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.Statistics: Posted by eventhrzn — Sun May 23, 2010 3:54 pm
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