Victorian House at top of Center St Hill

[tiegermp]

Years ago my wife and would spend our Sunday afternoons walking on the bike path on the west side of Center St Hill overlooking downtown. We always walked by a beautiful abandoned Victorian House and like many others ,dreamed of one day buying and restoring her. It must have been at least years ago it burned to the ground. Does anyone remember if the house was named or even better have a picture of it?

[zakman]

The structure you're referring to was known as the Buena Vista. A picture of the home shortly after it was built can be found in the Glenbow Archives online photo collection using "Clouston" as a keyword. The Buena Vista burnt down in 1999 and the Calgary Public Library's online digital photo collection has a number of later images in both the Alison Jackson collection and the Judith Umbach collection, some showing the burned-out hulk as well as the house that was eventually constructed on the site, now occupied by cable magnate Jim Shaw.
Here's a bit of history. The Buena Vista, built in the first decade of the 20th century by Thomas Clouston, was probably designed by a prominent local architect named Leo Dowler. When construction of the Center Street Bridge commenced in 1915, the Cloustons sued the City for damages as a result of the blasting operations taking place along Centre Street up to 7th Avenue. The Glenbow Archives has a number of pictures of the bridge under construction which indicate the precarious placement of the house in relation to the work then being done. The Cloustons were able to reach a financial settlement with the city in 1917 and in the 1920's divided the building into suites. Following Mrs. Clouston's death in 1928, the property was sold for $28,000 to Edna Atkinson, a Crescent Heights schoolteacher who continued to rent out suites and who resided in the home until her death in 1984. The home was then purchased from her estate by a local doctor, who had planned to develop it; for a number of reasons this didn't occur and the condition of the property deteriorated until it was destroyed by fire (allegedly set by squatters) in February 1999. The property was sold in 2004 for its land value of $1,100,000 and construction of a 6800 square foot home began then. In June 2008, the Shaws' purchase of the home set a then-MLS record, at $7,500,000. Just this past week, City Council agreed to sell the Shaws a parcel of land bordering on the south side of their residence, following its rezoning to "residential" from "road right-of-way".
Hope that's enough information for you!

[tiegermp]

Thank you Very detailed, covered everything. Appreciate the info

[victoriamaillet]

i spent my earlier childhood years growing up in that house. my grandmother was edna Atkinson. looking back now, it was the neatest place to live...kind of creepy actually. made me so sad when I heard it burned to the ground.
The previous post is what I know too. except for why it burned. I do know the doctor had renovated it to a certain extent. (where I used to live in the house). He and his wife lived there for a number of years.

I heard there were issues with what he wanted to to do with the house, and was not able to, possibly because it was a herritage house. I know that house was in bad shape in 1984. it would have cost a fortune just to repair it. Money pit Im sure.
I heard he burned it. started from scratch.

[EmanuelM]

It's always a shame to see old houses like that go to waste and get destroyed either by fire or lack of care. That's unbelievable how much that land sold for. I'll have to check out the photos. Are there many interior shots of the original home?

Emmanuel - Looking for a company.