War Hero

[00fxd]

In my humble opinion I have a suggestion of a property that I find noteworthy. The address is 1622 1st ave. That is the address of John George Pattison, the only Calgarian first world war soldier to win the Victoria Cross. He did not come home. The address mentioned is not accurate by todays systems [things have changed] but it is quite interesting none the less. The back of the property [garage] can be seen from Kensington road, 1/2 a block west of Chicken on the Way on the south side of Kensington. The Pattison bridge by the Stampede grounds is named for him. Not many people are aware of that and I find it strange that no one seems to care about these types of things. I don't live in Calgary anymore but I have gone to the door of that home several times to talk to the current occupants/owners[?] to see if they might have any interest, but until now I have been unsuccessful in finding someone at home. If anyone is interested in the lengthy but interesting story of how I determined this address I will be happy to post the tale.

[newsposter]

Please post! I would like to share the info with the Calgary heritage planners - they are probably unaware and might put the house on the list to be considered for the Heritage Inventory.

[00fxd]

Well, I have already noted the house location, but to originally locate it was a bit of a trick.
I had borrowed a book from the library on the 50th Battalion a Calgary battalion in the First World War. At the end of the book was a section with names and addresses of the men. As I lived in an old part of Calgary, Tuxedo Park, I thought I would get on my bicycle and check out a few of the addresses listed. Surprisingly there were very few houses left. There were old houses on each side of the ones I was looking for but the luck of the draw was most of the ones I wanted to look at were gone
So then I expanded my search and said to myself – why don’t I go and look for this war heroes place of origin. John George Pattison earned his VC by single-handedly charging a machine gun nest that been wreaking havoc and causing many casualties to his section and rendering it inoperative at great cost of life and limb to the gun crew. It was considered a miracle that he escaped unscathed. Unfortunately he and some mates were killed by an artillery hit 2 or so weeks later. He died not knowing that he was the recipient of the highest Military Honour that can be bestowed in the British Empire.
So off I went looking for 1622 1st ave S.W. as listed in the book. Nowadays the river divides Calgary’s addresses north from south, Center St divides east from west.
That would put me across the river from Memorial Drive right about at GSL auto dealership. So then for some reason I looked up his sons address, he was in the same battalion. His address was listed at 1622 Westmount [drive?] it’s been a while. Anyway, that put me back on the north side of the river. I recently looked up John George Pattison’s “Attestation Papers” on line and it lists his address as 1622 1st Ave Westmount drive.
O.K., that’s on the north side across Memorial by Broadview road. Then I was confused for a while, I was thinking 1st – must be the first one north of the river, maybe even Memorial. Funny thing, there is a 1622 on the first block north of memorial so I thought I had it. But how could that be South West?
So I poked around a bit more. I have had an obsession for years; I look for the street #’s and years of pouring pressed into the sidewalks at the corners of city blocks. I think it’s really neat to find real old ones. So in my investigation of the location I discovered an amazing revelation. At the corner of Kensington Road and 15th st [obviously one block west of 14th st] on the north west corner of the intersection instead of Kensington Road was pressed CENTER AVENUE! What’s this – Kensington Road used to be Center Avenue ??
Well that sorted it out. The south side of Kensington Road used to be S.W. and the house whose garage backs on to Kensington Road is the subject property. One block south of Kensington used to be 1st ave. S.W. When that became apparent to me I just stood there in the sun with a great sense of “Way to figure stuff out Frank!” I even forced the wife and daughter to do the whole walk one day to show off my discovery. I think they even got a kick out of it after initially just “accommodating” me and my weirdness.
Very shortly after my revelation the city broke up that concrete @ 15th st [that said Center Ave] and poured a wheelchair accessible ramp on that corner. I then searched as far as possible to find another corner with Center Avenue on Kensington Road in the concrete but alas none remain.
Is there anyone left out there in the world I wonder that knows that Kensington Road in Calgary used to be called Center Avenue and used to divide N.W. from S.W.?

[Chris E]

That actually sounded familiar so I went and checked the background info in the Hillhurst/Sunnyside ARP, and found this:



Good detective work!

[00fxd]

Neat find Chris, where the heck do you find that info?
Frank

[Chris E]

http://www.calgary.ca/portal/server.pt/ ... ations.htm

This is a list of all the digitized and online policy reports. That page from from the Hillhurst / Sunnyside Area Redevelopment Plan, in the background information section.

[00fxd]

Wow, great links....... I got stuck on this one: http://www.calgary.ca/DocGallery/bu/pla ... ventor.pdf