Pre WW 1 street names in Calgary residential districts

[Chris E]

I think I'll keep a running "score" about the list of streets here at the top of page 2.

MAJOR CHANGE:

Banff Coach Road - 22nd St. and 11th Ave. West (RENAMED BOW TRAIL)

Banff Trail - 16th Ave. NW and 10th St. NW (EXISTS: Now just a small portion near motel village bears the name. What is now Crowchild used to be call Banff Trail, and that name likely kept being used down 16th ave to 10th st as well)

Boulevard North-West - Centre St. Bridge to 10th St. NW (RENAMED to MEMORIAL DR)

Broadview Boulevard - 10th St. to 14th St. NW, bank of Bow River (RENAMED TO MEMORIAL DR)

Cathcart Street - 10A St. South, 17th Ave. to Colbourne Crescent (RENAMED to 10A St)

Forget Avenue - 18th Ave., 7th to 9th Sts. West (EXISTS, RENAMED 18th Ave SW. French "For-jay?")

Jamieson Avenue - 10th St. and 5th Ave. NE to Centre Ave. and 13th St. (EXISTS, Shortened substantially)

King Street - 11th St. East, North of 9th Ave. (EXISTS, RENAMED to 11th St SE)

Lincoln Avenue - Centre St. North and West on 7th Ave. NW (EXISTS, RENAMED to 7th Ave)

Manchester Road - 5th St. East and South of 27th Ave. East (MOVED to about 2nd st south of 34th)

Margaret Avenue - 8th St. East and 22nd Ave. West to Salisbury Avenue (EXISTS, shortened)

McDougall Road - 3rd St. NE and North of Memorial Drive (EXISTS, shortened due to 4th Ave Flyover, used to extent to at least 4th St NE)

Macleod Trail - 8th St. East from 20th Ave. South (MOVED, RENAMED TO SPILLER)

Metcalfe Street - 13th St. W, 17th to 22nd Ave. (RENAMED to 13th ST)

Nolan Street - 8th St. West, 30th to 32nd Ave. W (RENAMED to 8th SW)

Provost Street - 11th St. W, from 17th to 22nd Ave. (RENAMED to 11th ST)

Scarth Street - 18th Ave. and 1st St. W, near station (RENAMED TO 1st ST W)

Seabury Avenue - East of 15th St. East and St. Monica Avenue (Ran two blocks East of the this intersection. New road doesn't follow straight line path of this road)

Somerville Avenue - Centre-A St. on 6th Ave. NW (EXISTS, RENAMED to 6th Ave)

Stanley Road - 1st St. East, 34th to 50th Ave. (EXISTS, segmented)

Sunnyside Boulevard - Centre St. Bridge, west to 10th St, North of Bow River (RENAMED to MEMORIAL DR)

VanWart Street - 11th St. West and 33rd Ave. to 34th Ave. (EXISTS, RENAMED 11 St)

Victoria Road - 2nd St. East from CNR South (RENAMED to MACLEOD TRAIL)
(NOTE: Historically MACLEOD TRAIL turned NE at 34th AVe (Now Spiller) and what continued over Cemetary Hill was Victoria Road.)
Westmont Boulevard - 14th St. to 24th St. NW, on bank of Bow River (EXISTS, although W of 19th ST is RENAMED to MEMORIAL)


NOT FOUND:

Amber Street - 40th Ave. and 14A St. West
*Broadway - 26th Ave. and 6th St. West
Briscoe Road - 39th Ave. and 14th St. West
Byers Street - 34th Ave. and 9th St. West
Cameron Street - 34th Ave. and 10A St. West
Clarke Street - 34th Ave. and 9A St. West
**Cottage Road - 5th St. W, South of 20th Ave. W
Elbow Avenue - 7a St. East, North of 12th Ave. East
Elgin Avenue - 26th Ave. and 6th St. West
Etta Street - 12A St., North of Memorial Drive
Ernscliffe Avenue - 43rd Ave. and Elbow Drive
Francis Avenue - East of 15th St. and 8th Ave. East
Herchemer Road - 21st St. NW and North of Westmount Boulevard
Hungerford Avenue - 24th Ave. and 2nd St. East
Jamieson Street - 34th Ave. and 12th St. West
McBride Road - 6A St. NE and South of Centre Ave.
Mount Pleasant Boulevard NE - 1st St. NE to 1st Ave. (TROLLY ROUTE? ALL THE WAY TO TUXEDO LOOP?)
Muir Place - 16th St. West and 22nd Ave. West
Niblock Street - 13th St. West and 34th Ave. W
Parkdale Road - 25th St. to 28th St. NW, North Bowness Road (PART OF PARKDAL BOUL?)
Rockcliffe Place - Near Sandy Beach, East of 14th St. and 50th Ave.
Ross Street - 34th Ave. and 10th St. West
Sandy Beach - East of 14th St. W and on 50th Ave.
Sargent Avenue - 24th St. and 15th Ave. West
Sedley Street - 12th Ave. and 22nd St. West
Sedgewick Avenue - 24th St. West and 13th Ave.
Sherbrooke Avenue - 24th St. and 14th Ave. West
West Summit Street - 17th Ave. and 23rd St. West
Vaudriel Avenue - 32nd Ave. and 8th St. West

* 4th St is know to be formerly named Broadway.
** Google Maps shows Alternate 5th St name to be COLLEGE RD, perhaps cottage is a typo.
*** 1966 map shows road from intersection of 24 Ave and 5 St SW, travelling SW meeting with intersection of Cliff St and 25 Ave SW, could be Elgin?


NO LONGER EXIST:

Archer Road - 14st St. NE, North of Centre Ave.
Road no longer exists, used to be just East of Hill Rd NE, travelling north from Centre Ave up to an extended Phair Ave NE

Blackfoot Trail - 15th St, NE and Memorial Drive, Nose Creek
Road no longer exists in this location, it began at the current intersection of Center Ave E and St George's Dr NE and travelled south in a fairly straight line down to Memorial Dr. The current St George's Drive quickly bends west away from the route of Blackfoot Trail/15th St


Centre-A Avenue - 4th St. W., South Bank Bow River
Road no longer exists. 4th and 5th St SW extended one block further north than current, and the road joining them was likely Centre-A. That block now taken up by "Eau Claire" condos, non of the extentions nor any east/west joining road exist now.

Creek Road - 15th St NE., Blackfoot Trail
Road no longer exists. This was possibly the north end of 15th St NE, extending north of Centre Ave and former Blackfoot Trail.


Daly Street - West of 6th St. W, North 1st Ave. to River
Road no longer exists. Travelled north to Prince's Island canal from 1st Ave 1/3 block West of 6th St SW. Formed West 1/2 of a loop, East half known as King Street. Grassed over.

King Street - 6th St. West, North of 1st Ave. to River
Road no longer exists. Travelled north to Prince's Island canal from 1st Ave 1/3 block East of 6th St SW. Formed East 1/2 of a loop, West half known as Daly Street. Built upon by Princeton condos

Price Road - 6th St. NE and 5th Ave. to 7th Ave. NE
Road no longer exists. Followed curve of Bridge Cres NE, but began on 5th Ave NE 1/2 way between 6A and 6 ST (this section of 5th Ave also no longer exists) and ran north of the Bridge Cres houses meeting up with 7th Ave 1/2 way between 7th and 8th street. Does not exist in 1950 aerial photo, does on 1966 roadmap

Stockton Street - 11th Ave. and 22nd St. West
Road no longer exists, there was a north/south loop, the West side marked at Stockton St, both ends of which connected to the
intersection of Scotland St SW and Scarboro Ave SW, the only remnant of the loop remaining is the short portion of Scarboro Ave West of that intersection. The majority of the loop existed where Crowchild Tr now runs. Perhaps rename that cul-de-sac Stockton Place? NOTE: aerial photo from 1955 shows no evidence of this road even being built, it may have been on paper only

[Chris E]

[McMahon]

[zakman]

[McMahon]

I don't really have time to go through it, but that looks to be an excellent resource. I never knew something like that existed online. Thanks for that.

[newsposter]

On the subject of old street names, I came across several salvaged sidewalk stamps embedded in the walk in front of a City of Calgary building in the Manchester Yards off of 25th Avenue SE near the water centre. "Manchester Building U" to be precise. Sorry, I was in a rush and didn't note the names...

There are also a number of historic fire hydrants, and the intake valve of Calgary's old gravity water system, salvaged from the Elbow River upstream of the Weaselhead.

[zakman]

Thanks for that bit of info; it's refreshing whenever a City department takes the initiative to preserve our history so creatively. I wandered over today to take a look at the sidewalk stamps on display at the Manchester building you'd mentioned; the oldest is 1909. In the Beltline area, a 1907 stamp by the same contractor- BM&S Contracting- is still intact in a sidewalk at the 13th Ave and 9 St SW intersection. Up until recently, I had thought that 1907 was the earliest year for such stamps in Calgary, but was told recently by someone in the concrete business that a pre-1900 stamp was salvaged at the time of the Fort Calgary rebuild in the 90's. I'm skeptical about this though; has anyone else seen Calgary sidewalk stamps dated prior to 1907?

[eventhrzn]

A great way to learn about the street names is to look up the original legal plans on SpinII: https://alta.registries.gov.ab.ca/spinii/logon.aspx

Just log in as a guest. You can browse survey plans in map mode and pull up a preview of the original survey plans for free (you can get the detailed scans for a fee). A lot of the mystery street names existed legally but were never constructed (I think Archer Road is an example of this - it still exists in a legal sense today I believe). Many of the turn of the century maps show the legal subdivisions rather than what was actually built (to show all of the growth that was expected to come), and even modern ones done by companies not based in Calgary sometimes put legal roads on the maps like Archer Road even though they never existed (I've seen Archer on maps from the 80s even). Best combination is looking at the legal plans and the old airphotos to really determine what existed and how the roads changed over time.

[eventhrzn]

Here's the survey plan for Bridgeland showing Archer Road

http://alta.registries.gov.ab.ca/SpinII ... rentPage=1

[zakman]

Thanks, eventhrzn, for providing us with another useful research tool. I accessed the site and found it interesting too that these images are online copies of the original subdivision survey documents, including the names and signatures of Calgary's early property developers. I wasn't able to access the full range of street names that I know once existed for my own community, however, so I'd submit that this website is but one of the many tools we now have at our disposal in researching early street names. I thought I'd attempt to compile a list of what's been used by everyone so far with sources listed in brackets:
- old city maps (Glenbow, CPL, online) as well as Google Earth for comparison purposes
- 1910 City Engineering map (Glenbow)
- Calgary Municipal Manual (see McMahon's earlier post)
- Henderson's Directories (CPL, Corporate Archives, online)
- early Fire Insurance maps (Glenbow, CPL)
- airphotos (online, CPL)
- 1911 Federal Prairie Census (CPL, online)
- early city property tax rolls (Corporate Archives)
- original subdivision survey plans (online; see eventhrzn's recent post)
Hope I haven't missed anything; if I have please let me know.

[eventhrzn]

Here's an old article that talks about some of the same streets being discussed:

Old sidewalks tell tales about Calgary: More to vintage concrete than typos; [Final Edition]
David Bly. Calgary Herald. Calgary, Alta.: Jul 26, 2002. pg. B.5

Copyright Southam Publications Inc. Jul 26, 2002


It all started on Linclon Avenue.

David Peyto was part of a walking tour through Crescent Heights during Historic Calgary Week several years ago when he noticed an odd inscription in the sidewalk.

Linclon Avenue, it said at the corner of 7th Avenue and 1st Street N.W.

"I wondered if there were more that were misspelled," he said.

Peyto, a retired schoolteacher and an enthusiastic historian, has been surfing Calgary sidewalks ever since.

"It changed things," he said. "I can no longer take a walk without looking down at the sidewalk."

He told Mike Kampel, his friend and fellow historical society member, about his interest, and it turned out to be contagious.

"Be careful," Kampel warned. "You can easily become obsessed with sidewalks."

The two are looking for more than concrete typos. They are compiling information about the companies that built the sidewalks, when the sidewalks were built and differences in sidewalk style.

Style? You bet. Some of the concrete finishers showed touches of artistry as they plied their trade, adding graceful swirls and geometric patterns to their work. And since sidewalk builders have a habit of putting a company stamp with the date into the concrete, Peyto and Kampel can see where a sidewalk fits into local history.

The oldest concrete sidewalks Peyto has found are in Victoria Park, where the date stamps go back as far as 1907.

"There might be older ones, but I haven't found the dates yet," he said. "When you think about it, a sidewalk built in 1907 has been there for three-quarters of the city's history."

Inglewood, Mission, Sunnyside, Ramsay and Rosedale are other communities with vintage sidewalks. Peyto still plans to surf the sidewalks of Bowness, Connaught, Mount Royal and other communities.

The Linclon Avenue inscription is dated 1910, but Peyto has been unable to find any official record of a Lincoln Avenue, now 7th Avenue N.W.

He has turned up other ghost street names, or names that have been changed. Sixth Avenue N.E., where it encounters Crescent Road, was once Somerville Avenue. Near St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Bridgeland, 7th Street N.E. comes to a dead end, but not according to the sidewalk inscription.

McBride Road, it reads, but there's no road, just a path meandering along the crest of the hill. It's dated 1949, but Henderson's City Directory that year makes no mention of McBride Road.

Westward in Rosedale, there's a crescent named Alexandra or Alexander, depending on where you look. Peyto has found 11 inscriptions for the crescent -- six of them say Alexander, five say Alexandra. The 1914 city directory lists an Alexander Crescent and makes no mention of Alexandra.

In the 1930 directory, it's Alexandra Crescent with no Alexander, and in 1988, it's back to Alexander, which is what today's street signs read.

Confused spellings abound. Centre Avenue in Bridgeland, near the George Boyack Care Centre, was once Murdock Road N.E. Or Murdoch Road, if you check a couple of blocks over.

In Ramsay, one corner reads McLeod Trail, while across the street it reads Macleod Trail. It's academic now -- the inscriptions are along Spiller Road. It was once the real Macleod Trail, where wagons and horses wound their way from the south toward Fort Calgary, before the current Macleod Trail was rerouted over the top of the cemetery hill.

There's more confusion in Ramsay at the intersection of Burns Avenue and Salisbury Street. The southeast corner reads Salsbury Avenue on the southeast corner. On the northeast corner, it's Salisbury Avenue.

The most misspelled name is Twelfth, Peyto said, such as at 12th Avenue and 3rd Street N.W., where the inscription reads Twelvth. And someone was having bad luck about 90 years ago in Inglewood when Thireenth East was stamped into the concrete at 10th Avenue and 13th Street S.E.

Meanwhile, back in Bridgeland, Peter Gerlitz must have had some pull when the sidewalk was poured in front of his house, because "P. Gerlitz" is still plainly visible in the concrete.

The 1914 Henderson's Directory lists a Peter Gerlitz living at 119 9A St. N.E., and lists his occupation as labourer. Did he perhaps work for the company that poured city sidewalks?

The inscription no longer marks his house, though -- it looks out over the parking lot that once served the now-imploded Calgary General Hospital.

In other areas, house numbers were inscribed in the concrete, and a few of those can still be found, though not all match current addresses.

Errors may have occurred, Peyto speculates, because some of the workers who helped with the early sidewalks did not know English well or were illiterate.

Encouraged by Kampel, Peyto is considering compiling his findings and research into a book. The tentative title is History Under Your Feet.

He'll check it carefully for typographical errors.

[zakman]

Great article. I've emailed David Peyto as to the status of the book he had planned when the article was written and will advise as soon as I hear back from him. I too have some info on old sidewalks to share but since we already have a thread going on sidewalk typos, I'll post it there instead:
http://www.calgaryheritage.org/CHIForum/vi ... ight=#1616

[newsposter]

Somebody asked us recently via email: "Do you know why the City decided to switch from names to numbers?"... I didn't have an answer at the time, but recently ran across this re-printed Herald editorial that is illuminating:

[zakman]

When this thread started 6 years ago, the subject of the 1910 City Engineering map was introduced, which contained street names already in existence plus some rather fanciful new ones for the suburbs just being annexed at that point. For example, were you to have resided in Mountview or Balmoral back then, your streets would all have biblical names. 1st Street NE was to become Judas Street!
Here's an insight as to why naming streets in the new suburbs en masse fell out of favor within just a year or two. In early 1911, the Herald reported that 160 Crescent Heights residents had successfully petitioned the city to use numbers and not names for the streets in that community. Alderman J.G. "Gravity" Watson then commented, "if it is the intention to change the names of the streets there, I think it should be done all over the city." The Herald article went on to state that the "commissioners will consider the using of numerals instead of names on every street in the entire city".
Not sure yet what exactly the residents of Crescent Heights had against named streets; perhaps with the misspelling of Lincoln Avenue (7th Avenue and 1st Street NW) that took place in 1910, they were concerned with further such errors. Or perhaps they didn't approve of the new street names- chosen presumably by the Engineering Department- on their behalf.

[zakman]

Further to my September 2015 post, I recently scanned sections of the 1910 City Engineering Map and posted them to the "Old Calgary Sidewalk Stamp" Facebook page, which can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/o4pl67z