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Hillhurst Cottage School
Calgary
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Hillhurst Cottage School is a two-storey, wood-frame, former schoolhouse that was built in 1910. The simple rectangular building features a hipped roof, wooden siding and a small front porch. The 604-square-metre (0.15-acre) property is located on a quiet residential street in the inner-city community of Hillhurst.
Heritage Value
Hillhurst Cottage School, built in 1910, is architecturally significant for its design, being the first of sixteen ‘cottage’ type schools to be constructed in Calgary. The school is one of just four of these cottage schools to remain in the city, and is the only surviving variant of its type.
During the great 1909-13 economic and population boom, the Calgary Protestant Public School Board (District 19) was challenged with accommodating the exponential growth in the number of school-aged children and embarked upon ambitious building program. The program included the construction of substantial sandstone structures as well as the modest, ‘temporary’, wood-frame cottage schools. These cottage schools could be constructed quickly and economically, and later sold and converted to residences or apartments.
Between 1910 and 1913 three cottage-school prototypes were introduced for the sixteen cottage schools to be constructed during the period. Each of the three plans met the basic construction requirements set forth by the Alberta Department of Education in 1906. Each school had to have at least 15 feet of floor space and 200 cubic feet of air per student with windows that measured 3½ to 4 feet high placed at the left and behind the students. At least 60 feet of blackboard space was also required, as was proper ventilation in the form of interior storm-sash windows that could easily be opened at any time in the year. The basement of the building contained boys’ and girls’ washrooms and a hot-air furnace. It is unclear whether School Board Superintendent J. McClelland produced or commissioned the design, or used a standardized plan, but by September 1910, contractor Saul Spafford had been hired to construct the building. By the later part of 1911 an enclosed staircase had been added to the north side of the building so that movement between the first and second floors could occur without using an exterior staircase. By late 1911 the open front porch was also enclosed.
The building is stylistically valuable for its simple but attractive character, retaining its lapped wooden siding, four-over-one hung-sash windows, hipped roof and front porch. It has also retained many of its interior finishes such as window, door, and other mouldings, wooden tongue-and-groove ceilings, and light fixtures.
Of the three cottage school variants, the type employed for the Hillhurst School - belonging to the earliest prototype era - is the most modest. Slightly later prototypes, such as the 24 Avenue Cottage School (1910-11), in the Cliff-Bungalow area, were much larger. Those schools associated with the last prototype to be developed, and built in 1911-12, such as the Capitol Hill Cottage School (1912), featured integral staircases and were adorned with pedimented roofs and full-width, front verandas with nicely turned supports.
From the time Hillhurst Cottage School was completed until the time of its closure in 1961 the school was an important community fixture and place of learning activity for generations of area children. For the first several years of its existence the school housed children in grades three and four; the grades later changed, but the building always served elementary-school needs. When opened, the building shared the responsibility of educating area children with three area church halls that were rented as classrooms. However Hillhurst Cottage School holds the status as the oldest school building in the community.
Character-Defining Elements
The exterior and contextual character-defining elements of the Hillhurst Cottage School include, but are not limited to, its:
- Two storey, rectangular form, three bays in width with small, square, front-porch extension and enclosed exterior staircase addition;
- hipped roof; wood-shingle roofing; closed eaves with wooden tongue-and-groove soffits; rear, tall, red-brick chimney;
- wood-frame construction and finishes and exposed concrete foundation; narrow-width lapped siding; corner boards; water table; cornice; frieze; and plain window and door casings;
- existing fenestration; four-over-one, wooden, hung-sash windows; four-pane basement windows;
- off-centre front entry; rear, second-storey exterior doorway with transom-light assembly; side entry with six-panel wooden door;
- metal, rooftop flagpole;
- rear coal chute (foundation); and
- its original placement on the site.
The interior character-defining elements of the Hillhurst Cottage School include, but are not limited to, its:
- Plan/configuration elements, such as large, open first and second-storey spaces and enclosed staircase;
- mouldings (fir) such as window and door casings (corniced and plain), chair rails, picture rails, baseboards and cornices, some of which retain original stained finishes; panelled, wood doors;
- hardwood floors;
- hanging, globe light fixtures (first floor);
- wooden, tongue-and-groove ceiling cladding (first floor) and staircase wall and ceiling cladding; and
- interior, wooden, window sashes with a four-over-four, hung-sash profile and assembly.
Location
| Street Address: |
455 - 12 Street NW |
| Community: |
Calgary |
| Boundaries: |
Lots 22 and 23, Block 1, Plan 5179O |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
51790
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1
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22 and 23
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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51.056215 |
-114.091934 |
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: |
2013/05/27 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1910/01/01 |
| Period of Significance: |
1910_1961 |
| Theme(s): |
Building Social and Community Life : Education and Social Well-Being
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| Historic Function(s): |
Education : Primary or Secondary School
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| Current Function(s): |
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| Architect: |
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| Builder: |
Saul Spafford
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| Context: |
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Additional Information
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