Other Names:
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Holy Angels Separate School
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Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
Holy Angels School, built in 1919 and expanded in 1929, is a one-and-one-half-story, red-brick, Georgian Revival-style schoolhouse. The property is situated in the Cliff Bungalow area, adjacent to the Cliff Bungalow School, within a residential context. The 0.7-hectare property includes a large schoolyard.
Heritage Value
Holy Angels School is significant for its historic role as a hub of educational activity in the community from the time of its opening in 1919 until its closure for educational purposes in 2008.
The school was built for the Calgary Separate School Board (Roman Catholic) as a primary school to relieve the main Catholic school, St. Mary's, in the adjacent Mission area. By the 1930s the school was the centre of special activities for the separate school system, offering classes for students with learning disabilities as well as being the site for general shop and home economics classes (domestic science) for all Catholic students in Calgary, which were offered in the basement. The Separate School Board operated the facility until 1965 and disposed of the property in 1969. After purchase by the City of Calgary in 1981 the property functioned as the Louise Dean School for single mothers. In its role from 1981-90 as the Louise Dean School, it was a facility for pregnant and parenting teen mothers, making it a revolutionary institution at the time in Calgary for is unique and leading services and approach. Finally, from 1990 - 2008 the property served as a Montessori school.
Holy Angels School is also significant for symbolizing the historic Roman Catholic history of the area. The area east of Fourth Street, just two blocks to the east, was originally the centre of Calgary's Francophone and Roman Catholic community. A separate town known as Rouleauville, the area was originally a Roman Catholic mission and enclave before becoming part of Calgary in 1907. Due to the proximity to the area, now called Mission, the Cliff Bungalow neighbourhood was influenced by those original settlement patterns with Holy Angels School recalling this association.
Holy Angels School is also architecturally important, being a distinguished example of Georgian Revival-style design. Finished in red brick, the concrete and masonry building is characterized by is rounded dormer gables, rusticated foundation and multi-pane window sashes. Certain features, such as the rustic quality of the brick and the picturesque cupolas align with the popular Arts and Crafts design at the time - evidencing the stylistically mixed design common in the period. The architects’ stylistic choice, for a Roman Catholic facility, however, is a curious one, since the roots of the Georgian Revival style are decidedly British. Despite this curiosity, the large cross incorporated into the façade above the main entrance solidifies the building’s religious affiliation.
The original portion of the building was designed by the Calgary firm of Burrell and McDowell, who three years earlier had also designed the virtually identical St. John’s School for the Separate School Board in the Hillhurst area. The building was completed as a four-room school with washroom facilities located in the basement. Unlike the grand, sandstone facilities built in Calgary prior to the First World War, such bungalow-type facilities had become the standard for school construction in the immediate post-war years. A decade after Holy Angels opened, architect William Stanley Bates - who was a preferred architect for the Catholic community, having just completed the McNab Wing at Holy Cross hospital - added a large extension to the south end of the school. With the extension, the school’s size increased to six large classrooms, and added a spacious basement auditorium with stage. Interior finishing throughout both portions of the building is modest.
Despite its location on the edge of the community in a residential context, the property is a well-known landmark in the community. Its landmark status is a result of its distinctive architecture, spacious schoolyard, prominent historic use, and its situation next to Cliff Bungalow School, another well-known community landmark.
Character-Defining Elements
Key elements that define the heritage character include:
- one-and-one-half-story, rectangular form;
- hipped roof containing wall dormers will rounded parapets; shingle roofing with metal faux-tile ridging; closed eaves with wooden tongue-and-groove soffits; two wooden cupolas - one being open and shingle clad and topped with a flagpole, the other louvered;
- masonry and reinforced concrete construction comprising exterior facades clad in red brick laid in common bond; cast-stone (concrete) window sills, water table and ornamental detailing such as the lion head gargoyles; rusticated concrete foundation; parged detailing comprising a roofline frieze with brick insets, date plaques; inset brick cross painted white above main entrance;
- fenestration, comprising single and double-assembly, wooden-sash windows consisting of fixed, four-pane, lower sashes with multi-pane hopper transom lights; wooden-sash basement windows with multi-pane upper sashes and single-pane lower sashes (1929 addition), and four-pane fixed sashes (1919 section); wooden, casement-sash dormer windows with multi-pane lights (upper storey);
- single and double front and rear doorway openings with segmental-arched transom-light openings; suspended wooden hood of curved profile over main, front doorway;
- interior features including symmetrical plan of original section of the building; layout/plan of six large (class)rooms; central halls for both the original section on the building and the addition; four entrance foyers containing stairs; large basement auditorium with maple flooring and built-in stage; interior finishes comprising wooden window and door casings, baseboards, chair rails and picture mouldings, panelled and glazed doors, doorway assemblies with single and multi-pane transom lights, three staircases with plain balusters and newels, hanging globe light fixtures, blackboards, metal heating grates; and
- contextual features of the site such as the schoolyard with its open character and soft landscaping; landscaped setbacks.
Location