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In the course of our daily reporting, we often uncover unusual projects, places, or connections that don't make the final cut. Instead of keeping it to ourselves, we're pleased to share our Architrivia.
The 40-acre site of Fort Calgary harkens back to the city's roots, predating the commercial and agricultural expansion that would come. Situated at the picturesque junction of the Bow and Elbow Rivers, referred to as Moh'kinsstis in Blackfoot, Fort Calgary is the birthplace of the modern city so many are familiar with today.
A 150-strong detachment of the North West Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) were dispatched from Manitoba in 1874 to establish a series of forts, bring law and order to the west, remove whiskey traders from the area, and prepare for treaties to open up land to settlement. Commanded by Éphrem A. Brisebois, construction of the Fort officially began on April 10, 1875, and was completed in time for Christmas festivities.
Complete with men's quarters, a guard room, stables, and storage facilities at first, with expansion seeing the site serve as a police administration centre, hospital, and social centre, the Fort morphed into a thriving community of its own. The fall of the whiskey and buffalo trade led to a decline in the number of constables stationed here, and when Grand Trunk Pacific Railway bought the site in 1914, the Fort was largely buried under a railway yard and storage area. Built in 1906 for the Superintendent of Fort Calgary, the Deane House was one of the few surviving structures; it was moved across the Elbow River next to the Hunt House, the oldest building in Calgary still in its original location, and now functions as a restaurant.
Alderman John Ayer campaigned for the Fort to be returned to public control, and in 1974, the City of Calgary purchased the site. It was designated a provincial and National Historic Site and reopened to visitors on May 18, 1978. Various enhancements have been made to the property in the time since, particularly the construction of a replica of the 1888 barracks, now part of the Interpretive Centre, that was completed in 2000. Unveiled in 2015, an interpretive exhibit by sculptor Jill Anholt re-creates the perimeter of the original 1875 Fort with a series of carved wood members accented by red light, embodying the building's impermanent nature.
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