|
Alyth Lodge
Calgary
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Ogden Hotel (Alyth Lodge) historically known as the Ogden Hotel, is a three-storey, red-brick structure built in 1912. The Classical Revival-style structure is distinguished by its angled façade and front verandas. The former hotel building has been converted to low-cost apartments and retail space. The building is located in the south-east Calgary community of Ogden.
Heritage Value
Ogden Hotel (Alyth Lodge) is symbolically valuable for representing the transformative development that occurred in Ogden in 1912-13. It is the most substantial commercial structure erected in Ogden as a result of the boom which transpired when the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) established its primary repair facility for Western Canada at an adjacent site. The implications of the CPR’s 1911 decision were monumental for Calgary, and meant that the undeveloped Ogden area would become the site of the second-largest repair-shop facility in Canada, after Montreal, with a projected work force of 3,000. The CPR repair shops were to become Calgary’s single-largest employer. Many of these workers and their families were expected to make their home in the vicinity, leading to a real-estate boom in the community, and the development of the Ogden Hotel.
The substantial workforce and population base projected to transform Ogden enticed the Ranchman’s Trust Co., a subsidiary of the Calgary Brewing and Malting Company, to build the hotel in 1912 as an outlet for their products. In fact, the original name conceived for the hotel was ‘Mokinstsis’, a Blackfoot place name for Calgary – and one of the company’s beers. With Ogden being more than 7 kilometers from the saloons of downtown Calgary, situating a hotel in Ogden was a lucrative business prospect for the brewing company. The sixty-four-bedroom hotel was planned to be the entertainment and social centre of the community. It featured the second-largest hotel dining room in the city, a basement bowling alley, billiards room, and a large bar room – its main attraction. The hotel was one of the main businesses in the community and is historically significant for its commercial activity as a hotel from 1913-1915, and after a wartime interruption and vacancy, from c. 1925-35. It survives as one of only eight pre-World War One hotel buildings to remain in Calgary. While the CPR repair-shop facility was essentially built as planned, and a small commercial district was developed around the hotel, a world-wide depression in 1913 and the outbreak of war in 1914 halted much of the real-estate development that was projected for Ogden.
Ogden Hotel (Alyth Lodge) is architecturally important as an excellent example of the Classical Revival style. The building was designed by the eminent Calgary architectural firm of Lang and Major, who had just completed the city’s No. 1 Fire Hall (1911). The building is differentiated by an angled façade, clad in high-quality pressed brick, and spacious, columned verandas which flank its main entrance. Round- and segmental-arch door and window openings, detailed with keystones add to its character. Originally, classical cornices and elaborate balustrades atop the verandas contributed to a refined appearance.
The property also has significant institutional value for its role during World War 1 as the first military convalescent hospital to be established in Alberta. In October 1915 the use of the building was donated by the directors of the Calgary Brewing and Malting Co. to the Alberta Red Cross. From 1915 – 1919, hundreds of soldiers that were wounded in Europe recovered at the facility, then known as the Red Cross Convalescent Home. The building was purchased by the provincial government in 1935 to serve as a hostel for the unemployed as part of the province’s relief programme. The building functioned in this capacity until 1968. Since 1970, when it acquired its ‘Alyth’ name, it has served as low cost housing.
The property has been a landmark in the community from the time of its completion, and remains a focal point in the community. This landmark status stems from its distinctive and substantial architecture, central location and its prominent uses over the years. The building marks the location of Ogden’s small, original business district. It is one of the few commercial buildings of the district to survive from the pre-World War 1 era.
Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining structural and exterior elements of the Ogden Hotel (Alyth Lodge) include, but are not limited to the following:
- Three-storey, flat roof, irregular form with an angled principle (west) fac¸ade;
- Brick and timber construction with a pressed, red-brick principle facade laid in common bond with red-washed, concave masonry joints;
- Fenestration, comprising segmental-arch and rectangular window openings with rough-dressed sandstone keystones and concrete sills and lintels;
- Open, ground-level verandas with squared wooden supports and scroll-cut, bolstered capitals and wooden tongue-and-groove ceilings;
- Ground-level, secondary, veranda-access doorways with transom lights;
- Open frontispiece (central bay) with rounded-arch and segmental-arch openings with rough-dressed sandstone keystones, and containing second- and third-storey balconies with access doorways containing paneled, wood doors;
- Main entrance with double-width doorway; and
- Second-storey balcony-access doorways with paneled, single-glazed, wood doors and multi-pane transom lights.
The character-defining interior elements of the Ogden Hotel (Alyth Lodge) include, but are not limited to the following:
- Ground-floor (north-west corner) tin ceiling and cornices;
- Second- and third-floor configuration of guestrooms flanking central corridors;
- Second- and third-floor doorway casings (with cornices) and doorway transoms;
- Some extant second- and third-floor five-panel, wooden doors;
- Second- and third-storey mill floors with medium-width, softwood boards;
- Second- and third floor newel posts; and
- cast-iron radiators throughout.
The character-defining contextual elements of the Ogden Hotel (Alyth Lodge) include, but are not limited to the following:
- Triangular garden (north end of property); and
- Location in the centre of Ogden’s historic business district and adjacency to the original main entrance to the CPR repair shops.
Location
| Street Address: |
7012 Ogden Road SE |
| Community: |
Calgary |
| Boundaries: |
Lots 2 to 10 and a Portion of Lot 11, Block 1, Plan 375AM |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building: 1
|
ATS Legal Description:
|
Mer |
Rge |
Twp |
Sec |
LSD |
4
|
29
|
23
|
28
|
12
|
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
|
Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
375AM
|
1
|
2-11
|
|
Latitude/Longitude:
|
Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
|
50.99050646580 |
-114.00142840300 |
Secondary Source |
NAD83 |
UTM Reference:
|
Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
Datum Type |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Local Governments (AB) |
| Designation Status: |
Municipal Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
2010/07/05 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1912/01/01 |
| Period of Significance: |
N/A |
| Theme(s): |
Developing Economies : Trade and Commerce
|
| Historic Function(s): |
Commerce / Commercial Services : Hotel, Motel or Inn
|
| Current Function(s): |
Residence : Group Residence
|
| Architect: |
|
| Builder: |
Calgary Brewery
|
| Context: |
|
|
|
Additional Information
| Object Number: |
4664-0256 |
| Designation File: |
|
| Related Listing(s): |
|
| Heritage Survey File: |
|
| Website Link: |
|
| Data Source: |
City of Calgary, Heritage Planning, File No. 10-104 |
|