by zakman » Wed Nov 03, 2010 10:10 am
I have some new info to share on early sidewalk history, after taking the time to review Calgary city council meeting minutes dating from 1898 to 1905. The first mention of concrete sidewalks in the minutes appears in July 1900, when the City Engineer was instructed by the Public Works committee to put in a test section of "granolithic" concrete, a high-grade variant that has granite chips embedded in the surface instead of sand and pea gravel. In August of that year, city council was petitioned by landowners for a granolithic sidewalk on Stephen Avenue, but the Finance Committee recommended that work be deferred until the following year since this was "the first work of this kind to be undertaken by the city" and since it would be difficult to raise the requisite funds owing to the depressed state of the money market then. The matter was again deferred in June 1901, when Public Works declined to proceed until Stephen Avenue was properly graded. Late in 1902, council received a letter from W.R. Hull requesting that he be allowed to pour a section of concrete sidewalk on Stephen Avenue and First Street West in conjunction with construction of his building on that corner (probably the Alberta Block). The sidewalk was completed late in 1902; in early 1903, the City paid 50% of the $314.54 cost. The contractor wasn't named. In May 1903, city council discussed sidewalk specs for Centre Street, First Street East, First Street West, Atlantic (9th) and Stephen (8th) Avenues; by August the first such by-law (#513) was passed to facilitate the borrowing of $28,000 to cover the cost of having sidewalks on those streets completed. In the very early days, affected property owners voted on such bylaws as they were responsible for 50% of the cost; in September 1903 such approval was obtained. A local contactor by the name of George Irish was the successful tenderer for this work, which doesn't appear to have commenced until the spring of 1904. In May of that year, the Daily Herald reported that sidewalks in front of their office had been completed; the Herald later clarified that the sidewalks poured were of of regular concrete and were not granolithic. Late in 1904 it was reported that Irish's contract was complete, albeit with some deficiencies. Bylaws 549 (August 1904) and 601 (June 1905) were subsequently passed authorizing further concrete sidewalk work encompassing the area from 9th Avenue South to 4th Avenue South, and from 4th Street East to 4th Street West. The 1904 and 1905 work was completed by the Forest City Paving Company; the change in contractors was probably a result of the delay and deficiencies encountered with George Irish. Due to the central location of the initial locations, it's almost certain that any evidence of these early sidewalks has been destroyed. For anyone still awake at this point, in the next few days I'll post some images of local sidewalk stamps dating from 1907 to 1949, relating to one of my previous posts.