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St. Louis Hotel
Calgary
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
Built in 1914, the St. Louis Hotel is a three-storey, brick structure located in Calgary’s East Village area at the eastern edge of downtown. Distinctive Chicago windows and Neoclassical-style influences, such as an elaborate metal cornice and brick pilasters distinguish the façade.
Heritage Value
The St. Louis Hotel was developed by one of early Calgary’s most prominent citizens, Colonel James Walker. Prior to becoming a leading real estate businessman, Walker was one of Calgary’s first residents, serving as an original officer with the North West Mounted Police at Fort Calgary. Walker later became a distinguished area rancher and owned a successful sawmill which supplied much of early Calgary’s lumber. Walker served in a number of civic leadership roles, and headed Calgary’s incorporation committee. In 1975 was posthumously selected as Calgary’s ‘Citizen of the Century.’
The St. Louis Hotel was built on the site of Walker’s 1884 office which also contained the Crown Timber Office, Dominion Land Office and Calgary’s first telephone exchange. Walker was prompted to build the St. Louis Hotel by the 1913 arrival to the city of the Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP) Railway at the former site of Fort Calgary, two blocks to the east. The expected development of a station and the resulting proximity to the St. Louis Hotel made the hotel’s location ideal. While a permanent station was never realized due to the financial difficulties of the GTP, the St. Louis Hotel stands to recall the East Village’s brief status as a major railway hub.
As a result of the St. Louis Hotel’s close proximity to City Hall, in its later history it gained the reputation for being popular watering hole with city hall employees, including a string of mayors. Mayors known to patronize the hotel’s basement bar included Rod Sykes (1969-77), Ross Alger (1977-80), and Ralph Klein (1980-89). Ralph Klein, who frequented the bar as a journalist in the 1970s, planned his candidacy for mayor at the St. Louis Hotel and thereafter entertained visiting dignitaries at the blue-collar tavern. After becoming the Premier of Alberta in 1993 Klein continued to patronize the St. Louis Hotel which contributed to his ‘common touch’ political persona.
The St. Louis Hotel survives as one of the oldest hotels in Calgary and is one of only six hotels in the city to predate the First World War. The St. Louis Hotel represents a medium-priced Calgary hotel of the early twentieth century, which is reflected in its attractive but modest design. A variety of elegant, Neoclassical-inspired detailing adorns the façade of the building, such as pilasters and panels that are articulated in the brickwork. Additionally, the façade is distinguished by an elaborate metal roofline cornice, and distinctive Chicago (tripartite) windows, which are characteristic features of period commercial architecture. With its original 60 rooms, the hotel also contained a bar, café, barbershop and cigar stand. As a result of the building’s short façade and mid-block location, most of the bedrooms face interior light wells, typical of mid-market hotels. Each of these light wells contains a skylight, which had the important functional role of illuminating interior first-storey areas.
The St. Louis Hotel is the product of Calgary architect John B. Richards, of the firm Richards and Burroughs. Richards was responsible for many other significant Calgary buildings which no longer exist, including the Crown Building (1911); Children’s Wing, Calgary General Hospital (1919); Emergency Hospital (1918); and the General Hospital Annex (1921). The St. Louis Hotel is the only non-residential commissions by Richards known to remain in Calgary, other than Fire Hall No.4 (1909).
The hotel was extensively remodeled in 1959 and some of these later changes now possess heritage value in their own right, including the illuminated signage suspended from the façade, the lobby’s sleek terrazzo flooring, and the establishment of a basement lounge.
The St. Louis Hotel is an integral component to the only concentration of historic buildings in the East Village. This concentration, centred upon 400 block of 8th Avenue south-east also constitutes the only historic streetscape in the East Village. This concentration of buildings represents the only vestige of the neighbourhood’s former retail and commercial core.
Character-Defining Elements
The exterior character-defining elements of the St. Louis Hotel include such features as its:
- three-storey, rectangular plan with short façade and flat roof;
- brick and tile construction;
- façade brickwork laid in stretcher bond with raked joints, and articulated to create pilasters and panels, and forming a straight parapet;
- smoothly-finished sandstone detailing (primary façade) that comprises window sills, lintels and pilaster capitals and bases;
- ornamental, galvanized-metal roofline cornice with Neoclassical-style detailing and the lettering ‘ST. LOUIS HOTEL’ contained within the frieze;
- primary façade’s regular and symmetrical fenestration containing wooden-sash Chicago (three-part) windows with hopper transom lights; and the existing regular fenestration of the rear façade and the light wells;
- three interior light wells containing skylights atop the first storey;
- central rooftop flagpole behind the parapet;
- hand-painted ghost signage advertising (side walls);
- illuminated 1950s signage suspended from the facade.
The interior character-defining elements of the St. Louis Hotel include such features as its:
- arrangement of the guestrooms on the second and third storeys accessed off side corridors;
- bedroom access doorway assemblies with transom lights and casing comprising entablatures;
- extant portions of the ground floor’s original unglazed, green and white porcelain tile flooring;
- 1959 renovation elements including its pink and green terrazzo lobby flooring, hand-painted wall murals, and basement lounge placement.
Location
| Street Address: |
430 - 8 Avenue SE |
| Community: |
Calgary |
| Boundaries: |
Lot 43, Block 54, Plan 1412692 |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
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Mer |
Rge |
Twp |
Sec |
LSD |
5
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1
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24
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15
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9, 10
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PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
A (Calgary)
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54
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25-28
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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51.0453369298199 |
-114.05409919393 |
Digital Maps |
NAD83 |
UTM Reference:
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Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Local Governments (AB) |
| Designation Status: |
Municipal Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
2008/02/04 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1913/01/01 |
| Period of Significance: |
N/A |
| Theme(s): |
Peopling the Land : Settlement
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| Historic Function(s): |
Commerce / Commercial Services : Hotel, Motel or Inn
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| Current Function(s): |
Commerce / Commercial Services : Office or Office Building
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| Architect: |
John B. Richards
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| Builder: |
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| Context: |
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Additional Information
| Object Number: |
4664-0273 |
| Designation File: |
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| Related Listing(s): |
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| Heritage Survey File: |
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| Website Link: |
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| Data Source: |
City of Calgary, Heritage Planning, File No. 03-114 |
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