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For those of a certain age, there was once a time when sandstone was king throughout the majority of downtown Calgary. The sturdy permanence of the soft reddish-brown material was built into the fabric of the city right from the start, and its presence across the core is today a marker of its central place in the history of the city. No exception to the rule, the construction of St. Mary's Cathedral, built between 1887 and 1889, made ample use of sandstone. The original structure served the community for more than 60 years before its replacement by the new St. Mary's Cathedral in 1955.
Built at the corner of 1st St SW and 18th Ave SW, the original St. Mary's was constructed at a cost of $12,000 at the direction of Father Lancombe. The land upon which the cathedral and its successor now sits was donated by the Oblate Fathers along with a handsome monetary contribution of $1,000.
Outfitted with electric lighting, and completed with all of the beautiful, hand-crafted decorative work that was once the norm for ecclesiastical buildings of this era, the original St. Mary's was a triumph of modern architecture in its time. The handsome sandstone church was reconsecrated as a cathedral in 1912 by Pope Pius X following the creation of the Calgary Diocese that same year.
Having been a neighbourhood fixture for more than 60 years, the original St. Mary's was pulled down in 1955 to make way for its replacement. Today's St. Mary's Cathedral is now approximately the same age as its predecessor was at the time of demolition.
Built in the Norman-Gothic tradition, with visible Art Deco and Mid-Century Modern design elements, the current structure was completed between 1955 and 1957, according to plans produce by architects Maxwell Bates and Alfred Hodges. The former's father was a prominent architect during Calgary's first building boom, and responsible for such landmarks as the Grain Exchange (1909) and Burns Building (1912).
Built at a cost of $1,000,000, the new cathedral was designed to be as elegant, if not more so, than its predecessor. The structure hails from a period in the city's history when functionality had begun to triumph over form. A beautiful structure by any standard, the "new" St. Mary's Cathedral has endured as a reminder of the city's built heritage. The line connecting it to the original has allowed for the transmission of many of the same principles of design, materiality, and permanence, that the first generation of Calgary's sandstone structures once sought to enshrine.
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