, the CPR arrived at the site of Fort Calgary. In 1884, the Town of Calgary was incorporated. Being at the centre of a burgeoning cattle industry, it was not surprising that the community would evolve as a service centre for this industry. By the turn of the century, Calgary had become the largest city between Winnipeg and Vancouver due mainly to the raising and marketing of livestock. Most of its wealthier citizens were tied in some way or other to this industry. One of these wealthy citizens was Pat Burns. A poor, undereducated young man from Ontario, he had come west to Manitoba in 1878 where he homesteaded and shipped cattle. With the coming of the CPR, he began to ship cattle to construction sites. With the completion of the railway, he moved to Calgary, where he bought a cattle ranch and opened a meat-packing venture in 1890. He continued to supply meat to construction workers in the region, and also expanded into British Columbia and even the Yukon. Over the years, he built up an integrated company that controlled all aspects of production from raising livestock to delivering dressed meats. In doing this, he amassed one of the first great personal fortunes in southern Alberta. One of Burns' chief competitors was the Calgary Cattle Company. Incorporated in 1902, it sought to emulate Burns by developing an integrated beef production firm. Their head office was a two-storey brick structure on Second Street and Twelfth Avenue SW. From here, with a staff of twenty and a capital stock of 100,000 dollars, Managing Director Charles Knight set out to challenge Burns and others in the business. The company developed its own stockyards, abattoir and cold storage plant. Burns recognized the challenge, but rather than engage in competition, he chose the more comfortable method of corporate take-over, and, in 1905, bought out the Calgary Cattle Company. He thus took over offices on 2nd Street, but rather than relocate his own head office there, he converted the structure into the Pioneer Meat Market. This enterprise would continue as part of the Burns cattle empire until 1920, after which the building was converted into other commercial uses. Burns sold it in 1931. By this time, his interest in cattle was confined to his several ranches. The historical significance of the Pioneer Meat Market lies mainly in its association with the cattle industry in southern Alberta, and, in particular, with one of its most successful and publicly recognized members, Pat Burns. Burns was one of four financial backers of the Calgary Stampede in 1912, and would eventually become a Canadian Senator. The building is also significant in its representation of the economic boom experienced by Calgary at the turn of the century.

Additional Information

Object Number:	4665-0969
Designation File:	DES 2041
Related Listing(s):	4664-0100
Heritage Survey File:	HS 6608
Website Link:
Data Source:	Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch, Old St. Stephen's College, 8820 - 112 Street, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P8 (File: Des. 2041)