by Deb Lee, BRCA Heritage Committee
Our Bridgeland-Riverside streets are full of interesting homes. Many were built in the 1910s building boom; some are still here and have an appealing presence on the street. A growing number of older homes have been demolished and replaced with more modern structures. Recently BRCA had a call from a family member doing genealogical research on her grandfather, asking questions that prompted a search of our heritage resources. Of course, one thing leads to another when you delve into such records, and I uncovered some new things about former residents who were prominent enough to have appeared in newspaper articles. Here’s a bit of what I gleaned.
John Cartwright, the focus of the intriguing question, was an Englishman who arrived in Calgary as a 53-year-old with his family of ten in the early 1900s. The family operated a small ranch in Nose Creek before moving to a large home at 628 Bowen Avenue – now known as 2 Avenue. Despite efforts to save it, the house was torn down during the 1980s wave of development. Several condo and apartment buildings are located in the vicinity.
Robert Fletcher was an Englishman who came to Canada via Australia and joined the NWMP. He arrived in Calgary in 1877, two years after the first troop had established Fort Calgary. Robert had travelled by steamboat up the Missouri River to Fort Benton, USA and onward by mule train to Calgary. After completing his NWMP service, he left town and got married in the East but soon returned to Calgary. In 1897, he was appointed the Deputy Collector of Inland Revenue (a tax collector), a prominent job he held until 1921. More prosperous than many of his Riverside neighbours, Fletcher built a handsome home on a large lot on 6 Street. He died at 91 years old in 1939. The home was later occupied by the Barbaro family; Joe Barbaro was a chef at the Calgary General Hospital for many years. The property was large and the house quite attractive, with the interior said to be very welcoming. In the 1980s, the home was demolished to make way for a new apartment building, known as Suntree Villas, at 659 4 Ave.
John M. Lowdnes arrived in Calgary in the late 1890s and built his home at 502 5 Street, within the original boundaries of the village of Riverside. John was elected the Overseer when Riverside became a village in 1902 and became involved in city affairs. As a village promoter and real estate agent, he wrote a glowing description of Riverside that no doubt attracted many to locate here. The Lowdnes’ home is long gone, and I did not find a picture.
If you live in a historic home, you may be interested in its past as well. Resources we accessed to learn more about these past residents and their homes include Henderson’s Directories, Glenbow Archives, newspapers.com, and a wonderful inventory of 1,000 profiles of early Bridgeland-Riverside residents at wikitree.com. Thank you to former Bridgeland resident Devon Blean for her intrepid research into past residents and their homes.
If you are interested in learning more about our community’s past, contact us at [email protected]. Our Heritage Committee meets quarterly at the Community Centre and our members explore their areas of interest.
Cartwright Home. Public domain. Attribution: “George Cartwright’s home, Calgary, Alberta.”, [ca. 1912], (CU182144) by Unknown. Courtesy of Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary.
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