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Completed in 1912, the former Odd Fellows Temple at the corner of 6th Avenue SW and Centre Street in downtown Calgary was designed by David McIlroy in the Edwardian Classical style popular prior to the First World War. Today, the building remains as one of the few structures of its kind left in the core outside of Stephen Avenue. Featuring an impressive array of beautifully restored original details, including a mixture of marble and sandstone pilasters, columns, and capitals, along with fine brickwork and a tin-covered cornice, the 105-year-old structure has stood the test of time, as handsome today as it was more than a century ago.
Viewed above in 1971, the Odd Fellows Temple was sold in 1978 to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce for $750,000. Having been a resident landlord from the start, the Odd Fellows' top-storey headquarters was left more or less intact, and the Chamber of Commerce's 40-year residency did not dramatically alter its key interior details. The original woodwork, panelled pocket doors, and various marble-engraved "IOOF" insignia can still be found throughout the building. Following its 1978 acquisition by the Chamber of Commerce, the new owners sold the property's air rights to Petro-Canada, thus allowing the company to build the shorter of its planned two-tower head office development just behind the historic building. The majority of the $2.5 million raised went towards the $1.6 million restoration effort that followed.
Sold once again in 2012 for approximately $15 million to Allied Properties REIT, the former Odd Fellows Temple/Chamber of Commerce Building has since been stripped of all signage. The well-maintained exterior is today a standout feature of the local streetscape, and is juxtaposed to the ultra-modernist presence of The Bow, just across the street, which was completed that same year. A beautiful building by any standard, the 1987-designated heritage structure has been a central part of the city's built history for more than a century, its two former tenants together having had a major impact on the growth of the city from its earliest days to the present.
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